2016 TIDF Award-Winning List
International Competition
Grand Prize：Brothers
Brothers is not only the chronicle of two boys’ growth. With warmth and humour, the film depicts the meaning of existence and growing up with profound observation and self-reflection. It delicately presents the mother-and-son relationship and the passing of time without heaviness.
Merit Prize：Drought
The film uses a clear motif, a water tank truck on the road, with visual humour, to connect, observe, and subtly waives the state, the establishment and the institute in the picture to raise our awareness to the day to day problem faced in this particular region.
Asian Vision Competition
Grand Prize：Hero and the Cloak
Mankind’s biggest catastrophe sometimes begins with one man’s dream. With a very simple style, the film is able to convey a very strong metaphor. The film illuminates a man’s dream through the labyrinth of his delusion, we can imagine how the world around him falls apart without him recognizing it. Many Asians are living under a regime that doesn’t allow freedom of expressions and this documentary creatively liberates us from that limitation.
Merit Prize：Cities of Sleep
This isn’t simply “another” film about lives on the bottom level; the poetry lies in that reality of the city is a metaphor: how to find a place for oneself in this world. The Street is the microcosm of the power of the society. Everybody has his or her relative position or standpoint, but is powerless to defy being devoured by the bigger wave.
Jury Special Mention：Of Cats, Dogs, Farm Animals and Sashimi
Is life in a beautiful, natural context less hard for a boy in the coming of age? This films shows it isn't. A look at the same time peaceful and melancholic reveals secrets under the surface of a community. The French writer Paul Nizan open his book Eden Arabie with these words : "I was twenty. I will never allow anybody tell thal youth is the best moment of life." It could be the same statement of this film.
Taiwanese Competition
Grand Prize：Le Moulin
Le Moulin is a film that accomplishes a double ambition: to provide a highly detailed account of a largely unknown moment of Taiwanese cultural history through historical and archival research and to turn these discoveries into an art form in itself. So for a film that insists on the liberating power of poetry, as well as on the space of the cinema for the experience of artistically challenging documentaries, we wish to give the award to Huang Ya-li for Le Moulin.
Merit Prize：Jade Miners
Jade Miners, with a stubborn and loving gaze, lets us feel the tragedy of the vast land and the hardship of life in the heartbeat of time.
Chinese Documentary Awards
Grand Prize：The Road
Director Zhang Zanbo manages to go inside the system and witnesses first-hand how the system ensnares people and in return how people create the system itself. The film can be improved with deeper analysis of the system. Yet, its artistic control and clarity of intent is impressive.
Special Jury Prize：The Mountain
Director Su Hung-en has created a cinematic film with a poetic touch and at the same time exhibiting serious trust in cinematography, questioning the situation of the indigenous people without sentimentality or affectation.
Author's POV Award
The jurors of the Author’s POV Award wish to reflect the essence of media and documentary filmmaking through the relationships amongst the author, the film itself and the protagonists. Remote Control is a film with perspective, the awareness to create, and the courage to shoulder the social responsibility. It unravels the issue, breaks through the screen, and keeps pushing the audience to look at the reality outside of the images.
Next Generation Award
The Next Generation Award gives us a chance to see the world, not only enables us to think about the issues that we've never taken notice of in our comfortable life but also broaden our horizons. Based on our personal experiences and knowledge, we’ve selected the documentary which we think best speaks to our concerns and at the same time carries the importance and weights of the issue. We also think that the film reflects our unique point of view as young adults. The six documentaries portray a brand-new world and allow us to actively extend the scope of discussion, including poverty, the freedom of speech and the aftermath of wars. Cities of Sleep interprets old subjects through novel elements and documents a realistic and energetic story with a poetic touch, with its narration, mise en scène and fabulous music. Moreover, the rich emotions and broad horizon of this film are outstanding. As a result, we chose Cities of Sleep as the winner this year. In the film, the director explained the lack of essential needs and the value of life by making contrast between two sleeping environments. Then, it reveals human beings’ relation with poverty. With exquisite and comprehensive narrative, the director takes us through, hand in hand, the heart of the story, through the journey of sleep that is not to be taken for granted.
