Earlier this evening, the 35th Annual Hawaii International Film Festival announced the NETPAC award winner, THE KIDS (Taiwan 2015), by Sunny Yu in her directorial debut. The NETPAC award is presented annually at international film festivals in Berlin, Cannes, Venice, Rotterdam, Pusan, Singapore, Taiwan, Yamagata, Amiens and Hawaii. HIFF is the only film festival in North America to present the NETPAC award.
This year, the NETPAC award was presented by NETPAC Jurors: Wong Tuck Cheong (Film Historian, Scholar, NETPAC Founding Member), Zakir H. Raju (Professor/Dean, School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Independent University, Bangladesh), and Misa Tupou (Co-founder, Aotearoa New Zealand Film Festival in Honolulu, Acting instructor, Kapiolani Community College).
NETPAC jurors describe the film as, "[a] simple, understated but compelling narration of a young couple's struggle for survival and to keep their early marriage intact”
The HIFF Audience Awards for Favorite Narrative Feature, Documentary and Short Film, presented by Hawaii News Now, will be announced on Tuesday, November 24 on the HIFF website at www.hiff.org.