Teeth of Love Garnered Two Top Prizes at the French Annonay Film Fest
By ChinaFilm.com Published: 2008-03-20
On February 11th, 2008, the low budget film from China Teeth of Love took home two top awards at the 25th Annonay International Premier Film Festival in France, the Best Film Award and Youth Jury Award. Previously the art house movie brought its leading actress Yan Bingyan a Golden Rooster for best performance in a female leading role in 2007.
The month of February sees numerous international film fests, including the well-known Berlinale. In early February every year since 1984, Annonay, the picturesque small town in southern France, boasts an increasingly important international film festival which features first full length movies by directors from all around the world. Apart from its attractive money reward, the festival is better known for subsidizing the French distributors of its award winning films. The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, whose second direction 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d Or at last year s Cannes Film Festival, showcased his first direction at the Annonay film event and attracted world attention years ago. A large number of outstanding films by new directors from all around the world were competing for the top prizes. Eventually the Chinese film Teeth of Love won the Best Film Award, making Zhuang Yuxin one of the most promising new directors of the year in the whole world.
Especially set up for the 25th edition of the festival, the Youth Jury, which comprises of French high school students with an average age of 17, also gave their ballots to the Chinese film. The fact that a love story of an ordinary Chinese woman dated two to three decades back could be easily understood and appreciated by contemporary French students clearly shows that by no means just a festival type, it definitely can travel across different cultures, races and ages as well.
The month of February sees numerous international film fests, including the well-known Berlinale. In early February every year since 1984, Annonay, the picturesque small town in southern France, boasts an increasingly important international film festival which features first full length movies by directors from all around the world. Apart from its attractive money reward, the festival is better known for subsidizing the French distributors of its award winning films. The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, whose second direction 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d Or at last year s Cannes Film Festival, showcased his first direction at the Annonay film event and attracted world attention years ago. A large number of outstanding films by new directors from all around the world were competing for the top prizes. Eventually the Chinese film Teeth of Love won the Best Film Award, making Zhuang Yuxin one of the most promising new directors of the year in the whole world.
Especially set up for the 25th edition of the festival, the Youth Jury, which comprises of French high school students with an average age of 17, also gave their ballots to the Chinese film. The fact that a love story of an ordinary Chinese woman dated two to three decades back could be easily understood and appreciated by contemporary French students clearly shows that by no means just a festival type, it definitely can travel across different cultures, races and ages as well.
