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《柔情史》荣获洛杉矶华语电影节最佳剧情长片奖
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Sf3lWGfvVLEdj9xLfM9lxA
Written by Jiexiao Vivian Ying 2018.11.05
Translate by Lingjia Xu, 2019.06.03

The Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival showcased excellent Chinese-language films from November 1st to November 4th, which were selected according to the principal of “avant-garde, independence, freedom, and diversity.” I‘ve Got a Little Problem and Girls Always Happy presented by the film festival and international sales company Parallax Films, stood out from the 255 films and entered the competition unit.

At the awards ceremony, Girls Always Happy has won the Best Feature Film of the film festival.

The judge of the film festival appreciated the film and wrote: “The film brought a distant Beijing close to the audiences, and the sense of humor in the film successfully broke the national boundaries. The director accurately shows the survival and psychological predicament of ordinary Chinese women through delineating the daily life of a mother and daughter, which is very typical of contemporary China.”

Although the film director Yang Mingming was not there to receive the prize in person, she wrote a paragraph expressing her gratitude for the organizing committee and her feelings for the city of Los Angeles: “When I was walking around in Los Angeles, I found the only people on the street are the homeless and myself. It was later on that I discovered that everyone was sitting in their cars. This feels so wonderful. I think Los Angeles is a city for exploration. I love the sunshine here and the desert and cactus are not far away. Thank you for coming to see my movie… This is the place to give birth to miracles. Thank you!”

(Director Li Ruijun presented the award, and the agent of Parallax Films Jiexiao Ying received the award on behalf of the filmmaker.)

Girls Always Happy is the first feature film directed by Yang Mingming. The film faces contemporary urban life with a new perspective. It depicts the spectacle of a pair of mother and daughter in a single-parent family and daughter in Beijing Hutong with “stunning accuracy”. They reject, hate and hurt each other. Their despair reflects the power of tenderness. However, the director emphasized that this was not a movie that promoted the warmth of the family. This is a film dissected by a surgical scalpel, starting with a cross-section of life in a mother-daughter relationship in contemporary Beijing, with both grimness and parody.

Before the Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival, Yang Mingming’s Girls Always Happy has achieved brilliant results in major film festivals. The film premiered and was nominated for the “GWFF Best First Feature Award” at the 68th Berlinale. Followed are various awards, including “the Firebird Award” in the Young Cinema Competition and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 42nd Hong Kong International Film Festival，”the Best Director Award” at the 20th Seoul International Women’s Film Festival, the “China Stars Award” for Best New Talent at the 44th Seattle International Film Festival, and ”Media Spotlight Award for Filmmakers“ in “A Belt and Road Week“ at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival, the Jury Award for Feature Films at the 3^rd New Era Film Festival.

Girls Always Happy is screened at film festivals around the world, bringing the contemporary life of Beijing Hutong to the world audience. The film was shown at the following film festivals: Beyond Frozen Point, Edinburgh International Film Festival International competition unit, Xining FIRST International Film Festival Competition feature film, EURASIA International Film Festival main competition unit, Melbourne International Film Festival, Made by Women Program at Mulan International Film Festival , Feature Competition at World Cinema Amsterdam Film, Jameson CineFest Miskolc International Film Festival in Hungary, and Five Flavors International Film Festival in Warsaw, Vancouver International Film Festival, China Screen Biennale, Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation and so on. The prestigious American film scholar (Film Art: An Introduction textbook author) David Bordwell watched the film at the Vancouver International Film Festival. He liked Yang Mingming’s precise control of composition and focus. He wrote on his blog that “With the two of them jammed together in a hutong, a neighborhood of cramped old ground-floor apartments, their jousts take on an intensity captured by Yang’s exceptionally tight framings and rapid cutting.”

