Chinese films won major awards at the 11th Abuja Int'l Film Festival

Chinese Zodiac was awarded Best Feature Film (Foreign), Audience Choice, and Golden Jury, and nominated for Outstanding Music. [phtoto/mtime.com]

The 11th Abuja International Film Festival ended in Nigeria on Sept 26, with films from more than 10 countries participating in its competition section. Chinese films were also listed in the nominees.

The categories open to foreign films include Best Feature Film (Foreign), Best Short Film (Foreign), Best Documentary, Best Directing, Outstanding Male Actor, Outstanding Female Actress, and Outstanding Music. After the examination and discussion of the jury panel, Chinese Zodiac, The Grandmaster and Walking to School were nominated for Best Feature Film (Foreign), Jackie Chan (Chinese Zodiac) was nominated for Outstanding Male Actor and Best Directing, Kar Wai Wong(The Grandmaster) and Jiahuang Peng & Chen Peng (Walking to School) were nominated for Best Directing, and Chinese Zodiac was nominated for Outstanding Music.

After a fierce competition, Chinese Zodiac was awarded Best Feature Film (Foreign), Audience Choice, and Golden Jury, and Jackie Chan was awarded Best Directing. China was the most awarded country among all the foreign participants, while Egypt won one award. Nigeria made a clean sweep of the remaining awards.

The Abuja International Film Festival is a renowned Nigerian festival. In addition to film exhibition and appraisal, seminars and business negotiations were also included this year.

The Nigerian film industry, boasting its low cost, large-scale production and domestic popularity, is labeled “Nollywood”, enjoying equal fame with India’s Bollywood. The film industry, as a major part of culture industry, is vigorously supported by Nigerian government.