25 September 2016 - Hong Kong Arthouse Film Festival Fall 2016 winners:

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Best Narrative Feature Film: The Plastic Cardboard Sonata (Italy) by Enrico Falcone, Piero Persello. “He is an estate agent who lives his uneventful life in the suburb of an unspecified city. Under a showing of compulsive ordinariness, he attempts to make up the illusion of an ideal world, a pantomime of the 'perfect neighbourhood'. While such an artifice is meant to fulfil his love dream, an overwhelming reality forces him to a harsh awakening. The Plastic Cardboard Sonata is a story of urban loneliness. Through an accurate use of silence it sketches out the essence of daily life malaise.”

Best Documentary Feature Film: Highway Rest Stop (France) by Isabelle Ingold. “This film traces out the portrait of a motorway rest area located in the countryside in the North of France. It looks like a dream, filled with the whispers thoughts and the lives of those who work here, as well as those who are just passing through. It is also a very concrete place, a perfect spot to observe today's Europe, the violence carried by the free competition of a single market, the nostalgia carried by uprooted lives, and all the solitude engendered by our modern world.”

Best Narrative Short Film: Flux 324 (Brazil) by Renato Batata.

Best Documentary Short Film: Requires Review (Sweden) by Joshua Belinfante. “Bjorn Lindqvist is the world's best town planner. He isn't changing the world, he's trying to improve it.”

Best Animated Short Film: The Fire (United States) by Tony Forgey. “The Fire is a short animated film that follows the travels of three figures across a mysterious landscape. Three fires, each of unique hue, begin to dominate their surroundings as the figures face storms, creatures, and the somewhat odd machinations of unknown hands. Connections between the landscape, the fires, and the figures themselves are illuminated as a subterranean doorway is found. Reaching the destination only breathes new questions, and three journeys may actually be one.”

Best Underground Film: Blood Shaped Hole in my Heart (United States) by Kevin Endres. “A forlorn woman searches for truth in her mother's eclectic sayings, blurring the line between memories and home movies as she reflects.

Best Experimental Film: City Crush (Australia) by Mia Forrest. “A lavish thug poaches an exotic young trophy-boy and smuggles him into City Crush. When our would be ivory concubine escapes during his own sale he must navigate the desolation, boredom, and deviant lust of the locals. City Crush is a visually rich film that experiments with the conventions of slow cinema - an opportunity for the audience to enjoy a slower paced film.”

Best Music Video: The House (Indonesia) by Bona Palma.

Best Hong Kong Film: The Eighth by Wong Lok Yi Kanas, Bow Yin Kwan Jonathan. “Overwhelmed by subjective opinons in today's Hong Kong society, various moral standards have been weaponized for trampling on the minority group. A middle-aged 'dokuo',Tak, is a computer technician working in a secondary school. Repeatedly lured by his colleague, he at last visited a prostitute in a hotel for his first time. Though, he found that the prostitute came was his niece, Yee. Puzzled and shocked, Tak traded with her unconsciously. The matter came to light afterward. The mainstream tends to take women' side and convince that it is Tak's fault. In a city full of moral standards and rules, where can Tak stand with it?”

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