Taipei - The film Disgrace by Australian director Steve
Jacobs on Friday won the grand prize in the New Talent Competition at
the Taipei Film Festival.
The jury awarded the grand prize, worth 600,000 Taiwan dollars
(18,000 US dollars), to Disgrace for its 'its profound insight in
contemporary political conflicts as well as in the resulting
conflicts of the human soul,' the organizing committee said.
'We look forward to seeing more films of excellence by him
[Jacobs] in the near future,' the jury said.
Disgrace is adapted from the 1999 Booker Prize-winning novel of
the same name by the South African-born author JM Coetzee. It tells
the story of a South African professor, played by John Malkovich, who
loses everything because of a relationship with a student in
post-apartheid South Africa.
He is thrown into turmoil again after moving to his daughter's
farm when the farm is attacked and he and his daughter attacked.
The Maid by Sebastian Silva (Chile), The Dark Harbour by Takatsugu
Naito (Japan) and Breathless by Yang Ik-june (South Korea) won
special mention awards.
The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around The Corner by Stephan
Komandarev (Bulgaria) won the Audience Choice Award.
The Taipei Film Festival has two competitions, one for new talent,
which is open to unscreened foreign films, and one for Taiwan films.
The film festival is to close July 12 when awards for the Taiwan
films are issued.
A total of 141 films were being shown at the festival.
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