Two Chinese movies, Thirteen Princess Trees and After This Our Exile won awards Sunday at the 19th Tokyo International Film Festival, which staged its closing ceremony at Shibuya's Bunkamura, Tokyo.

 

Thirteen Princess Trees, directed by Chinese 5th generation director Lu Yue, won the "Special Jury Prize".

Actress Liu Xin and director Lu Yue received award for Thirteen Princess Trees

"I am very happy that I can enter a film festival and win a prize the first time I acted in a movie," Liu Xin, the movie’s leading actress said at the ceremony.

 

The movie tells a story of the growing pains of troubled youths at a high school in Sichuan, southwestern China, with shocking honesty and tenderness.

 

After This Our Exile was directed by Hong Kong director Patrick Tam and features well-known actor Aaron Kwok and actress Charlie Yeung. The movie, which was originally in the festival choice for "Winds of Asia", was selected late on and received the "Award for Best Artistic Contribution".

 

French movie OSS 117, Cairo Nest of Spies grabbed the top "Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix" award. In the movie, OSS-117 is a French spy who is ignorant of local customs and bumbles his way through potentially dangerous situations.

 

Also selected by the international jury headed by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, was the US movie Little Miss Sunshine, which received two awards, "Best Director" (Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris) and "Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role" (Abigail Bresil). Roy Dupuis, main actor of The Rocket was named the best leading actor.

Director Patrick Tam and actress Charlie Young received awards for After This Our Exile

The Grand Prix winner will be awarded US$100,000, while other prizes in the competition category carry US$5,000 to US$20,000 each.

 

Also included in the festival was the Akira Kurosawa Award, established in 2004 at the annual film festival to commemorate the Japanese movie legend. Milos Forman, 74, who directed the Oscar-winning One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and over 90-year-old Kon Ichikuwa, famous for Makioka Sisters and I Am A Cat, became winners of the award. Kon's latest film Murder of the Inugami Clan has also been selected for the closing screening.

 

During the 9-day film festival, over 300 films from around the world have been shown in Shibuya, Roppongi and across Tokyo. A number of related showcases featuring animation films, rising Chinese directors, women's film, Korean cinema week, short films, Internet movies and others have also been staged during the festival.

(Xinhua News Agency October 30, 2006)