Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang and his Grand Jury Prize at the closing ceremony of the 70th International Venice Film Festival. -- AFP / Tiziana Fabi
The Malaysian-born Taiwanese filmmaker has been awarded the Grand Jury Prize for his film, Jiaoyou.
Filmmaker Tsai Ming-Liang, 55, received the new Grand Jury Prize in the 70th Venice International Film Festival yesterday for his film Jiaoyou (Stray Dogs).
Reports say that Tsai, who was born in Kuching, Sarawak, but has been based in Taiwan for many years, earned rousing applause from audiences at the festival’s closing ceremony.
“I thank all the jury members and the public in Venice for slowing down their pace to watch my movie,” he was quoted as saying, in reference to his trademark film style, which is usually slow yet beautifully framed.
This is not the first time that Tsai has won a prize at the festival. In 1994, he won the Golden Lion, the festival’s top prize, for Vive l’Amour.
Lee Kang-Sheng (left) and Lu Yi-Ching in a scene from Stray Dogs.
Jiaoyou premiered in Venice on Thursday and tells the story of a disgraced father named Hsiao Kang – played by Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng, who has starred in almost all of Tsai’s films in the past two decades – who works as a “human billboard”, holding advertisements on a busy road in Taipei, Taiwan. Meanwhile, his two children roam the city, idling the day away. At night, the little family sleeps in an abandoned building.
One day they meet a woman, and the story of their lives start to unfold.
The film, running at 138 minutes, also stars Lee's real-life niece and nephew Lee Yi-cheng and Lee Yi-chieh, as well as Yang Kuei-mei and Lu Yi-ching, who are also regular faces in Tsai's films.
In a press conference in Venice earlier in the week, Tsai said that Jiaoyou would be his final film; Jiaoyou took him three years to make.
“I can’t make movies for consumers and for a system that is too fast and only thinks about money,” he was quoted as saying. “It just stifles my creativity.”
As many as 55 films were screened at this year’s festival in the official selection – 20 of those films were up for the Golden Lion. This year, the panel of judges was chaired by famed Italian director Bernado Bertolucci. The festival ran from Aug 28-Sept 7.
List of winners at the 70th Venice International Film Festival:
Golden Lion for best film: Holy GRA, a documentary by Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)
Silver Lion for best director: Alexandros Avranas for Miss Violence (Greece)
Special jury prize: The Police Officer’s Wife by Philip Groning (Germany)
Coppa Volpi for best actor: Themis Panou in Miss Violence by Alexandros Avranas (Greece)
Coppa Volpi for best actress: Elena Cotta in A Street In Palermo by Emma Dante (Italy, Switzerland, France)
Prize for best screenplay: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for Philomena by Stephen Frears (Britain)
Marcello Mastroianni award for best young actor or actress: Tye Sheridan inJOE by David Gordon Green (US)
Lion of the Future for best debut film: White Shadow by Noaz Deshe (Italy, Germany, Tanzania)
Grand Jury Prize: Jiaoyou by Tsai Ming-Liang (Taiwan, France)
