2018 | Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival

HKAFF 2018

26 June 2018 - Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival has announced the award winners for the 2018 edition. The prize for the Best Narrative Film went to A Doll's Hug (Taiwan) by Rob Chihhwen Lo. Domestic violence, school violence, and societal violence continually challenge and threaten the Taiwanese teenage boy, XiangYu. He seeks to escape from the undesirable reality to take shelter in his imaginary barbie doll world. He learns to fight back to seek solutions for ever-lasting redemption. However, the relief from the redemption is impermanent...

The Kingdom of Men (Hong Kong) by Sham Kwan Yin received the award for Best Hong Kong Film. An experimental short that integrates the creative process in contemporary theatre art and traditional storytelling in film. Inspired by ‘The Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral’ written by theatre director Pao Kun Kuo.

The prize for the Best Documentary Film was for The Velvet Underground Played at My High School (United States) by Robert Pietri, Tony Jannelli. This animated documentary is the story of the Velvet Underground's disastrous first public performance. While on stage for merely 20 minutes, The Velvet Underground performed three songs: 'There She Goes', 'Venus in Furs', and 'Heroin'. The Summit High School audience responded with, as a band member recalled in 1983, a 'murmur of surprise that greeted the appearance' that 'increased to a roar of disbelief as the band started to play' which'swelled to a mighty howl of outrage and bewilderment...' Half the audience walked out.

The Best Animated Film award went to Scandal (Réunion) by Pablo Mengin-Lecreulx. This animation made of 2500 paintings tells the story of a man who tries to run away from his fate. He is seeking for success, fame, happiness and love... But the city is too strong and he can't win. Sadly, he becomes a powerless witness of his own fall, just like a bee trapped in a spiderweb.

A P E X (United Kingdom) by Stuart T Birchall won Best Experimental Film. This conceptual film was inspired by a love of the ‘Alien’ franchise and the work of H.R Giger. I wanted to explore the alien concept set in a future abstraction. We witness a genetic hybrid emerging from the void, composed of the alien and human DNA. The creature; a biological zenith represents a pinnacle in the evolution of biology and higher consciousness, the creature represents balance, a queen and creator, the APEX of being.

Best Music Video award went to The Fool You Need (United States) by Jean-Paul Frenay, a music video for Son Lux.