2022 TIDF Award-Winning List

HU Sanshou｜China

 

The film impressed the juries with its unique fashion of storytelling and the way it links a seemingly unassuming local life with much larger situation of the world. The film excites us from the beginning: how it introduces characters in a frame that was shot from inside a tomb. Soon we find out that these people are building a tomb for their family members. From this masterful opening introduction, the film doesn’t disappoint as it becomes even more and more peculiar in a gratifying manner. Here, metaphors intertwined, magics of a documentary film offered, and microcosmos imagined - the film is such a fresh take on pandemic, lockdown and death - as well as politics and family relationship - that we can even be philosophical about all these problems that the world is facing now. It is one of these films which makes us feel happy that it exists and that we have discovered it.

Payal KAPADIA｜France, India

 

The film begins with a hapless love story, and gradually evolves into a discourse on identity politics, student activism, civil resistance, and a contention of views on national history. The unique narrative structure unfolds the story layer by layer, while drawing attention to the interconnectedness between them. The youths’ questions about life and the pursuit of ideals are posed in the process. The director adopts a controlled and rational approach without losing a sensibility. The film’s rich symbolism and metaphor benefit from the smooth arrangement of different materials and the delicate sound mixing and color grading. Such achievements also give the film its distinctive locality. Somewhere in between reality and dreams, the public and the private, a perfect merging of the inner and outer realities can be found. This film not only investigates the essence of cinema, but also the essence of truth.

CHAN Tze Woon｜Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan

 

The jury was very impressed by the effective use of a hybrid form to address such a relevant story. By creating reenactments of past events acted by present day activists and by filming intimate conversations among activists from different generations the film touches upon the complex debates on territory and politics. Beautifully shot and edited the film invites the viewer to be part of these conversations and to engage with the protagonists’ own search for identity.

HUANG Hsin-yao｜Taiwan

 

All the jury members felt warmness from this film that follows a mundane life of a small coastal town. We all felt we were there, by the side of the charming people, talking with them, drinking tea with them or fishing together, thanks to the dedication of the filmmaker and his affectionate eyes that observe. Epic but subtle, sharp but tender, and melancholic at times but humorous throughout, the film also serves as an important archive of a life that is disappearing and the people who are trying to maintain the normalcy of life amid the transition. The filmmaker has done the job by focusing on people who do various manual works. Moreover, this film captures the unique temporality of the town, and proves how a political statement can be made by simply observing the seemingly repetitive daily life of the town folks. In the end, it managed to offer us a grand metaphor: we need to keep cultivating if we do not want to impoverish the soil.

 

Weina ZHAO, Judith BENEDIKT｜Austria

 

Having grown up in a country where democracy, freedom and the rule of law are the norm, director ZHAO returns to China in search of memories of her family. In this journey, she discovers the reasons behind the turbulent Chinese society and the suffering of the Chinese people – the communist rule and the intra-party factional struggles. ZHAO juxtaposes the vicissitudes of her family life with the nation’s changing history. She looks into the past not only to understand the present, but also to pose a fundamental question about human nature: Why do people remain subordinate when their freedom and dignity are continually stripped away by totalitarian rule? The director’s roots-finding story encapsulates close to a century of China’s rise and fall. Her love for her family seeps into the delicate narrative, giving the film an emotional base while not losing its critical force. Every scene prompts the viewers to question: Why is the Chinese public not angry and not resisting?

Thunska PANSITTIVORAKUL, Phassarawin KULSOMBOON ｜Thailand, Germany

 

This challenging film takes us on a train across Thailand to unfold the stories of many mysterious deaths that happened in its contemporary history. Sadly most of the cases remain unresolved. The film uses almost all kinds of audiovisual materials to reconstruct the turbulent history of Thailand while constantly changing its narrative form to create a dark and scary version of ‘The Thousand and One Nights.’ When the director contrasts the deceitful language of the authorities with images of bodies brutally murdered during the democratic protest or with the nasty erotic bodies, the spectators realize that they are not in a safe position anymore but should awake from this absurdity. The fatal virtue of this audacious film is that it accomplishes it without losing its sense of humor.

LEE Yong-chao｜Taiwan, Myanmar

 

LAU Kek-huat｜Taiwan 

 

From looking at Taiwanese soldiers drafted by Imperial Japan, surviving families of 228 victims, mainland China refugees, to the third generation of White Terror victims, this film is able to break away from a typical tragic tone and a common setup shaped by unification-independence ideologies. The film opens with memories of World War II and the Chinese Civil War, and further re-examines Taiwan’s unique historical trajectory from the wretched colonial days to its democratization. The director’s solid research, well-executed animation, historical re-enactment, and sound design for archival footage deserve much praise. Moreover, his use of rich imagery such as wild tomatoes and a tree beside an air-raid shelter affords the audience much food for thought, and elevates the film to a masterpiece that offers both perspective and warmth. The jury is honored to announce the Grand prize of Taiwan Competition goes to Taste of Wild Tomato by LAU Kek-huat.

HSU Che-yu｜France, Taiwan

 

 

We would also like to award a special mention to a work that under the guise of an English language lesson conveys the mental state of imprisonment and political alienation during Taiwan’s martial law period. Weaving together archival materials, grammar and performance art, this is a complexly layered work which demonstrates the rich potential of short-form documentary. The jury appreciated its original formal qualities and the creative use of language and repetition.

 

This film meditates on the harsh realities in Hong Kong, and offers valuable historical clues to unlocking its story. The film cleverly and delicately interweaves documentary and cinematic scenes to make the conversation between three generations possible. Multiple stages of Hong Kong’s history are juxtaposed in the dialogues and interactions: 1967 and 2019, 1989 and 2014, waves of emigration and today’s exodus. With a clear historical consciousness, the film treats witnesses of different historical events with sincerity and respect. With such a mindful gaze, the audience can navigate through various spaces and times, generations, and political viewpoints, but no matter where they visit, a sense of melancholy looms over them – that of the inability to steer one’s own destiny.

LI Wei｜Singapore, France, United States, China

 

With great compassion and patience, the film watches death unfolding and seeks a sign of humanity in the enveloping gloom. This is not an easy film to watch, but it’s an important one: it asks tough questions about life, love, suffering, death, childhood, and about the role of documentary and documentary filmmakers in the most tragic and most private moment in a person’s life. Gaining access to the door of death is a privilege, as well as a risk, but the film builds its quiet power through honesty and respect, and in the process, it shows that even in the darkest of night there might be a light at the end.

 

A daring cinematic composition as well as a profound meditation on the finitude of life. With an austere and attentive approach, the filmmaker draws a careful portrait of his hometown, while he and his relatives build a tomb for the elders following an abiding Chinese tradition. Through beautifully crafted long fixed takes, a slow and sensorial pace, a reflective voice, and mesmerising opening and closing scenes, the film unlocks multiple windows to the viewer. Inquiries emerge from the personal arena, but gradually move to the social, political, spiritual, and even the economic and global matters of our time propelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are all tackled with absolute commitment towards a conceptual form and a philosophical and suggestive viewpoint that makes this film a unique testimony of these days.

 

The Making of Crime Scenes develops two storylines through an interview with WU Dun—one focuses on the history of cinema, whereas the other, the history of technology. The former reflexively deconstructs wuxia films; the latter questions the scientific and technological limits of reconstructing crime scenes. Challenging the authenticity of reconstructed images, the film simultaneously serves as a provocative but crucial reminder to filmmakers working with different forms, and to the Taiwanese society in the midst of achieving transitional justice.

 

HÀ LỆ Diễm｜Vietnam