Taiwan sweeps top honours at Fribourg Film Festival

Nianzhen Wu, left, and Jonathan Chang appear in a scene from the film "Yi Yi," directed by Edward Yang which won the top prize at Fribourg Keystone Archive

Taiwanese films have swept the board at the Fribourg International Film Festival, scooping the top three prizes.

The awards were announced at a ceremony on Sunday which brought the eight-day festival to an end.

The festival’s top prize was awarded to the film “Yi Yi” (One, Two), directed by Edward Yang. The international jury, presided over by the Brazilian Silvia Oroz, gave the 54-year-old Yang the award for showing how a middle-class family from Taipei dealt with “passion, memories and disillusion.”

Best screenplay went to the young Taiwanese Vivian Chang for “Hidden Whisper”, which follows the life of a woman from infancy to old age.

The human rights award was given to a film about vagabonds and street people in Taipei in recognition of its “audacity, poetry and sensitivity.”

China’s Jia Zhang-ke won two awards for his film “Zhan Tai” (The Platform), from the International Federation of Film Critics and the International Federation of Film Societies.

Only Pedro Perez Rosado’s Spanish-Mexican film “Las cenizas del volcan” (The ashes of the volcano) managed to break the Asian trophy stronghold, taking the prize awarded annually by the political press.

Around 22,000 people attended screenings at the festival, which is now in its 15th year.

swissinfo with agencies