Vietnamese actress wins Chinese film festival award

Nhan Dan – Vietnamese actress Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc won the Audience Choice Award for Favourite Actress in a Foreign Film for her role in ‘Canh Dong Bat Tan’ (Floating Lives) at the 20th annual Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival held from October 18-23 in Anhui province, China.
Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc (second from left) at the awards ceremony.
Ninh Duong Lan Ngoc (second from left) at the awards ceremony.

Lan Ngoc shared the prize with Emma Lohoues from the Ivory Coast.

Also in the Foreign Film category, Lee Sun Jae from the Republic of Korea and Hajime Yoshii from Japan bagged the Best Actors award. The Best Director prizes went to Italian Lorenzo Ceva Valla for his film ‘Ainom’ and Jan Jakub Kolskiego from Poland for ‘Venice.’ The Best Foreign Film prizes were won by ‘Suitz Havana’ from Cuba and the Austrian film, ‘A Breath of Heaven’.

The 28 nominated foreign films from 18 countries around the world were all screened as part of the film festival.

The jury also gave awards in other categories including Best Director, Best Feature Film, Best Scriptwriter, Best TV Film, and Best Leading and Supporting Actors and Actresses.

‘Canh Dong Bat Tan’, directed by Nguyen Phan Quang Binh and co-produced by the BHD Ltd. Company and the Vietnam Studio, was the only film representing Vietnam at the festival.

Lan Ngoc also won ‘Best Movie Actress’ at the Golden Apricot Blossom awards in January and ‘Best Leading Actress’ at the Golden Kite awards in March for her performance in the film.

The Golden Rooster Awards, launched by the Chinese Film Association in 1981 - the year of the rooster, are some of the most prestigious awards in the industry. In 1992, it merged with the Hundred Flowers Film Festival, which had been running since 1962.

Originally, the awards were only given to nominees from mainland China, but the festival broadened its scope in 2005 and it is now open to international filmmaking industries around the world.