Youth film week concludes with several honored works

The 18th Chinese Youth Film Week recently concluded in Beijing, presenting eight honors to 22 works shortlisted for the final round.

Director Zhang Zhongchen's 88-minute Nighttime Sounds became one of the biggest winners, taking home the Best Picture and Best Director awards. The film follows an 8-year-old girl who stumbles upon a mysterious child, gradually uncovering her mother's secrets and the hidden histories of other women in the village.

Shi Pengyuan won Best Actor for his portrayal of a young man who cannot endure the passing of his father and instead goes to work in a Shenzhen factory in Guangdong province in Water Can Go Anywhere. The Best Actress award went to Shen Jiani for A Girl Unknown, a film exploring women's identities in the past, present and future.

The Best New Performer award was shared by Cao Ruofan for A Girl Unknown, Jahseleh Yesl for the romantic fantasy film The Botanist, and Yang Xin for the Cantonese-language film Within a Budding Grove.

The Embers, which recounts the story of a terminally ill female cremator who mistakenly mixes up two sets of ashes at work and the ensuing consequences, was written by Sun Ao, who won the Best Screenplay honor.

Day Dreaming, about a third-grade elementary school student whose head is full of fantasies, earned Liang Lin the Best Producer honor.

For the first time in the history of the 18th Chinese Youth Film Week — which was also held as part of the 38th Hundred Flowers Awards' series of activities — an honor was established for outstanding film reviews. "A good review gives a film a second life. It brings to light the filmmakers' 'stubborn persistence' and allows audiences to find resonance and echoes beyond the light and shadow," organizers explained as to why they set up the honor.

The event also highlighted the Falcon Project Feature Film Pitching Session, its core industry incubation platform, which is led by the China Film Association and co-hosted by the Film Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Hebei Institute of Communications.

Winners are to receive funding from the institute, and their projects are required to begin official production within one year. As the two top winners, director Yang Chengcheng's Shan Zhong Wu Lao Hu (The Mountain Has No Tiger) received 1 million yuan ($148,300) in support, while director Xu Jianming's Lyu Tu Yu Kuai (Have a Pleasant Journey) received 500,000 yuan in support.