‘Linka Linka’, ‘Rose’ Take Top Prizes At Hong Kong International Film Festival

Kangdrun’s Linka Linka was awarded Best Film in the Firebird Awards’ Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), while Markus Schleinzer’s Rose won Best Film in the Young Cinema Competition (World) category.

Linka Linka, which was also awarded the FIPRESCI Prize, follows a filmmaker who returns to her hometown of Lhasa to make a movie about her childhood. The film received its world premiere in the Asian Future competition of last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival. The HKIFF jury commended it for “adeptly portraying the freedom and confusion inherent in the journey of youth”.

Kangdrun, who is making her feature debut with the film, is one of a rising wave of young Tibetan filmmakers, with her previous short films often portraying Lhasa’s younger generation.

Also in the Chinese Language competition, Singapore’s Tan Si You was awarded Best Director for Amoeba, while Yu An-Shun won Best Actor for Taiwanese boxing drama A Dance With Rainbows, and Ong Xuan Jing took Best Actress for Singaporean coming-of-age drama Ah Girl.

Rose, which premiered in Berlin where it won Best Actress for Sandra Huller, was described by the HKIFF jury as “this eerily, brutally beautiful film” that “burns into our memory forever”.

Also in the Young Cinema Competition (World), Lithuanian filmmaker Andrius Blaževičius was awarded Best Director award for How To Divorce During The War, while Best Actor went to Edik Beddoes for Canada-Hungary co-production Blue Heron and Best Actress to Sabine Thalau for German drama I Understand Your Displeasure.

The jury for the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese Language) included Hong Kong filmmaker Philip Yung, Chinese director and actor Liang Ming and Hong Kong theatre director and writer Edward Lam. The Young Cinema Competition (World) jury included Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi (Silent Friend), Indonesian filmmaker Edwin (Sleep No More) and Film Fest Gent programme director Wim De Witte.

In the Documentary Competition, the jury awarded the Firebird Award to Past Future Continuous, co-directed by Iranian filmmakers Morteza Ahmadvand and Firouzeh Khosrovani, commending the directors for their “heartfelt portrayal of the longing of exiled souls and minds who are forbidden from returning to their homeland”.

The Ground Beneath Our Feet, a co-production between Iceland and Poland, directed by Yrsa Roca Fannberg, took the Jury Prize for “affirming that every human being has the right to spend their final days in dignity”.

The Firebird Award in the Short Film Competition went to French director Jocelyn Charles’ animation God Is Shy, while the Jury Prize went to Robert And June (And All The Time In The World), directed by US filmmaker Jem Cohen.

The 12-day HKIFF wrapped on April 12 with a screening of Philip Yung’s Cyclone, a film that explores transgender identity and social marginalisation through the journey of a woman seeking belonging and her true self. The film is the fifth and final title to emerge from the B2B A Love Supreme collaboration between HKIFF and Heaven Pictures, which also included Tan Chui Mui's Barbarian Invasion and Yuya Ishii's All The Things We Never Said.

The festival announced that its next edition is provisionally scheduled to run from March 24 to April 5, 2027, spanning 13 days.