Duds Jostle With Delights as China’s Indie Scene Is Kept at the Heart of FIRST Film Festival
variety.comJenny S. Li The FIRST International Film Festival, held annually high up on the plains of Tibet, prides itself as a discovery festival and has been described as a Chinese equivalent of Sundance.
But noted Chinese filmmaker Guan Hu (“Mister Six,” “Black Dog”) dealt FIRST organizers a blow on Sunday, when as head of the main competition jury, he refused to announce a best film winner. “It is not that we didn’t see any good films, but the selection overall was not bold enough,” Guan said from the stage.
In other comments, Guan suggested that the festival, aged 18 years old, should by now have reached the age of maturity, but in fact still needs to grow up.
Fortunately, the jury did decide on a slew of other prizes. These included “Sailing Song of June” as the Grand Jury prize winner and “Chengzi 1” as winner of the Spirit of Innovation award.
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