Norwegian film wins 4 Tiantan awards

The 15th Beijing International Film Festival concluded on Saturday with a star-studded closing ceremony that unveiled the winners of the Tiantan Award, the festival's top honor.

Norwegian marital drama Loveable, filmmaker Lilja Ingolfsdottir's debut feature, emerged as the biggest winner, sweeping four awards for best feature film, best director, best actress and best screenplay. The film tells the story of a 40-year-old woman striving to rebuild her life as her marriage collapses.

Actress Helga Guren accepted the trophies for herself and on behalf of Ingolfsdottir, who did not attend the ceremony.

Guren said she received the draft script from Ingolfsdottir seven years ago, and they had many discussions since then to ensure the film delved deeper into the human experience. She added that she is glad that Ingolfsdottir, who once had to set the project aside due to other work commitments, finally had her talents recognized.

The award for best actor was shared by Pierre Bastin and Benjamin Lambillotte for their roles as police officers in the Belgian film Vitrival — The Most Beautiful Village in the World. The film narrates the efforts made by two police officers to ease villagers' fears after a series of suicides.

Chinese actors Hai Yitian and Geng Le shared the award for the best supporting actor for their respective negative roles in Better Me, Better You and Trapped.

"I entered the film industry when I was 9 years old, and my first role was that of a bad boy. And now, more than 40 years later, I win this prestigious honor by playing another bad guy," Hai said, while expressing his gratitude to the key creators of Better Me, Better You, a poignant story about a lonely elderly woman and her caretaker.

Geng, who plays a ruthless bandit in the crime saga Trapped, noted the project marks the directorial debut of Zhang Qi, who gave him the freedom to fully explore and shape his character.

Argentine director Ivan Fund's film The Message picked up three awards for best supporting actress, best artistic contribution and best cinematography.

Veteran actress Tian Hua received the Lifetime Achievement award for her decades-long devotion to cinema. Tian's best-known films include The White-Haired Girl (1951) and The Daughter of the Party (1958).

"All my life, I've stayed true to my roots, serving the people through my art. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that at 97, I'd receive such a great honor. I want to live up to the trust and love of the people. As long as my audience will have me, I'll keep giving my all — for them and for Chinese cinema," Tian said.

This year's Tiantan Award competition received a total of 1,794 feature-length film entries from 103 countries and regions, with nearly 90 percent of them being foreign titles.