"Emperor Visits the Hell" wins the VIFF Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema

Vancouver, BC (October 4, 2012) - The Vancouver International Film Festival is pleased to announce that EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL (Tang Huang You Difu) by Ll Luo of China has won the 19th annual Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema and a cash prize of $5,000. The winner was announced prior to the Dragons & Tigers Award Gala screening of LOU Ye's MYSTERY at the Granville 7 today. Donor Brad Birarda has generously sponsored the award.

This year's Dragons and Tigers jury was: Filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues, whose films include To Die Like a Man (2009) and screening this year at VIFF, The Last Time I Saw Macao; filmmaker Makato SHINOZAKI, a former Dragons and Tigers finalist whose recent films include Die! Directors, Die! and Since Then; and Chuck Stephens, writer, teacher, columnist and contributing editor to Film Comment.

The Jury had this to say about the winner:

The jury is pleased to award top honours this year to the unusually titled and very amusing EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL (TANG HUANG YOU DIFU) directed by LI Luo from China. We were especially impressed with director Li's ability to bring to his modern-day retelling of a portion of the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West both a very mordant sense of humour and an audacious integration of multiple levels of storytelling and filmmaking.

EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL will receive another screening on Saturday, October 6 at 4:00 pm at Pacific Cinémathèque.

The Dragons & Tigers Award goes to a new director from the Asia-Pacific region for a creative and innovative film, made early in the director's career, which has not yet won significant international recognition. From an impressive assortment of new feature films from across Pacific Asia, the jury would like to give Special Mentions to two very strong contenders:

First, to A FISH (MULGOGI) directed by PARK Hongmin from South Korea. The film manages to convey a series of deep emotions in an extremely cinematic manner.

Second, to PECULIAR VACATION AND OTHER ILLNESSES (VAKANSI YANG JANGGAL DAN PENYAKIT LAINNYA) directed by Yosep Anggi NOEN from Indonesia. We particularly liked the film's striking use of non-linear narrative form.

This year's eight nominees were:

THE CHARM OF OTHERS (NINOMIYA Ryutaro) Japan International Premiere

EMPEROR VISITS THE HELL (LI Lou) China World Premiere

A FISH (PARK Hongmin) South Korea North America Premiere

MEMORIES LOOK AT ME (SONG Fang) China North American Premiere

A MERE LIFE (PARK Sanghun) South Korea International Premiere

MOKSHA: THE WORLD OR I, HOW DOES THAT WORK? (KOO SungZoo) South Korea World Premiere

PECULIAR VACATION AND OTHER ILLNESSES (Yosep Anggi NOEN) Indonesia North American Premiere

RIKO (YUMIBA Aya) Japan International Premiere

The Vancouver International Film Festival gratefully acknowledges the generous support of our major partners Rogers Communications, Fidelity Investments Canada, and Telefilm Canada. VIFF also extends its thanks and appreciation to the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Community, Sport, and Cultural Development's Community Gaming Grants program, as well as the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage's Building Communities through Arts & Heritage program.

Previous releases from VIFF 2012

Media contacts at VIFF Sutton Place Hotel office: 604-558-3229, media@viff.org.

Andrew Poon, publicist for Dragons and Tigers, 604.318.1882 cell, 604.558.3226 desk, vanfilmbuff@novuscom.net email.

Ellie O'Day, Media Director, 604.558.3225, ellie@viff.org.