The 14th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival has drawn to a close on November 12 in the city of Sanya in the island province of Hainan. Wanma Caidan, a Qinghai local Tibetan director, was awarded at the festival "Best Maiden-work Director " for his creation The Silent Mani Stone, a Tibetan language film written and directed by him. Being awawded honor at the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema gives Qinghai a tremendous potential prospect in film creation.
Knowledge about the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards
The four-day Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival not only celebrates achievements in the past year, but commemorates 100 years of "electric shadow," as "film" is known in Chinese.
2005 is the 100th anniversary of Chinese cinema, and organizers of the event have found many creative ways to tell you this: The red carpet extends 100 metres outside the hall where the ceremony is being held; there is a newly-erected 100-metre wall with movie star posters plastered all across it; a giant birthday cake has "100" on it.
On top of this, the festival has selected 100 movie stars from the past 100 years and honoured them many have passed away with gold medals. Even the luminaries who are expected to show up are nothing short of glittering: a who's-who of marquee names from around the nation, such as Zhang Yimou, Jackie Chan and Andy Lau.
Changes in the making
The festival consists of two awards: the Golden Rooster, selected by a panel of jury members which this year comprises 23 professionals and the Hundred Flowers, determined by a poll conducted by the Popular Cinema magazine.
This year, it was announced that the awards would no longer be given annually, but once every two years.
But this has not dampened the enthusiasm of the film community, because the two awards will alternate from year to year. However, the festival will remain an annual feature, retaining both award names.
Hence, this year marks the 25th Golden Rooster Awards, but the 14th Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival. But the Hundred Flowers Awards will not be given until next year.