Vincitori – I premi
The curtain fell on the 22nd edition of the Asian Film Festival directed by Antonio Termenini, which took place at the Farnese cinema in Rome from 8 to 16 April 2025. The winners were announced by the jury composed of Giulio Base, Gianluca Arnone and Luca Bove.
The Best Film Award went to the Vietnamese film Cu Li Never Cries by Pham Ngoc Lân, already winner of the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale 2025. “An intimate portrait of a woman grappling with the past. Shot in a black and white that seems to filter time, Cu Li Never Cries is a film that remains. It remains in the gaze of the actress, extraordinary in her silent presence; it remains in the suspended atmosphere, poised between the decadent and the nostalgic, the absurd and the tender. It is a work that does not seek effects, but works by subtraction, allowing sadness to surface with grace, almost with modesty. And precisely for this reason, perhaps, it is memorable: because it touches us where we are most fragile, without ever forcing, as only true cinema knows how to do’.
BEST FILM
CU LI NEVER CRIES (Pham Ngoc Lân, Vietnam, 2024)
The Best Director Award went to the Chinese film The Unseen Sisters by Midi Z, which tells of the destabilising arrival of a sister in the life of an actress. “An authorial, rigorous and self-conscious thriller that delves into the heart of cinema itself. With ‘The Unseen Sister’, Midi Z signs a solid work, constructed with skill and measure, where the play of cinema within cinema is never complacent but functional to the story. Every directorial choice – from the tight rhythm to the composition of the shots – reveals a full control of the medium, a clear vision, a sure hand. It is a film that moves between reality and fiction with intelligence and tension, restoring to the genre a rarefied nobility, of great auteur craftsmanship”.
BEST DIRECTOR
THE UNSEEN SISTER (Midi Z, China, 2024)
The Best Actress Award went to Laura Basuki , star of the Indonesian film Yohanna by Robby Ertanto , the story of a nun who discovers child exploitation during a humanitarian mission. The award “for bringing to life a character of profound intensity and humanity, traversed by a moral conflict that is reflected in every gesture, glance and silence. With measure and participation, Laura Basuki plays a woman torn between faith and reality, making “Yohanna” a touching and universal drama”.
BEST ACTRESS
Laura Basuki (YOHANNA Dir. Robby Ertanto, Indonesia, Italy, United Kingdom, 2024)
The Best Actor Prize was awarded ex aequo to Yu-Ning Tsao and Hsiu-Fi Liu, protagonists of the film Pierce by Singaporean director Nelicia Low, the story of two brothers bound by secrets and a passion for fencing. For having embodied with extraordinary precision the subtle dance between deception and truth, guilt and desire, building a fraternal relationship made up of masks, silences and underground tensions. Liu gives the young Zijie a vulnerable gentleness that wrestles with doubt and loyalty, while Tsao embodies Zihan as an enigma whose inscrutable face conceals chasms of moral ambiguity. Together, they make Pierce a thriller of the soul, where every gesture is an emotional blow.
BEST ACTOR
Yu-Ning Tsao and Hsiu-Fi Liu (PIERCE Dir. Nelicia Low, Taiwan, Singapore, Poland, 2024)
The Prize for the Most Original Film was awarded ex aequo to the Indonesian film Tale of the Land by Loeloe Hendra Komara and the Myanmar film Ma-Cry of Silence by The Maw Naing
“Tale of the Land” is the story of a young indigenous woman bound to the land of her ancestors. A film of great visual impact. A visionary world between land and water, shown in a poetic and evocative style, scattered with fascinating cinematographic metaphors to discover the traditions of the Indonesian people. A family tragedy becomes universal to narrate a collective drama between the magic of the oneiric and the drama of reality, between myth and history”.
“Ma-Cry of Silence” shows the silent resistance of women factory workers in Myanmar. With courage and vigour, a true, all-female story of social claim and redemption comes to life on the big screen. In an asphyxiating microcosm of exploitation and violence, a few women rebel against the arrogance of capitalism, making themselves the protagonists of their own lives, in a silent and deafening drama. The director The Maw Naing finds the right distance from the narrative material, managing to construct a touching and reflective filmic text, successfully alternating the traditions and innovations of the language of film”.
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MOST ORIGINAL FILM
Ex Aequo
TALE OF THE LAND (Loeloe Hendra Komara, Indonesia, 2024)
MA-CRY OF SILENCE (The Maw Naing, Myanmar, 2024)
Once again this year, the Asian Film Festival saw the active participation of university juries, which awarded special prizes to the films selected for the Newcomers section and for the first time this year for the Short Films section. The prizes were awarded by two important Roman academic institutions: theUniversity of International Studies of Rome (UNINT) and the Rome University of Fine Arts (RUFA), through the direct involvement of the students, who evaluated the works with passion, competence and a critical eye.
The RUFA jury awarded the Best Short Film Prize to Playground by Yaxing Lin.
An intimate dialogue between a daughter and her young mother, mirroring two generations meeting at the age of 25. The award goes to “for the delicacy with which it recounts the transition from childhood to adulthood. The short film alternates realistic and fairy-tale tones, highlighting the absence of a reference figure and the fragility of childhood. The direction effectively contrasts the innocent gaze of the protagonist with the harshness of the real world, offering an intense and poetic reflection on growing up”.
BEST SHORT FILM
Prize awarded by the Rufa jury
PLAYGROUND (Yaxing Lin, South Korea, 2023)
NEWCOMERS
Prize awarded by the Unint jury
The UNINT jury awarded Chun Sun-young ‘s A Girl with Closed Eyes as Best Film in the Newcomers section. Psychological thriller, which sees detective Min Ju grappling with a murder involving a childhood friend. The award goes to for its effective combination of narrative intensity and visual care. The film sensitively tackles themes such as female solidarity, abuse and psychological trauma, building believable and profound characters. The direction enhances the atmosphere of the story through careful use of lighting and set design. The surprising ending reinforces the film’s message and enriches its structure”. A touching and well realised work, which fully convinced the jury.
A GIRL WITH CLOSED EYES (Chun Sun-young, Corea del Sud, 2024)
The award ceremony was attended by the representative of the Embassy of Indonesia and the Ambassador of Vietnam to Italyand the representative of the Korean Cultural Institute in Rome. The award winners brought their greetings and expressed their personal thanks to the festival via video.
The 22nd edition of the Asian Film Festival was realised with the contribution of: Direzione Generale Cinema-MiC, Lazio Region, Embassy of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Embassy of Thailand, Tourism Authority of Thailand, Embassy of Indonesia, Korean Cultural Institute in Italy. The Asian Film Festival is an initiative in collaboration with: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Elephant Pictures, UNINT University of International Studies in Rome, Cinema Farnese Arthouse, Ho Chi Mnh City International Film Festival, Oltre lo specchio Film Festival, Associazione Italia Asean, Associazione Italia-Filippine, Fabio Truffa, Danang Asian Film Festival, THACCA, RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts, Singapore International Film Festival, QCinema.The event enjoys the patronage of Roma Capitale. Japan Day enjoys the patronage of the Japanese Institute of Culture.
Storyfinders press office – Lionella Bianca Fiorillo – 340.7364203 press.agency@storyfinders.it
See you next year.