The Iranian film ‘Borderless’ picked up the Best Asian Future Film Award at the closing ceremony of the 27th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF), which wound up on October 31.
For the $10,000 prize, Amirhossein Asgari’s debut feature film competed with 9 other movies from different countries in this section and convinced the jurors to win the award, honaronline reported.
Experiencing its world premiere, ‘Borderless’ is a drama/suspense which tells the story of a boy who always fishes from a grounded ship in the border zone. It is his place of seclusion and serenity to earn a livelihood as an angler. But his peace and quiet is disturbed when a stranger appears.
Asian Future, established in 2013, is a fresh competition section for first and second features made by upcoming directors in Asia. In previous editions of TIFF, the Young Cinema Competition presented exciting works by new filmmakers from around the globe. The section uncovers promising talent and proclaims their emergence from Tokyo to the world.
Among other films of the competition section were Nima Javidi’s ‘Melbourne’ from Iran, premiered for the first time in Asia, and ‘Nabat’ directed by Elchin Musaoglu from Azerbaijan featuring Iranian actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya.
Winners
The US-France co-production ‘Heaven Knows What’ won the Tokyo Grand Prix. The top award came with a cash prize of $50,000. Its directors Josh and Benny Safdie also took Award for Best Director ($5,000).
The Special Jury Prize of $20,000 went to Bulgaria-Greece co-production ‘The Lesson’. Rie Miyazawa took the Best Actress award ($5,000) for her performance in ‘Pale Moon’, a world premiere title which also picked up the Audience Award ($10,000).
Robert Wieckiewicz won Best Actor ($5,000) for his performance in the Polish film ‘The Mighty Angel’. Sotho Kulikar won ‘The Spirit of Asia Award’ from the Japan Foundation Asia Center for ‘The Last Reel.’ As previously announced, Takeshi Kitano and Tim Burton were honored with the inaugural Samurai Award.
During the 9-day event which began on October 23, nearly 200 movies were screened.
