Philippines’ film "Bwaya" takes gold at France’s main Asian Cinema Festival

A film about a crocodile in the Philippines outback helps raise local cultural awareness at home and abroad, coming out as the top jury pick at the 21st Festival International du Cinéma Asiatique (FICA) in Vesoul.

Still from "Bwaya" by Francis Xavier Pasion DR/www.cinemas-asie.com

The Cyclo d’Or (Golden Rickshaw) award went to Bwaya (crocodile), directed by Francis Xavier Pasion. The crocodile attacks the daughter of a family, and the film describes the ensuing drama.

The four-member international jury which awarded the prize - Wang Chao from China, Mohamad Rousolof from Iran, Prasanna Vithanage from Sri Lanka and Lauris Guillen from the Philippines - chose this one from among eight others in competition at the FICA.

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Lauris Guillen - Jury member and Philippines film specialist

Rosslyn Hyams

Lauris Guillen, said for her, the winning film would be one that manages to marry the local and the universal in its creative story-telling. She says, “In the Philippines today, film makers are becoming more aware and wish to make documentary or fiction films about Filipino culture which has nothing to do with American or Spanish colonial influence.”

The next prize, the Jury Prize, was a double this year.

Unable to choose between One Summer, a slow-paced first feature set in contemporary China from director Yang Yishu about a troubled woman’s determined search for her husband and the reason he was taken away out of the blue.

One Summer, like Bwaya, were European premières.

A jury prize also went to Melbourne, by Iranian director Nima Javidi which screened at the Venice Festival last November and also attracted attention.

Melbourne shared one prize and scooped up another on its own from one of the Asian specialist juries at FICA.

• The Critics Prize went to Taiwanese film, Exit, by Chienn Hsiang.
• The Netpac (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Prize, was awarded to a first feature from Myanmar, The Monk.
• The Emile Guimet (Asian Arts) Museum Prize, was won by a Khirghiz film called Kurai Kurai: tales of the wind by Marjoleine Boonstra.

Indian second feature by Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar enchanted the High-School Jury and won the Audience Prize, with their coming-of-age film about a girl with physical disabilites who breaks a good number of taboos in Margarita with a Straw.