Taiwanese film director Wu Fan (吳璠) won the Emerging International Filmmaker Award with her first documentary feature Xixi on Friday evening at this year’s Hot Docs Festival in Toronto, Canada.
Xixi is about Wu’s friendship with Xixi, a Chinese performer whom she met in Berlin, and “is a heartfelt essay film exploring womanhood, autonomy and the power of self-reinvention through video diaries and personal archive,” the Hot Docs Web site said.
Wu said she wants to dedicate her award to all those continuing to make films, even in difficult times.
Photo: CNA
“As filmmakers, we come together to convey life, dignity and meaning,” she said.
The jury statement described Xixi as “bold, unflinching and dynamic,” adding: “While watching this film, we felt that at no point we knew which direction we were going. Where did it start? Where will it end? That alone was wildly exciting and also, maybe, we didn’t need to know.”
The jury also praised Wu for crafting a “genuine, informative and transformative film” about Xixi’s story as “a daughter, mother, artist and free spirit” which is about “courage, independence and nonconformity.”
Wu said Xixi is a collaboration between Taiwan, the Philippines and South Korea. The editor is from Colombia and the film scorer is from the US.
“Being able to overcome the challenges of working on a multinational team to complete this film means a lot. Even though it is a director award, it also belongs to the whole team,” she said.
An alumna of IDFAcademy and holder of a Doc Nomads Joint Master Degree in Documentary Filmmaking, Wu’s debut production Last Days at Sea, which she co-produced, was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival’s Generation section, the Swiss film festival Visions du Reel, the Hot Docs Festival and the Taipei Film Festival.
The Hot Docs Web site said that the Emerging International Filmmaker Award is given to “an international filmmaker whose film in competition is their first or second feature-length film.”
One of North America’s largest documentary festivals, Hot Docs took place from Monday last week to yesterday.
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