Singapore's 'A Land Imagined' Wins Golden Leopard At Locarno Film Festival

Singaporean filmmaker Yeo Siew Hua’s A Land Imagined has been awarded the Golden Leopard at this year’s Locarno Film Festival (August 1-11).

The win marks the first time that a film from Singapore has taken Locarno’s top prize, which has previously gone to films such as Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, Hong Sang-soo’s Right Now, Wrong Then and Terence Davies’ Distant Voices, Still Lives.

Set in industrial Singapore, A Land Imagined follows a police investigator searching for a missing migrant worker, who has been injured and is afraid of repatriation.

Starring Peter Yu and Liu Xiaoyi in the main roles, the film was produced by Singapore’s Akanga Film Asia and mm2 Entertainment with France’s Films de Force Majeure and the Netherlands’ Volya Films. US-based Visit Films has international rights.

The film also picked up the first prize of Locarno’s Junior Jury Awards, plus a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury for "sensitising the viewer to religious, people-related, and social values".

Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke headed the jury of Locarno’s international competition, which also included French writer-director Emmanuel Carrère, US director Sean Baker, Italian director Tizza Covi and Italian actress Isabella Ragonese.

In other Locarno sections, Chinese filmmaker Lin Zi won best film in the Signs Of Life competition for The Fragile House. The jury described the film as "an unnerving portrait of one family’s estrangement and avarice within China’s burgeoning upper-middle class".

Next year’s Locarno film festival will be held August 7-17, 2019.

LOCARNO 2018 FULL LIST OF AWARDS:

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION:

Golden Leopard: A Land Imagined, dir: Yeo Siew Hua (Singapore, France, Netherlands)

Special Jury Prize: M, dir: Yolande Zauberman (France)

Best Direction: Tarde Para Morir Joven, dir: Dominga Sotomayor (Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands, Qatar)

Best Actress: Andra Guți, Alice T, dir: Radu Muntean (Romania, France, Sweden)

Best Actor: Ki Joobong, Hotel By The River, dir: Hong Sangsoo (South Korea)

Special Mention: Ray & Liz, dir: Richard Billingham (UK)

FILMMAKERS OF THE PRESENT:

Best Film: Chaos, dir: Sara Fattahi (Austria, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar)

Best Emerging Director: Dead Horse Nebula, dir: Tarık Aktaş (Turkey)

Special Jury Prize: Closing Time, dir: Nicole Vögele (Switzerland, Germany)

Special Mentions:
Fausto, dir: Andrea Bussmann (Mexico, Canada)
L'Époque, dir: Matthieu Bareyre (France)

SIGNS OF LIFE:

Best Film: The Fragile House, dir: Lin Zi (China)

Fundación Casa Wabi Mantarraya Award: Le Discours D’acceptation Glorieux De Nicolas Chauvin, dir: Benjamin Crotty (France)

Best First Feature: Alles Ist Gut, dir: Eva Trobisch (Germany)

Swatch Art Peace Hotel Award: Acid Forest, dir: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė (Lithuania)

Special Mention: Erased, Ascent Of The Invisible, dir: Ghassan Halwani (Lebanon)

LEOPARDS OF TOMORROW (INTERNATIONAL):

Best International Short Film: D’un Château L’autre, dir: Emmanuel Marre (Belgium, France)

Pardino d’argento: Heart Of Hunger, dir: Bernardo Zanotta (Netherlands)

Best Direction: Pianifica El Laberinto, dir: Laura Huertas Millán (France, Columbia, US)

Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award: Je Sors Acheter Des Cigarettes, dir: Osman Cerfon (France)

Special Mention: La Máxima Longitud De Un Puente, dir: Simón Vélez (Columbia, Argentina)

LEOPARDS OF TOMORROW (SWITZERLAND):

Best Swiss Short Film: Los Que Desean, dir: Elena López Riera (Switzerland, Spain)

Pardino d’argento: Abigaïl, dir: Magdalena Froger (Switzerland)

Best Swiss Newcomer Award: Ici Le Chemin Des Ânes, dir: Lou Rambert Preiss (Switzerland)

AUDIENCE AWARD: Blackkklansman, dir: Spike Lee (US)