Jury President Chen Kaige presented with ‘Spirit of Cinema’

The new competition section “New Chinese Cinema” pitted six films against each other, namely “Dear Ex”, “Baby”, “Xiao Mei”, “Up the Mountain”, “Fly by Night” and “The Pluto Moment”.

“Up the Mountain” took home Best New Chinese-language Film of the Year. The award was presented by Stephanie Bunbury, Nick James and Shu Kei, who are jury members for the New Chinese Cinema section.

In addition to the above awards, an array of accolades was presented at the Awards Ceremony to commend outstanding films and filmmakers for their achievements.

Internationally acclaimed film director and Jury President of the 3rd International Film Festival & Awards (IFFAM), Chen Kaige, directed his first film “Yellow Earth” in 1984, which garnered a number of awards and ushered in the new era for Chinese cinema.

Recognized as one of the Chinese film classics, his acclaimed masterpiece “Farewell My Concubine” (1993) won the Palme d’Or at the 46th Cannes Film Festival in the same year, making Chen the only Chinese director who has received this top accolade to this day.

At the Awards Ceremony, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Macau SAR Government, Alexis Tam, presented the “Spirit of Cinema” Achievement Award to Chen.

“I just came here to present awards to young filmmakers, so I was very surprised that I can also win an award,” said Chen. “The name of this award is interesting, as it means we need to have the spirit of film production. In addition, being a director is not all entertainment. Film production can be very inspiring.”

Offering his suggestions to new directors, Chen said, “it is good to see different new directors appearing in the film industry. But the bad news is, it is very difficult to find investors and capital, which is the limitation of making films. It is somehow contradictory as a film production can also make money. Therefore I hope the new directors can balance making a good film and finding capital, and that they can do better than the old directors.” JZ