Inspired by the European Shooting Stars program, the inaugural Asian Brilliant Stars event launched February 12 in Germany’s capital as a collaboration with the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). During the ceremony, three prominent Chinese filmmakers received awards for their recent accomplishments. Xu Haofeng (徐浩峰) won the Best Director Award for The Final Master (师父), Jerry Ye (叶宁) won the Best Producer Award for The Wasted Times (罗曼蒂克消亡史), and Liu Zhenyun (刘震云) won Best Screenwriter for Someone to Talk To (一句顶一万句).
Organized by Asian Film and Television Promotion (AFTP), Beijing Film Academy, and the Actor Committee of the China Radio and Television Association (CRTA), the Asian Brilliant Stars program aims to boost international exposure for both emerging and established filmmakers from Asia.
“It’s a great honor to be a strategic partner of the Berlinale and to host the first Asian Brilliant Stars awards ceremony during this year’s Berlinale. The quick development of Asian economies has brought increasing opportunities for Asian films, and the European market has shown a growing interest in Asian Film markets,” said Richard Shen, Secretary-General of the AFTP, during the ceremony.
The filmmakers honored this year are all relative veterans of China’s creative industries.
Xu Haofeng is a specialist in the wuxia martial arts genre who, among other accomplishments, wrote Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster.
With blockbusters like The Taking of Tiger Mountain and Go Away Mister Tumor under his belt, Jerry Ye is CEO of Huayi Brothers, one of China’s largest film companies.
Liu Zhenyun is a popular novelist. His novels Cellphone and I am not Madame Bovary were adapted into critically acclaimed films of the same names; both starred Fan Bingbing (one of China’s most famous actresses) and were directed by the renowned Feng Xiaogang.
Though this year’s Asian Brilliant Stars has a Chinese focus, the program aspires for broader coverage in the future. AFTP Secretary-General Shen expects that Asian Brilliant Stars will expand its collaborations to other countries like Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, bringing a more diverse range of filmmakers to events and promotions in the coming years.