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VIFF Best New Director Winners ceremony: Photos
French film Miss and the Doctors, one of the winners of the New International Director Award, VIFF's new prize.
Last night the VIFF announced the winners of the inaugural Best New Director Award prior to the screening of the film Welcome to Me (U.S.) directed by Shira Piven, a comical, daring and poignant film about Alice (Kristen Wiig) with boderline personality disorder, who after winning the lottery ditches her medication and gets a talk show on TV, inspired by re-runs of Oprah Winfrey.
The new winners are Miss and the Doctors (France) by director Axelle Ropert (not present at the ceremony) and Rekorder (Philippines) by Mikhail Red. In addition, a special mention went for Asteroid by director Marcelo Tobar.
This new award is given annually to first or second time international directors for "creative and innovative film which has not yet won significant international recognition".
The other nominees were: August Winds, director Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil), Exit, director Chienn Hsiang (Taiwan), Ow, director Suzuki Yohei (Japan), Paris of the North, director Hafsteinn Gunnar Sugurdsson (Iceland), The Sun, the Moon and the Hurricane, director Andri Cung (Indonesia), The Womb, director Daniel Rodriguez Risco (Peru), Two Step, director Alex Johnson (USA) and Una Vida: A Fable of Music and the Mind, director Richie Adams (USA)
The competition is a spin off from VIFF's Tigers & Dragons Award for Young Cinema that has been running for 20 years.
Alan Franey, VIFF director of programming.
Best New Director Jury: (L-R) Roland Smith a.k.a "godfather of repertory cinema";Kim Linekin, chair of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, and Ben Gibson, director of Degree Programs at Australia's National Film School.
Juror Kim Linekin announcing the winners.
Mexican director, Marcelo Tobar accepting the honorary mention for his film "Asteroid".
Director Mikhail Red, one of the winners of the Best New Director Award.
Directors Mikhail Red and Marcelo Tobar.
Directors and nominees in attendance: (L-R) Andri Cung, Richie Adams and his producer Peter Cummings, Mikhail Red, Marcelo Tobar (behind), Alex Johnson, producer Samon Imamura (behind) and Suzuki Yohei (with hat)
Shira Piven, director of "Welcome to Me" with the film's screenwriter Eliot Laurence and Alan Franey at the Q&A after the screening of the film.
For more information visit: www.viff.org.
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