The 17th Tokyo International Film Festival Awards were announced on October 31st with The Grand Prix going to the Uruguayan film Whisky. Lu Chuan's movie Ke Ke Xi Li: Mountain Patrol won the Special Jury Prize.

The annual Tokyo International Film Festival is Asia's biggest and attracts the interest of filmmakers worldwide. More than 300 movies from 59 countries signed up for the festival's top award — the Tokyo Grand Prix — but only 15 were short listed, including three Chinese-language movies: China's mainland director Lu Chuan's documentary Ke Ke Xi Li, Hong Kong-Singaporean joint production Rice Rhapsody and Taiwan movie The Passage.

Ke Ke Xi Li, which had a budget of US$1.2 million has already earned US$800,000 for its overseas copyright and pocketed over US$483,000 box office income from the Chinese's mainland. It won the Golden Rooster Award, the Chinese equivalent of America's Academy Awards, early this year. After the movie's screening more than 10,000 people signed to support its nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2005 Oscars.

Lu Chuan was inspired to create Ke Ke Xi Li after seeing a documentary called Balance by Peng Hui. It tells the story of a volunteer team's struggles to protect Tibetan antelope against ruthless poachers.

Despite the poignancy of the story, the movie steers clear of sentimentality. Lu Chuan said he wanted to give his audience more room to contemplate rather than churning out yet another tearjerker that they would quickly forget.

Apart from the three movies in the competition category, a total of 20 Chinese-language movies are being shown in this year's festival, the largest ever.

Some critics speculated that Ke Ke Xi Li's missing the top prize was due to an unspoken understanding not to give it to any country two years consecutively, since Huo Jianqi's Nuan won last year's Grand Prix.

Award list

Grand Prix: Whisky
Special Jury Prize: Kekexili: Mountain Patrol
Award for Best Director: Im Chan-sang (The President's Barber)
Award For Best Performance by an Actor in Leading Role: Olhzas Nusuppaev (Schizo)
Award For Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role: Mirella Pascual (Whisky)
Award For Best Artistic Contribution: Chicken is Barefoot

Winds of Asia:
Best Asian Film Award: Possible Changes
Recommendation for Competition: Springtime

Japanese Eyes:
Best Picture Award: Jyukai 
Special Award: Kanji Tsuda (for performance in Jyukai)

Competition:
The Audience Award: The President's Barber
Akira Kurosawa Award: Steven Spielberg, Yoji Yamada

(China.org.cn November 1, 2004)