A NIGHT IN HEAVEN
Monica Bellucci lights up the red carpet while Georgian films and filmmakers shine at the Tiantan Awards
Grabbing four out of 10 awards announced Sunday night, Georgian films and filmmakers were the biggest winners of the 7th Beijing International Film Festival’s ( BJIFF) Tiantan Awards, also known as the Temple of Heaven Awards.
Luka by Georgian director Giorgi Barabadze won Best Feature Film, while Georgian actress Lia Kapanadze, who starred in the film, won Best Supporting Actress.
Luka takes place against the background of the Abkhaz- Georgian conflict, an ethnic conflict between Georgians and the Abkhaz people of Abkhazia. A few years after losing custody of her son Luka to her mother- in- law, Lile finds herself coming into conflict with her mother- inlaw when the two disagree on where Luka, who died during the conflict, should be buried.
The other Georgian film awarded Sunday night was Rusudan Glurjidze’s
House of Others, which won Best Director as well as Best Cinematography. Set during wartime in Abkhazia in the early 1990s, the film delves into the lives of an Abkhaz family who are trying to escape the way by living in an abandoned house in a remote village. However, the forgotten memories that linger throughout the house constantly remind the family of the horrors the former owner experienced due to the war. House of Others was submitted as Georgia’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at this year’s Academy Awards.
Belt and Road
Although Georgian films are not very well known on the global stage, as the country is taking part in China’s Belt and Road initiative, films from the country have been gaining attention in China. In addition to the four awards at this year’s festival, 2016’ s Tiantan Award for Best Supporting Actress also went to Georgian actress Ketevan Tskhakaia for her role in the 2015 drama Moira.
Golab Adineh from Iran, another nation connected to the initiative, won the Best Actress Award on Sunday for her performance in Iranian film The Sis.
The B& R initiative’s connections to BJIFF don’t stop there. A special forum The Development of “the Belt and Road” Film & New Landscape of Global Film was held at the festival this year. Two Chinese films, action blockbuster
Operation Mekong and feature film Mr No Problem, were both nominated for the Tiantan Awards this year. While the former, a box- office hit for 2016, left emptyhanded, Mr No Problem won two awards: Best Actor and Best Screenplay. The directorial debut of Chinese scriptwriter Mei Feng, Mr No Problem also won two awards at the Taipei Golden Horse Awards in 2016.
Award ceremonies are often one of the most eye- catching sections of any film festival. However, although the Tiantan Awards were established during the 3rd BJIFF in 2013, the award’s influence still lags far behind other film festivals around the world.
“The list of selected films for the Tiantan Awards often comes across as very awkward,” wrote one report from the Shenyang- based Liaoshen Evening News on Monday.
“As an ‘ international’ film festival, Tiantan Award has to look to a global audience... but compared to the competition sections of other international film festivals such as Cannes, the influence of Tiantan Award is also limited. Very few films selected to compete at the festival can be considered globally influential works of art.”
Few eyes on the red carpet
The red carpet ceremony at the Tiantan Awards also had its share of awkwardness.
“This year’s BJIFF could be the least- watched in years,” Liaoshen Evening News wrote, adding that the open ceremony of the festival was completely relying on actor Wu Gang, who has recently gained huge popularity for his role in anti- corruption TV drama In the Name of People, to attract attention in China.
Chinese star power was even weaker for the closing ceremony, since only a few Chinese A- list stars appeared.
On a carpet lacking for Chinese stars, Italian actress Monica Bellucci caught the eyes of most viewers. Pictures of the 52- year- old in a red evening dress appeared in most major publications in China.
Bellucci was the promotional ambassador for the “Focus on Italy” section of this year’s BJIFF. Consisting of activities such as an Italian film screening, a Sino- Italian Film Cooperation Forum and various communication activities with Italian directors, the event was co- organized by institutions from both Italy and China, including Italy’s Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, the Cinema, Audiovisual, Multimedia Association, and China’s China Film Co- production Corporation.
At a press conference Sunday at the Italian Embassy in China, Italian Ambassador to China Ettore Sequi said that considering Italy and China are linked by the B& R initiative, he hopes the two countries will be able to establish a “film” Silk Road between them.