Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Asian Film Awards Results



33 films, 65 nominees, 10 Awards.

The Asian Film Awards opened with a bang, celebrating the start of Entertainment Expo, which will run from 20 March 07 (today) until 15 April 07, encompassing Founding Events Hong Kong International Film & TV Market - FILMART, Hong Kong International Film Festival - HKIFF and Hong Kong Film Awards, and Core Events Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum - HAF, Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum, Hong Kong Music Fair - HKMF, HK Top Sales Music Award - IFPI and Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Awards.




Karen Mok began with a monologue, before David Wu and Fiona Sit took over the hosting duties (the former being the anchor).

Korean movie The Host wins big at the inaugural Asian Film Awards, bagging 4 out of 10 awards, including Best Actor and Best Picture.

The full awards winners list as follows:

Best Composer: Rahayu SUPANGGAH, Opera Jawa, Indonesia/Austria
Presented by Maggie Q and Rain, who said in English that without music, he'll just be known as Jung Ji-hoon.

Best Editor: Lee CHATAMETIKOOL, Syndromes and a Century, Thailand/Austria/France

Best Production Designer: Tim YIP, The Banquet, Hong Kong/Chinese Mainland
Presented by Simon Yam and Josie Ho.

Best Visual Effects: The Orphanage, The Host, South Korea
Presented by Zhao Tao and Jia Zhangke.

Best Screenwriter: Mani HAGHIGHI, Men at Work, Iran
Presented by Andrew Lau and Kim Hye-soo.

Best Cinematographer: KIM Hyung-goo, The Host, South Korea

Best Actress: NAKATANI Miki, Memories of Matsuko, Japan
Presented by Chang Chen and Zhao Wei.

Best Actor: SONG Kang-ho, The Host, South Korea

Best Director: JIA Zhangke, Still Life, Chinese Mainland
Presented by Daniel Wu, Lee Byung-hun and Nicholas Saputra

Best Film: The Host, South Korea


Special awards were also given out tonight, with the following as recipients:

Asian Film Award for Excellence in Scholarship in Asian Cinema: David BORDWELL
Presented by Johnny To.

Asian Film Award for Outstanding Contribution to Asian Cinema: Josephine SIAO Fong Fong


French director Luc Besson was on hand to give away the award to Josephine Siao, who had made 230 films so far, and in 1995 was awarded Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival. Josephine received a standing ovation, and was in good spirits to banter with the audience. The award also turned out to be a fitting 60th birthday present to Josephine, who shared that she had not made any film in the last 10 years, and her acceptance speech actually ended with a simple magic trick.

Nielsen Box Office Star of Asia Award: Andy LAU



There was one performance by Hong Kong singer Sandy Lam during the awards ceremony, who did a special montage of songs in Korean, Japanese, and Cantonese, celebrating the diversity of cultures and languages as per the movies up in the running of the Awards.


We'll bring to you the event coverage on the Red Carpet, as well as a peek into the Awards Backstage area where more pictures of winners and their awards will be posted. Stay tuned!

Text: Stefan
Pictures / Videos: Lokman