The International Film Festival and Awards Macao drew to a close Sunday with South Korea writer-director Kwon Man-ki’s debut feature, the psychological drama Clean Up, taking the best film prize and Argentine director Barbara Sarasola-Day’s drug-trafficking thriller White Blood awarded the jury prize.
The seven-day festival concluded with an awards ceremony and the screening of Chinese legendary director Zhang Yimou’s reimagining of one of the Three Kingdoms tales, Shadow.
Swedish director Gustav Moller was named best director for The Guilty, Denmark’s best foreign-language film entry for the 2019 Oscars, with the film’s leading man, Jakob Cedergren, picking up best actor. Aenne Schwarz of Germany’s All Good garnered the best actress award. Mexico’s The Good Girls, by Alejandra Marquez, was chosen by the people to win the audience prize.
Documentary Up the Mountain by Zhang Yang, who explored an artist’s life in a remote part of China, was named the best new Chinese-language film of the year in the newly established competition section New Chinese Cinema.
Renowned Chinese director Chen Kaige, president of this year’s IFFAM jury, was given the “Spirit of Cinema” Achievement Award, for his body of work including Yellow Earth and the Cannes Palme d’Or winner Farewell My Concubine.
The organizers also presented the title of Asian Blockbuster Film 2018 to Hollywood Summer hit Crazy Rich Asians.
In the Local View Power section, which focused on Macau homegrown films, The Melancholy of Gods by Lei Cheok Mei won the jury prize for best film.
