QCinema International Film Festival – Winners 2019

By Asian Film Festival on October 18, 2019 • ( Leave a comment )

We present the winners of the QCinema International Film Festival which is taking place from October 13th – 22nd in Gateway, Trinoma, Robinsons Galleria, UPFI Cine Adarna, Cinema 76 (Anonas) and Cinema Centenario.

Asian Next Wave Competition
Best Film

Cleaners by Glenn Barit – Philippines

Cleaners is a coming-of-age anthology film about high school classroom cleaners for the school year 2007-2008. Set in the backdrop of a Catholic school in Tuguegarao City, the characters deal with different pressures of being clean, proper and pure while slowly discovering that the world is dirty and superficial to begin with. The different stories range from the taboo of shitting in school to navigating local political dynasties. (QCinema)

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NETPAC Jury Prize

Suburban Birds by Sheng Qiu – China, Taiwan

Some ground subsidence has occurred in a suburban area and a team of engineers, including Hao, is dispatched to investigate the cause. After days of wandering around in the empty suburb looking for answers and carrying his heavy gear, Hao walks into a primary school where he finds a diary chronicling the story of a boy and the separation of what seems to be an intimate group. As the investigation keeps going, Hao discovers that this diary might contain prophecies about his own life.

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Best Director

Rae Red for Babe at Baril – Philippines

The protagonist is a saleslady in a local department store. Her everyday life is composed of an exhausting commute home. She deals with the manager who always seems to have something to say about her physical state; her co-worker, Ted who is obviously interested in her but can’t take a hint; and from the catcallers near where she lives. When she finally gets home, there’s no one there but her roommate who couldn’t care less about her. All that is about to change when she reaches the gate to her boarding house and finds a peculiar looking gun right on her doorstep. Suddenly, she can do anything she wants, talk back to whoever she wants, and even hurt anyone she wants. (QCinema)

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Best Actress

Janine Gutierrez for Babae at Baril (Rae Re) – Philippines

Best Actor

Por Silatsa for The Long Walk (Mattie Do) – Laos

Decades after witnessing a fatal car accident near his isolated home in rural Laos, a middle-aged man is left alone with his regrets and the unsettled spirit who still walks the road where she died, in this hauntingly dramatic third feature from Mattie Do (TorontoIFF).

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Best Artistic Contribution

Lee Chatametikool for editing Nakorn-Sawan (Puangsoi Aksornsawang) – Thailand, Germany

Negotiating the many pathways between life and death in Thailand, debut filmmaker Aksornsawang juxtaposes documentary and fiction to create an unusual, haunting vision. The casual, personal video she made with her parents before her mother died resonates with the polished autobiographical narrative of a woman traveling with her family to scatter the ashes of her mother near “Heavenly City.” Together, we share in her worlds of love and loss, the expression of a daughter who is also an artist. (BusanIFF)

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