“El Clásico” was named the best picture of the 2016 Asian World Film Festival, which presented 20 of the Oscar foreign-language competitors and 18 other movies over nine days in Los Angeles.
The film, Iraq’s Oscar entry, was directed by Halkawt Mustafa and is the feel-good story of two little people attempting to bring a pair of Kurdish slippers to the soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo.
Other Oscar entries that won prizes were the Turkish film “Cold of Kalandar” (special jury prize, best male lead to Haydar Sisman), South Korea’s “Age of Shadows” (best female lead to Ji-min Han), Nepal’s “The Black Hen” (best musical score), Malaysia’s “Redha” (discretionary jury award for courage in storytelling) and Lebanon’s “Very Big Shot” (special mention for best ensemble cast).
“The Student,” a Russian film that is not in the Oscar race, won an award for actress Victoria Isakova, while the Mongolian film “The Faith,” also not an Oscar entry, won the audience award.
The jury was headed by producer Heather Rae, and also included directors Amin Matalqa and Uli Edel, composer Carlo Siliotto, screenwriter David Seidler, musician DCAT, actor Hakeem Kae-Kazim, producer/director Iram Parveen Bilal, model/actress Maria Shantanova and ArcLight Films executive Ying Ye.
The second annual Asian World Film Festival ran from October 24 through November 1 at the ArcLight in Culver City, California.
See the winners below:
Best Picture
“El Clásico,” directed by Halkawt Mustafa (Iraq)
Special Jury Prize
“Cold of Kalandar,” directed by Mustafa Kara (Turkey)
Honorable Mention: “The Student,” directed by Kirill Serebrennikov (Russia)
Best Male Lead
Haydar Sisman, “Cold of Kalandar” (Turkey)
Best Female Lead – TIE
Ji-min Han, “Age of Shadows” (South Korea)
Victoria Isakova, “The Student” (Russia)
Best Musical Score
“The Black Hen,” composed by Jason Kunwar (Nepal)
Honorable Mention: “Amanat,” composed by Aktoti Ralmkulova (Kazakhstan)
Discretionary Jury Award for Courage in Storytelling
“Redha,” directed by Tunku Mona Riza (Malaysia)
Special Mention for Best Ensemble Cast
“Very Big Shot” (Lebanon)
Audience Award
“The Faith” directed by Garamkhand B. (Mongolia)
Cinematic Legacy Award
Keon-seop Park
He Can Do, She Can Do, Why Not Me Humanitarian Award
“El Clásico”
Murray Weissman Award for Movie Poster Art
“Earthquake”