Dharm and Lucky Miles take top kudos at Asian Festival of 1st Films

5 December 2007

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Singapore – The third edition of the Asian Festival of 1st Films (AFFF) drew to close on Dec 4 with the awards for 10 categories presented at the Jubilee Hall, Raffles Hotel in Singapore. The awards presentation ceremony capped the week-long AFFF held from Nov 27 as an event of the Asia Media Festival (AMF) 2007 hosted by the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore.
Selecting from 500 submissions received from 53 countries, the festival screened 23 feature films and documentaries made by first-time filmmakers from 17 countries. Screenings were held at Golden Village Vivocity, The Arts House and HOUSE@Dempsey.
Films Dharm (India) by Bhavna Talwar and Lucky Miles (Australia) by Jo Dyer and Lesley Dyer were joint winners of the festival’s top prize, the Best Film Award. The Best Director honour was won by Kabir Khan (India), for Kabul Express which also took the Foreign Correspondents Association Purple Orchid Award. Best Producer was clinched by Jo and Lesley Dyer for Lucky Miles, while Best Screenplay / Script was won by Fen Fen Cheng (Taiwan) for Keeping Watch.
Hu Linping (China) won Best Cinematographer for Family On Sky Lake, and Best Male Actor was clinched by Batzul Khayankhyarvaa (Germany) for his role in Khadak. Joint recipient of the Best Female Actor kudos were Mamatha Bhukya (India) for her part in Vanaja and Tsetsge Byambaa (Germany) for her role in Khadak. Best Documentary was given to Idit Avrahami’s (Israel) The Boy Who Died of Fear, while AFFF Special Citation for Best Anthropological Documentary went to Yu Guangyi’s (China) The Last Lumberjacks. Maya Newell (Australia) took Best Director of Documentary for her effort, Richard.
Each winner received a Swarovski trophy with Best Film and Best Director winners also receiving a cash prize sponsored by MDA. Also, the Best Cinematographer won a Royal Caribbean Cruise Award.