“Like & Share” from Indonesia’s Gina S. Noer was named the best picture and collected the Grand Prix on Sunday at the Osaka Asian Film Festival.
“All of us on the jury were struck by the film’s clear and powerful message, which affirms young women’s sexual curiosity and desire while clearly saying no to sexual violence. The style of the film is also original. The sweet, poppy feeling that fascinates the audience in the first half of the film becomes darker as the story progresses, making us shudder. “Like & Share,” with its strong message and brilliant direction, is a film that needs to be seen now more than ever,” said the jury in a statement.
“This movie is talking about how we deal with trauma and how we deal with sexual violence. It’s not easy to tell and it’s not easy to make a movie about it, but I think that if we trust something important enough, it will honor the right audience,” said Noer.
Taiwan’s actor-turned-director Kai Ko won the most promising talent award for his directorial debut film “Bad Education.”
Hong Kong director Ho Cheuk-tin won the ABC TV Awards for “Over My Dead Body,” whole the Yakushi Pearl Award for best actor went to Lu Hsiao-fen for performance in “Day Off.” The film, directed by Fu Tien-yu, also collected the festival’s audience award.
The Japan Cuts Award went to “When Morning Comes, I Feel Empty,” directed by Ishibashi Yuho.
Short film prizes went to ”Swallow Flying to the South” (U.S., Canada, China) by Lin Mochi, and to “Daddy-To-Be,” by Taiwan’s Pan Ke-yin.
The festival ran March 10-19 and closed with the world premiere screening of “Side by Side,” a magical-realist mystery drama, the second film as director from prolific screenwriter Ito Chihiro. The screening at Osaka preceded the film’s commercial release in Japan on April 14.
