In the evening of February 12, 2017, the award ceremony of the first Asian Brilliant Stars was held at Sony Center, Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany. Distinguished guests included Secretary-General of the Asian Film & Television Promotion (AFTP) Richard Shen, representatives from the Asian film industry and all ten 2016 European Shooting Stars. In addition, many industry elites and cultural figures were in attendance, including Zhang Ge, Member of the Actor Committee of the China Radio and Television Association (CRTA), famous writer and screenwriter Yan Geling, Chairman of the Council of Beijing Film Academy Hou Guangming, as well as experienced film producers from Europe. The awards ceremony conveys a signal for opening up Asian films to the European and even global stage. In the future, more Asian stars are expected to achieve their worldwide stardom through the Asian Brilliant Stars programme.
Richard Shen, Secretary general of Asian Film & Television Promotion and Kathrin Schafroth, representative of Berlinale
Matthijs Wouter Knol, representative of European Film Market
20th.European Shooting Stars, 2017
Richard Shen, Secretary general of Asian Film & Television Promotion, Shi Nansheng, the famous filmmaker and Jerry Ye, the famous producer
Yan Geling, the famous author and screenwriter
The first edition of Asian Brilliant Stars award ceremony was jointly hosted by AFTP, Beijing Film Academy, and the Actor Committee of the CRTA. Reviewing the filmmaking process, the jury has established awards for Best Director, Best Screenwriter and Best Producer based on strict selection criteria. Best Director is awarded for his inspiring creativity, clear narrative and sophisticated skills in striking a perfect balance between different aspects of filmmaking like cinematography, performance, art and music. Best Screenwriter is praised for offering a strong story with a distinct theme and unique perspective and creating distinctive characters with fully realized details and meaningful dialogue. Best Producer is honored with his efforts to establish an integrated team for film sales and distributions and to make an excellent, realistic film with profound meaning that achieves both artistic and commercial success.
The 3 winners of the first Asian Brilliant Stars Awards
“I’m very glad to see such films introduced in the European film industry,” said Richard Shen, when congratulating the winners of the first Asian Brilliant Stars. “The winning films have extended far beyond the limitations of traditional commercial films, displayed unique personalities and explored the possibilities of cinematic art, offering the world a new chance to revalue Asian film.”
Yan Geling presents the award to Liu Zhenyun, the best screenwriter of Asian Brilliant Stars
Hou Guangming, Chairman of the Council of Beijing Film Academy presents the award to Jerry Ye, the best producer of Asian Brilliant Stars
Renate Rose, representative of European Film Promotion presents the award to Xu Haofeng, the best director of Asian Brilliant Stars
Liu Zhenyun, the winner of Best Screenwriter, is one of the most popular writers in Asia, gaining wide recognition from film circles. The script of the winning film Someone to Talk to was adapted from his novel One Sentence Worth Ten Thousand, which won the 8th Mao Dun Literature Award. With emotional storytelling, the novel shows a deep concern for ordinary Chinese people struggling for their survival over a long period of time stretching over 100 years. The film is directed by Liu Yulin, Liu’s daughter, and this is her first feature-length film. With subtle narrative, the father and daughter collaboration demonstrated the characters’ ups and downs, reflecting the vicissitudes of human life.
Jerry Ye, the winner of the Best Producer Award, currently serves as Vice President of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation. His representative works include Beijing Love Story, Mojin: The Lost Legend, and Detective Chinatown. He is also the producer of The Wasted Times, a film that has achieved both artistic and commercial success. An experimental editing method endowed the film with a strong artistic feeling and allowed it to receive rave reviews from industry insiders and film fans, representing an attempt to express a fresh visual language in Asian cinema.
Xu Haofeng, the winner of the Best Director Award, is a director, screenwriter, and martial arts novel writer. Xu has gained different perspectives from these three specific roles. The winning film, The Final Master, tells a story set in China’s republican period. It shows the real life of people, who practise martial arts. The director used a unique style of image and storytelling methods to represent martial arts in a way that has never been seen in any other films before it. There are no special effects like leaping on roofs or vaulting over walls. Instead, real Kung Fu fighting demonstrates the winning film’s distinctive artistic style compared with traditional Kung Fu films.
“It’s a great honor for us to be a strategic partner of the Berlinale and to host the first Asian Brilliant Stars awards ceremony during this year’s Berlinale, so we can bring outstanding Asian films to Europe. In the future, Asian Brilliant Stars will collaborate with more film organizations in other Asian countries like South Korea, Japan and Thailand to extend its influence to every field of the film industry and export even more outstanding films to Europe,” Richard Shen, secretary-general of the AFTP, said at the end of the ceremony. “