2004 DRAGONS & TIGERS AWARD

For the eleventh year running, the Festival is pleased to offer the Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema to the most creative and innovative feature by a new director from the Asia-Pacific region. The award is given to a first or second feature. We're very grateful to Brad Birarda of Dundee Securities for continuing to sponsor this award, and the series as a whole.

The award - which will again include a $5,000 prize to the director - was announced before the 7:00 p.m. screening of Electric Shadows.

This year's jury comprised Peggy CHIAO from Taiwan, HONG Sang-Soo from Korea and Christoph HUBER from Austria. They have issued the following jury statement: "It was a privilege to serve on this year's jury, where we encountered an interesting and diverse selection of Asian films. We had a long debate about whether or not to give any films a Special Mention - because we didn't want to discourage the other film-makers whose work we appreciated but couldn't include. But we finally decided to cite three films that we found remarkable for various reasons".

The films cited, in alphabetical order, are:

The Big Durian by Amir MUHAMMAD from Malaysia
For its witty and unusual handling of an incident which ultimately allows deep insights into the racial tensions in Malaysian society.

Good Morning Beijing by PAN Jialin from China
For its compelling mixture of parallel narratives and its uncompromising depictions of the darkness and frustrations of city existence.

Sunday Seoul by OH Myung-Hoon from Korea
For taking pieces of real-life experience - pieces never likely to fit into conventional narrative forms - and holding them together through to the end, creating a resonance that is anything but banal.

Our unanimous choice for the winner of the 2004 Dragons & Tigers Award is:

THE SOUP, ONE MORNING by TAKAHASHI Izumi from Japan
For its visual and emotional precision in mapping out the slow decay of a relationship. The film gradually accumulates an overwhelming power which can only come from feelings that the director and his actors have experienced and inhabited for themselves.