The film, which tells the story of an elderly man – a Holocaust survivor - with dementia in search for those responsible for the death of his family, also resulted in veteran artist Christopher Plummer winning the Best Leading Actor Prize.
The Best Short Film Prize category went to the 15-minute Mexican film ‘Three Variations of Ofelia directed by Paulo Riqué.
The Jury Award’s for Short Film and Full-Length Film were presented to ‘Heart of the Land’ (Poland) and One Way Trip (the Republic of Korea), respectively.
Eduardo Roy, Jr. and Hasmine Killip from the ‘Ordinary People’, a film from Filipino cinema, were named the Best Director and Best Leading Actress.
Vietnamese cinema also shined at the film fest by winning four categories, including the Special Jury Mention Prize for ‘Toi Thay Hoa Vang Tren Co Xanh’ (Yellow flowers on the green grass); the Audience’s Choice Awards for Full-Length Film for Trung So (Jackpot); the Audience’s Choice for Vietnamese Entries for ‘Taxi, Em Ten Gi?’ (Taxi, What's your name?), and Best Young Director for Pham Ngoc Lan.
The winning cinematic works stood out from 30 full-length films and 12 short films, which were selected from 146 films among 550 entries from 43 countries and territories.
The 2016 HANIFF, themed “Cinema-Integration and Sustainable Development”, aimed to honour excellent cinema and those working in the industry as well as to boost cooperation between movie-makers for the development of cinema.
The festival, co-organised by the Cinema Department and Hanoi’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, was also designed as an opportunity to help Vietnamese cinema integrate into the international cinema market while promoting the land and people of Vietnam to international friends.
A number of activities were held on the sidelines of the five-day event, including a film project market, a seminar on fostering cooperation among ASEAN cinemas, a forum on Indian cinema, and an outdoor film screening.
