Sound & Image Challenge | Swedish film ‘Bitchboy’ takes best film award at festival

A still from “Bitchboy”

The 8th edition of the Sound & Image Challenge International Festival wrapped up on Sunday, with the awards for Best Film and Best Fiction both going to “Bitchboy” by Swedish director Måns Berthas.

The Macau Cultural Identity Award went to “Smell the Smell” by Chu Hio Tong, which beat out three other shorts in the category; “Luggage”, “Soul Walker” and “A Page.”

Of the 44 shorts submitted to the festival, the public’s pick went to “56” by Spanish director Marco Huertas, while the award for best documentary went to “Nobody Dies Here” by France’s Simon Panay. “Schirkoa” by Ishan Shukla won the best animation award.

The festival celebrates groundbreaking work in local and international films, through two competitions named “Shorts” and “Volume” for short films and music videos respectively.

Dozens of films were entered into the competitions across the two submission periods during the spring and summer, and the selected films and music videos were screened during the festival from December 5 to December 11 at Dom Pedro V Theater and Cinematheque Passion.

The juries for the international competitions were comprised of local and international winners from previous years of the Sound & Image Challenge International Festival, professionals in the film and music industry, and festival organizers.

The festival is jointly organized by Creative Macau and the Institute of European Studies Macau. According to organizer Creative Macau, the festival aims to “grow into a benchmark in the realm of festivals of its kinds.”

The program included the screenings of films brought to Macau by invited curators, as well as the finalist short films and music videos of the competition segment. Workshops, master classes and other events were also held during the December festival.

This year, a third competition titled “Festival Poster” was introduced, inviting graphic designers to submit their works for award consideration.