Canon DV Festival 2006 Awards3 min read

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Friday night saw the finalists of the Canon DV Festival 2006 gathering in DXO for the awards ceremony. As seems to be the norm for all chic awards ceremonies, the atmosphere was dark, the people dressed to the nines or to the height of eccentricities (Yes, fez boy, I’m talking about you) and the drinks were flowing like the Nile.

We got to the show just in time to catch the tail end of the screening of Alaric Tay’s Ah Beng Story (not sure if that was the title), which was quite hilarious to watch. It especially showed what we (Singaporeans) could achieve if we attempted to insert some comicbook/anime-style humour into our films.

Anyway, on to the awards ceremony. Overseen by a rather peppy presenter (who looked slightly uncomfortable with the whole shit-eating grin job that she was supposed to pull off) the awards were handed out with much pomp and ceremony, including of course the ridiculously oversized cheques.

The winners of DV fest 2006 (drumroll):

Best Direction Award
Old Times By Chew Tee Pao

Okay, this was expected. Like I said, great film. Go watch it.

Best Technical Award
Old Times By Chew Tee Pao

This came as a little surprise to me. Old Times was certainly well put together but I didn’t think that it was the most technically adept of all the films on display. Oh well…

Fresh Face Award
Joanne-Marie Sim

This film I did not see so I’m not commenting. Except to say that I thought that Ong Jian Liang certainly deserved a mention for this award too.

Grand Prize: Professional Category
Old Times by Chew Tee Pao

This did not come as a surprise. Easily the best film in the category.

Grand Prize: Media Students Category
Fruitful by Eramus William Ess, Fitriah Abdullah, Goh Zhong Ming, Luqmin Al-Hakim, Nurainni MB Baeke, Sam Ng Thi

Well, you know what I think of this one. Too much Zhang Yimou, too little actual story.

Grand Prize: Secondary School Category
Watch Boy Walking by Martin Hong Cho Ann

This one was a film in a category that was so diverse that any one of them could have taken the prize.

Grand Prize: Open Category
Short by Tan Siang Yu

No surprise here for me, although I didn’t actually see the other three films in the category so I can’t really judge. But this was the best Singapore film I’ve seen this year, perhaps even this decade.

Audience Choice Award
Be with You by Leong Hon Wai

Didn’t see this one.

Despite my best efforts these past couple of weeks, website glitches meant that I didn’t get to view every film. So this was another one of those awards nights where I watched and shrugged every time a film that I hadn’t watched gets mentioned (as with the Academy Awards and Brokeback Mountain). But hey, Old Times won and clearly, there’s no shortage of promising filmmakers in Singapore.

Watch all the winning films at the Best of DV Fest 2006 screening on Friday, December 8 at The Arts House (7 pm or 8:50 pm). Tickets are available from The Creatus Group or call.

Related articles:

• Review: Canon DV Festival 2006 Open Category
• Review: Canon DV Festival 2006 Media Student Category
• Review: Canon DV Festival 2006 Secondary School Category
• Review: Canon DV Festival 2006 Professional Category
• Canon DV Festival 2006 – open for voting

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