I’ve Got A Little Problem, Zhang Ximing’s first documentary film, is also selected to the film festival. It records the daily work of photographer and poet Ren Hang, his pursuit of freedom, and the feeling of depression. The film revolves around Ren Hang’s plan to shoot nude models on Gulou Street. This seems to be an impossible thing. Since the beginning of shooting nudes, he has been facing many obstacles, from nowhere to be defrauded by the printing house owner, to being reported naked and arrested by the police… Since high school, Ren Hang has shown signs of depression. When Ren Hang, who was suffering from depression, was determined to complete a very difficult work, he seemed to encounter a dilemma of personal life and creation.

Director Zhang Ximing feels that in the modern world, almost everyone has some mental problems, more or less. Depression appears more frequently in some ambiguous and casual articles that express one’s emotion. However, you would never know that the kindest one would finish his life in a rush with his smile after telling some wired jokes. He was infected by the pure and energetic working status of Ren Hang and took this documentary. The film was selected to the FIRST Film Festival in Xining. This 44-minute middle length film made it to the Busan International Film Festival-Wide Angle documentary competition. It was screened at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and the Mulan International Film Festival. It was recently awarded the Story That Matters Award at the Washington Chinese Film Festival.

The Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival focuses on supporting new directors, in addition to screening a series of narratives or experimental short films, as well as the live Q&A of Wu Hao’s documentary People’s Republic of Desire, Zhang Linzi’s Transcendent, and the premiere of Zhang Xingsha’s E.T. Made in China. The opening film is Li Ruijun’s Walking Past the Future,  which has been selected to Un Certain Regard at Cannes. The closing film is the documentary Linsanity. There is also a film industry forum on Thursday. Both Chinese and American guests look forward to the co-production and distribution of China and Hollywood, explore the differences between Chinese and American in scriptwriting writing, and bring new insights to industry professionals.

Based in China, PARALLAX Films is an international film distribution company, a subsidiary of Midnight Blur Films, specializing in the worldwide promotion and distribution of high-quality Chinese and Asian films in film festivals and the film market. Its services include the strategic planning of international film festivals submissions, publicity at film festivals, distributions at local theaters and streaming media platforms. PARALLAX Films has agents in Paris, Tokyo, New York, Beijing, and Shanghai, working closely with filmmakers, and providing them with international market exposure and festival opportunities.

Website: http://www.midnightblurfilms.com/
Business contact: info@parallaxchina.com

 

《柔情史》荣获洛杉矶华语电影节最佳剧情长片奖

洛杉矶华语电影节（Los Angeles Chinese Film Festival）于11月1日至11月4日进行展映，以“先锋、独立、自由、多元”眼光挑选的优秀华语影片。视幻文化代理电影节公关和国际销售的《我有一个忧郁的，小问题》和《柔情史》从255部影片中脱颖而出，入围竞赛单元。

刚刚结束的颁奖典礼上传来消息，《柔情史》获得了该电影节的最佳剧情长片奖。

电影节评委会对本片赞赏不已，还写下了颁奖辞：“影片把一个遥远的北京很近距离地呈现在了每一个观众眼前，并且影片里所渗透出的幽默感成功地打破了幽然的国界。导演通过一对母女的日常精准地展现了当下中国普通女性的生存和心理困境，且极具当代性。”

导演杨明明虽然未能到场亲自领奖，也写下了一段话表达对组委会的感激以及对洛杉矶这座城市的感情：“我在洛杉矶走路的时候，发现街上只有自己和流浪汉，后来才发现大家都在自己的车里，这种感觉太奇妙了，我觉得这是一座可以探险的城市。我爱这里的阳光和不远处的沙漠与仙人掌，谢谢你们来看我的电影……这是一个诞生奇妙的地方，谢谢你们！”

李睿珺导演为影片颁奖，视幻文化应婕晓代表影片领奖

《柔情史》是杨明明的首部长片作品，影片以全新的视角面对当代城市生活，以“令人震惊的准确度”刻画了北京胡同中一对单亲家庭母女互相拒斥、仇恨、伤害的奇观，在绝望中折射出柔情的力量。 不过明明导演强调，这不是一部宣扬家庭温暖的电影，这是一部用外科手术刀剖析而成的电影，从当代北京一对母女生活的横截面入手，凛冽与戏谑并存。

