The 26th ifva Awards
Youth Category Jury Meeting Transcript
Jury Members ： Chiu Sin-hang @ToNick (Chiu), Cheuk Cheung (Cheuk), Adam Wong
(Wong), Wong Yuk-ying (Sonia), Lo Chun-yip (Lo)Organizer representative： Kattie Fan (Fan), Samantha Szeto (Szeto), Wong Ming Lok (Lok)Fan:Today, our goal is to select a Gold, Silver award winners and 3 Special Mentions
among the 10 finalist works. The Gold and Silver award winners will receive
HK$20,000 and HK$10,000, respectively, while the Special Mention winners will
receive certificates. Because Youth Category entrants need more encouragement,
we give out 3 Special Mention Awards. We can first state your views and opinions
on the works one by one and then discuss the prizes. The first work is Memories of
School.

Wong:

What is the overall standard of the entries this year?

Lo:

It's actually quite embarrassing. The overall number of entries this year is quite low.
Of the 24 works, more than half are from institutions or the same creators. For
example, one of the directors is responsible for 4 works, another 4 or 5 are fromLee Shau Kee School of Creativity, Reunion is from a social enterprise creative
project, and a total of 5 or 6 works are from this project. The total number ofentrants is fewer than 24.

Wong:

Four or five works came from Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, and one of thedirectors is responsible for 3 works.

Lo:

That’s right. Another 4 works came from the director of The Toilet Exorcist 1 ,which follows in the stylistic footsteps of his previous work, but they are a bit outof control.

Wong:

He is not from Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity?

Lo:No, and the artistic standard is quite embarrassing.

Fan:

We had discussed whether or not to include 10 finalist works. I remember that inprevious years there had been only 7 finalist works. In the end we decided that it
was an achievement that they were able to produce works during this difficult time.

Wong:

I think the standard of these ten works is pretty good, except one of them, Days of
being Grounded left me with some questions. After watching it, I thought tomyself: is it over? The other works are quite average and solid. Let me first express
my views on the first work, Memories of School. I think the work is very cute and

1

The Toilet Exorcist is a work from 25th ifva entrant Choi Shing Ho.
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sincere. It tells the story of the students wanting to go back to school during the
pandemic. It is very pure and simple, and I enjoyed it.
Lo:

I remember during the first round, we expected that there will be many works
about the pandemic, but in fact there were not too many. This is the only film that
expressed the mood of the students when classes were suspended. This perspectiveis important. To be honest, this work is technically inadequate, but its subject
matter and perspective give it extra points.

Sonia:The director is a secondary school student. I think he tried his best to use different
means of expressions. For example, in one section, he uses Zoom to capture themood of online classes. The work uses some current techniques, which makes
people realize that the setting is contemporary. The filming techniques are usedvery well.

Wong:

Looking at the information provided, I learned that the director is a boy, which is a
bit of a surprise. The film takes a subjective point of view, but the director chose aperson of a different gender to be the protagonist.

Sonia:I was surprised too.

Cheuk:

I think the rhythm of the work can be more brisk, and it would be better if the film
ended sooner. Now he seems to explain things repeatedly and it becomes too
obvious.

Wong:

This has always been the case for secondary school students' works in the past.
They prefer to add explanations, and there has been little improvement in this area.

Wong:

Several works have similar problems. For example, there is one about the search
for love, and also In Pursuit of Love, which fails to convey the appropriate feeling.
This is very common in student works.

Lo:

As a digression, when we look through the IG (Instagram) stories of secondary
school students, we find videos that are appropriate to their age, they are lively andexciting, but when it comes to producing a complete film, it is like films that weused to make in secondary school. Things have not changed over the years. I don't
quite understand this, because the popularity of mobile phones has allowed them tomaster shooting technique and visual language, but once they shoot in the 16:9
format, problems appeared.

Fan:

Okay, the next work is Mr. Tse.

Lo:

I want to raise a procedural question. The credits show that Chan Wai-lung is the
director, but is he the entrant?

Lok:

Yes, a few other works have similar problems.

Sonia:

Because he is over 18 years old? Several other works have similar problems?
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Fan:

The entry criteria for Youth Category is that the age of the creator and its copyrightowner is less than 18 years old, and there is no restriction on the age of othermembers of the crew. Sometimes you see entrants trying to trick us, but according
to current rules, he does have the right to enter the work this way. At the public
screening, the booklet and even at the prize giving ceremony, we will only award
prizes to the entrant.

Cheuk:

But during the public screening, the audience will see the name of another director
in the ending credits.

