Five days of reeling wonder was the 2007 Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. Out of all the festivals I’ve been to this year, The Toronto Reel Asian International Film festival has the strongest programming. The films were fantastic, their was a huge range in types of films (feature, shorts, documentaries, silent) and the quality of the films were excellent. Even if something didn't suit personal taste, they were all solid.
Official Reel Asian Award Winners
The Reel Asian Awards were presented on Day 5 before the screening of Sakuran. It was quite a night! Lesley Loksi Chan's speech takes the cake as the cutest, she let us know it was her first festival and she thought getting a badge was cool! A round of applause to all the winners
Animasian Award went to Yellow Sticky Notes dir. Jeff Chiba Stearns
and honourable mention to Flutter dir. Howie Shia
Jeff Chiba Sterns accepting the award for Yellow Sticky Notes
TSV Visionary Video Award went to I No I No dir. Lesley Loksi Chan
Centennial College @ Wallace Studios Most Innovative Film Production Award went to Wanda and Miles dir. Lesley Loksi Chan
First time festivaller and two time awards winner Lesley Loksi Chan
NFB Best Documentary Award went to Koryo Saram - The Unreliable People dir. Y David Chung and Matt Dibble
Charles Street Video and Reel Asian SEE ME! HEAR ME! PITCH ME! pitch winners
Winner in the Professional Category is Castle in the Sky - Dean Vargas and Lena Lee
Winner in the Emerging Category is What You Eat Jennifer Liao
NOW Audience Award went to Getting Home dir. Zhang Yang
In a bizarre stroke of luck (good or bad I'm not certain), I saw a grand total of zero of the award winning films. So, I am going to share what I felt were the stand out films.
Features: Owl and the Sparrow, Finishing the Game
Documentary: And Thereafter II, Total Bangkok
Shorts (live action): Smile, The Contest, Souvenirs From Asia, Rock Garden
Shorts (animated): Flutter
Silent: Factory
Favourite Program: Total Pen-ek - Shorts Programme on the works of Pen-ek Ratanaruang on Day 4
Best Experience: Opening Night screening of Finishing the Game. Guys in yellow and black jumpsuits, high energy crowd, fantastic film and Dustin Nguyen did a Q&A/Trivia game. What a night!
Funnest collective experience: The pig toss! Every screening a pig was tossed into the audience and the catcher won a prize!
Best Q&A's: Owl and the Sparrow, Smile
Most unexpected: Loving And Thereafter II and not loving Love Conquers All
Repeating themes: Orphans, love, social inacceptance/culture clash
Fullest Screenings: Finishing the Game, Owl and the Sparrow, Sakuran
Wish I hadn't missed: The World Of Lesley Loksi Chan
Most Compelling Imagery: Factory
Weirdest venue thing: Why are different seats at Innis different widths? Some were cozy, others were a little smaller. Very odd. Front row on the left is mine though, called it!
It was an amazing festival, and just like little piggy here time to rest up for next year, as this with definitely make its way to my schedule again next November.
Oinked out!
The Reel Asian Awards were presented on Day 5 before the screening of Sakuran. It was quite a night! Lesley Loksi Chan's speech takes the cake as the cutest, she let us know it was her first festival and she thought getting a badge was cool! A round of applause to all the winners
Animasian Award went to Yellow Sticky Notes dir. Jeff Chiba Stearns
and honourable mention to Flutter dir. Howie Shia
Jeff Chiba Sterns accepting the award for Yellow Sticky Notes
TSV Visionary Video Award went to I No I No dir. Lesley Loksi Chan
Centennial College @ Wallace Studios Most Innovative Film Production Award went to Wanda and Miles dir. Lesley Loksi Chan
First time festivaller and two time awards winner Lesley Loksi Chan
NFB Best Documentary Award went to Koryo Saram - The Unreliable People dir. Y David Chung and Matt Dibble
Charles Street Video and Reel Asian SEE ME! HEAR ME! PITCH ME! pitch winners
Winner in the Professional Category is Castle in the Sky - Dean Vargas and Lena Lee
Winner in the Emerging Category is What You Eat Jennifer Liao
NOW Audience Award went to Getting Home dir. Zhang Yang
In a bizarre stroke of luck (good or bad I'm not certain), I saw a grand total of zero of the award winning films. So, I am going to share what I felt were the stand out films.
Features: Owl and the Sparrow, Finishing the Game
Documentary: And Thereafter II, Total Bangkok
Shorts (live action): Smile, The Contest, Souvenirs From Asia, Rock Garden
Shorts (animated): Flutter
Silent: Factory
Favourite Program: Total Pen-ek - Shorts Programme on the works of Pen-ek Ratanaruang on Day 4
Best Experience: Opening Night screening of Finishing the Game. Guys in yellow and black jumpsuits, high energy crowd, fantastic film and Dustin Nguyen did a Q&A/Trivia game. What a night!
Funnest collective experience: The pig toss! Every screening a pig was tossed into the audience and the catcher won a prize!
Best Q&A's: Owl and the Sparrow, Smile
Happy unexpected moment: Julia Kwan in attendance for Smile
Most unexpected: Loving And Thereafter II and not loving Love Conquers All
Repeating themes: Orphans, love, social inacceptance/culture clash
Fullest Screenings: Finishing the Game, Owl and the Sparrow, Sakuran
Wish I hadn't missed: The World Of Lesley Loksi Chan
Most Compelling Imagery: Factory
Weirdest venue thing: Why are different seats at Innis different widths? Some were cozy, others were a little smaller. Very odd. Front row on the left is mine though, called it!
It was an amazing festival, and just like little piggy here time to rest up for next year, as this with definitely make its way to my schedule again next November.
Oinked out!
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival 2007 runs from November 14-18, 2007 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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