在洛杉矶华语电影节之前，杨明明导演的《柔情史》已在各大电影节取得辉煌战果。影片在第68届柏林国际电影节进行世界首映，获得最佳处女作提名，随后各类奖项接踵而至，包括第42届香港国际电影节新秀竞赛单元“火鸟大奖”及“国际影评人费比西奖”，第20届首尔国际女性影展“最佳导演奖”，第44届西雅图国际电影节中国之星单元“最佳新人奖”，第21届上海国际电影“一带一路”电影周媒体关注电影人奖，第3届New Era青年电影季主竞赛单元评委会长片奖项。

《柔情史》在全球各地的电影节展映，为世界观众带来北京胡同的当代生活气息。影片曾在以下电影节展映：极地光影电影节，爱丁堡国际电影节国际竞赛单元，西宁FIRST青年电影展竞赛剧情长片，欧亚国际电影节主竞赛单元，墨尔本国际电影节，木兰国际电影节“女性制造”单元，World Cinema Amsterdam竞赛单元，匈牙利米什科尔茨国际电影节，华沙五味电影节，温哥华国际电影节，中国银幕双年展，北京当代艺术基金会在亚洲协会的放映等等。美国著名电影学者（《电影艺术：形式与风格》业界标杆的教材作者）大卫·波德维尔在温哥华国际电影节观看本片，非常喜爱杨明明对全局的精细设计，对焦点和构图的极致把控，他撰写博客称赞导演 “通过特别局促的布局和快速剪辑，捕捉了挤在胡同老房子里一对母女之间的情感张力”。

同时入围影展的《我有一个忧郁的，小问题》是张溪溟导演的首部纪录片中长片，记录了摄影师兼诗人任航的日常工作，对自由的追求，以及抑郁的感受。影片围绕任航在鼓楼大街上拍摄裸体模特的计划展开。这似乎是一件不可能做到的事情，自拍摄裸体伊始，他就一直面临多方阻力，从被印刷厂老板诈骗的无处申诉，到被举报拍摄裸体让警察带走……而自高中开始，任航便展现出抑郁的苗头。当饱受抑郁困扰的任航决心完成一件极具艰难的作品时，他似乎遭遇了个人生活和创作的两重困境。 

张溪溟导演感到现代都市语境下，人人都在聊心理疾病，“抑郁症”常出现在调侃或是暧昧的抒情软文中。可是欢局里那个最善解人意的老好人任航，在给大家讲了笑点奇怪的冷笑话后，便带着笑容匆匆结束了生命。他被任航的天真和充满活力的工作状态感染，拍下了这部纪录片。影片入围了西宁FIRST青年影展，以44分钟的片长破格入围釜山国际电影节Wide Angle纪录片竞赛单元，在台北金马影展和木兰国际电影节展映，近期获得了华盛顿华语电影节的Story That Matters Award奖项。

洛杉矶华语电影节注重扶持新锐导演，除了展映一系列叙事或实验短片，还有吴皓导演《虚你人生》纪录片的现场问答，《镜像人·明日青春》张林子导演的答观众问，张星鲨《我儿子去了外星球》的全球首映。开幕片是李睿君戛纳“一种关注”提名影片《路过未来》，闭幕片是纪录片《林来疯》。周四还有电影行业论坛，中美嘉宾共同展望中国与好莱坞的联合制作与发行，探讨编剧写作的中美差异，给产业人士带来新的洞见。

视幻文化是午夜失焦旗下国际发行品牌，立足于中国本土，专注于在世界电影节和电影市场推广和发行优质华语和亚洲电影，其服务包括但不限于：国际电影节投报策略制定、电影节落地公关、各地院线及流媒体平台发行等。视幻文化在巴黎、东京、纽约、北京、上海均设有常驻员工，与各大电影节保持着紧密的合作关系，助力旗下电影获得更多的国际电影节曝光及在中国和海外的发行机会。

网站：http://www.midnightblurfilms.com/

商务联系：info@parallaxchina.com