The twenty seventh version of the Far East Movie Competition (FEFF) in Udine, Italy, concluded this weekend with China’s “Her Story” taking house the Golden Mulberry award, marking a major triumph for feminine filmmakers on the occasion.
Director Yihui Shao’s field workplace hit claimed the pageant’s prime honor, awarded by viewers votes, whereas Hong Kong’s “The Final Dance – Prolonged Model” by Anselm Chan secured the Silver Mulberry. Mainland China dominated the rostrum as director Yin Lichuan’s “Like a Rolling Stone” rounded out the winners with the Crystal Mulberry.
This 12 months’s outcomes highlighted gender equality in Asian cinema, with two of the three prime prizes awarded to feminine administrators from mainland China. The victories got here as a part of a pageant version that organizers described as “significantly attentive to social points.”
The pageant, which ran from April 24 to Might 2 at Udine’s Teatro Nuovo and Visionario venues, drew spectacular crowds. Competition founders Sabrina Baracetti and Thomas Bertacche reported 65,000 spectators attended screenings throughout each venues, whereas the occasion welcomed greater than 3,000 friends to the northern Italian metropolis. Skilled accreditations reached a file 1,993, together with 130 college cinema college students from six international locations.
Business presence was equally sturdy, with over 200 professionals collaborating within the Focus Asia trade periods. The Philippines-produced challenge “What’s Left of Us” claimed the TAICCA/Focus Asia Co-Manufacturing Award.
Different award winners included “Diamonds within the Sand” by Filipino director Janus Victoria, which acquired the White Mulberry for finest debut movie from jurors Kim Yutani, Sakoda Shinji, and Megumi. Japanese psychological thriller “Welcome to the Village” by Jojo Hideo earned the Mulberry for finest screenplay, whereas the identical jury gave a particular point out to Kim Bo-sol’s animated South Korean love story “The Sq..”
The web part of FEFF noticed greater than 10,000 streaming hours throughout its 23 digital titles. Viewers significantly embraced Mongolian noir “Silent Metropolis Driver” by Janchivdorj Sengedorj, which gained the Purple Mulberry from the MYmovies group, whereas Hideo Jojo’s Japanese thriller “A Dangerous Summer season” logged 1,426 viewing hours.
Taiwanese actor and filmmaker Sylvia Chang, who acquired the Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement alongside filmmaker Tsui Hark, captured the pageant’s spirit in her acceptance speech: “We’re dwelling in a really loopy world now, and in the midst of all this chaotic scenario I really feel we’re very blessed we nonetheless have movies. We nonetheless have film homes that we are able to go to… whether or not you wish to escape otherwise you wish to cry, you wish to snort, you wish to share emotion – properly, no less than in that two hours we nonetheless imagine the world is gorgeous.”
With its twenty seventh version efficiently concluded, FEFF has already introduced subsequent 12 months’s dates, with the twenty eighth version scheduled to run from April 24 to Might 2, 2026, in Udine.
