31 Jan – The winning short films of the 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam were announced during the awards ceremony for short films on Monday, 28 January. Among them was "As I Lay Dying" by Ho Yuhang from Malaysia. According to the official press release, "As I Lay Dying" was selected for 'its picture perfect framings, its smooth and sure-handed embrace'. Winners of the Tiger Award receive 3,000 Euros each. Ho's last feature film "Rain Dogs", which premiered at the Orizzonti in Venice, is also on the jury of a new award in the festival – The Dioraphte Award – a 10,000 Euro award for which all of the 22 Hubert Bals Fund supported films within the festival selection are eligible. Currently, Ho is preparing to shoot his next film called "At The End Of Daybreak", which is a co-production between Malaysia, South Korea and Hong Kong, and is loosely inspired on real events of the murder of teenagers in Taiwan.
In related news, the Liew Seng Tat/Dahuang Pictures' CineMart 2008 Project "In What City Does It Live?" was awarded the eighth Prince Claus Fund Film Grant during the CineMart 2008 Closing Night Party last Wednesday. The grant, worth 15,000 Euros, focuses on supporting the first creative stage of a film's production development. The official press release states that the multinational jury of film-makers, directors and producers described the film's style as "modern, subtle and engaged". They were "particularly impressed by the story's visual power and sense of contemporary involvement". Liew's debut project "Flower In The Pocket" is also selected in the VPRO Tiger Awards Competition 2008 and had won the New Current Award and the KNN Award (Audience Award) at the Pusan International Film Festival in South Korea last year.