The CinemAsia Film Festival 2023 Jury Award goes to SMALL, SLOW BUT STEADY by Miyake Shô
The 15th edition of CinemAsia Film Festival in Amsterdam came to a close with the festive award ceremony announcing the winner of the competition program. The CinemAsia 2023 Jury Award goes to Japanese director MIYAKE Shô for his female boxing film SMALL, SLOW BUT STEADY (2022). The Indonesian director Makbul MUBARAK receives a Special Mention for his debut feature film AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
Jury Award CinemAsia 2023 – SMALL, SLOW BUT STEADY ケイコ 目を澄ませて (Japan 2022)
The Competition puts the spotlight on a new generation of filmmakers, highlighting directors with a strong artistic and cinematographic signature. After contentious deliberations Competition Jury members Taiki Sakpisit (award-winning filmmaker and visual artist from Thailand), Martijn te Pas (festival advisor and programmer Mirage and DocFest) and Suzanne van Voorst (documentary advisor and former producer), came to the following conclusion.
The unanimous winner of CinemAsia’s 2023 Jury Award is SMALL, SLOW BUT STEADY by director MIYAKE Shô:
“The hero of Small, Slow but Steady is a fascinating, authentic and stoic young woman. Headstrong and hardworking, she does not need to use words to communicate clearly. The co-stars of this exquisite character study, shot on warm 16mm and with a sound design that perfectly matches the limited sensory experiences of our young heroine, are equally impressive in their subtle and convincing performances. The screenplay, intelligent and open, is unpredictable like life itself and ultimately this moving film sticks in our imagination, as if it has been an impressionistic memory of our own. The director has a wise cinematic eye and we very much look forward to being taken on another film journey by him in the future.”
In this delicate portrait of life in uncertain times, Keiko (KISHII Yukino), a young woman with a hearing impairment and a passion for boxing is faced with her boxing club’s imminent closure and its chairman’s (MIURA Tomokazu) ailing health.
Jury Special Mention CinemAsia 2023 – AUTOBIOGRAPHY (Indonesia 2022)
This year, with admiration and pleasure, CinemAsia’s 2023 Jury announces a Special Mention for Makbul Mubarak’s debut film Autobiography:
“For its daring subject matter, tense tone, wonderful photography and its assured, mature direction by a debut feature filmmaker, the jury would like to give a Special Mention to Autobiography by director Makbul Mubarak.”
In this haunting debut, a young man’s desperate desire for approval leads him down a dangerous path. Drawing from the director’s own experience, Autobiography addresses the effects of Indonesia’s military dictatorship on the country’s youth and with it exposes the collective trauma of a nation.
