Ana Urushadze's Scary Mother, Mariam Khatchvani's Dede win top honours at Beijing film festival

The 8th Beijing International Film Festival came to a close on Sunday at the Yanqi Lake International Convention and Exhibition Center with Georgian-Estonian drama Scary Mother taking home the top honours. According to the Hollywood Reporter, 15 films — including 13 films from overseas — were shortlisted from a total of more than 650 submissions for the Tiantan Awards. [caption id=“attachment_4444363” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A still from Scary Mother[/caption] Georgian Ana Urushadze’s feature film Scary Mother follows a 50-year-old housewife called Manana, who finally pursues her dream of writing after having previously given up on it to run her household. The film perfectly captures the dilemma of so many women who are forced to choose between family and work. Nato Murvanidze, who plays the protagonise, won Best Actress for her performance. Fellow Georgian filmmaker Mariam Khatchvani was adjudged the Best Director for her film, Dede. When a young woman is forced to make a similarly difficult choice between an arranged marriage and true love, she rebels against and breaks free from an entrenched tradition. Konstantin Esadze won the award for best cinematography for the film. One of the highlights of the 8th Tiantan Awards was how “women power’ and ‘films by women’ became key phrases throughout the festival. The chairman of the award jury was the acclaimed Hong Kong director, Wong Kar-wai, who’s made such beautifully moving films like In The Mood For Love and Chungking Express. Other jurists included Chinese actor Yihong Duan and Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2017 for The Square. “Five of the 15 films this year are all about women’s power and directed by women,” Kar-wai said at the awards ceremony before adding, “We want more people to pay attention to women’s rights and interests, and we also want more female filmmakers to use film to write stories about women.” British actor Joe Cole won Best Actor for his performance in the Canadian drama Eye on Juliet.