Fan:This aspect is difficult to control, especially in the Youth Category, because thedivision of labor may not be as clear as in professional productions.

Wong:

Have you contacted these entrants to clarify the age issue?

Fan:

It is the responsibility of the applicant to clarify the issues involved, including
signing a declaration. For example, if there is a soundtrack in the work, entrants
need to deal with related copyright issues themselves. If the work is directed bymore than one person, we will only treat the entrant as the legal representative, thatis, the work is assumed to be directed by the entrant.

Chiu:

Will that affect our evaluation of the work?

Fan:

In previous years, there have been cases where the involvement of teachers is
obvious. As for whether this will affect your evaluation and perception of the work,
it is up to you to decide.

Wong:This situation is difficult to judge, because the ending credits states that there isanother director in addition to the entrant. Teachers may provide advice or
guidance for other works, but the teacher’s name will not appear in the credits. I
will accept such a situation. The case of this work is that the entrant admits that thework is co-directed with a friend who is over 18 years old, which is very strange. If
he does not specify this, I will accept it.

Lo:

According to your understanding, did Chan Wai-lung collaborate with a fellow
student or with his teacher?

Fan:

My colleague has made inquiries, and according to her, they are classmates.

Lo:So, perhaps this student is older by a few months.

Chiu:

Just a bit older?

Sonia:

I think that’s acceptable. Many teenagers make videos these days, and perhaps they
later found out about ifva, and they take a short film they have made to participate.
I think that’s okay. It doesn't show that he asked for outside help with thiscompetition.
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Chiu:

So, we should treat him as a youth who should be encouraged, and it may be that
he is just a little bit over the age limit. Is this how we should understand this?

Wong:

He didn't do anything against the rules. It is just strange that he stated this fact in
the credits. If he said it on his personal Facebook page, it’s okay. But we can’t ask
him to change the credits.

Lo:

As far as the work is concerned, I think it is very enjoyable and fun to watch.

Wong:

In terms of completeness, it is too open-ended, but the perspective and texture arevery good.

Lo:

I really like the fact that it is half documentary and half drama. I was one-third of
the way through the film, and I still wasn’t sure if it was documentary or drama.
The mix of the two is handled well. In the first few shots, the work uses very
dramatic lighting, and the idea was very good.

Sonia:

When I reached the middle of the film, I felt that the film records the daily life of asecurity guard, but his daily life full of tension and drama. I agree with Lo that thework is very good in this respect. There are a few scenes that makes use of TV andradio, etc., and the effect is very good. The scene in Reunion where the TV is
playing is also very good, but this one makes a statement, especially whensomeone calls on the phone, the dialogue is about not being able to keep a cat. That
scene is very suspenseful.

Cheuk:

This is the second time I watched it. I liked it better the first time, probably because
the second time when I watched it on the bigger screen, some places were slightly
too obvious. I have also met this security guard, and I can see that in some parts,
the director is asking him to do something and that he tries very hard, but someparts are flawed. I quite like scene with the key, it is handled very well, but I thinksome of the dialogue or facial expression is faulty, and it could be done better.

Chiu:

You said you had met this security guard, does that mean that he really is a security
guard?

Cheuk:

Yes, he is indeed a security guard.

Wong:

If you know about the environment of Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, you willfind the film very interesting, but to someone who does not know the school orsomeone from Taiwan, will they know that this is about a school? The director
simply tells others what the place in which he lives is like, but there is no obvious
theme.

Fan:

The next work is Days of being Grounded.

Chiu:

I want to add that I really like the scene in Mr. Tse in which he holds back hisanger.
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Sonia:Those sound recordings feel very powerful.

Chiu:

I really hope to see more of these works in the Youth Category, and the accusation
it raised is very powerful. Regarding Days of being Grounded, we discussed thiswork for a long time in the first round first round. I think the interesting thing
about this work is that it is short, which is important. In addition, the work has no
dialogue or setting, but uses editing, color, and sound effects from daily live tocreate a feeling of repetition. I think this experiment is successful, but it does notdeserve Gold or Silver awards.

Lo:This work is really short. I think the most impactful thing for me is that it can fully
express the subject matter of the epidemic in one minute, while Memories of
School expresses this subject matter with more conventional means.

Fan:

The next work is Birthday Wish.

Sonia:

I think Birthday Wish is very interesting. It has a clear structure, thoughtful design,and the story keeps you watching.

Wong:

The work is honest and simple. A girl changes the life of the protagonist, and thena top student like the one who has a crush on Ching Yi in Doraemon appears. Afterhe successfully captures the girl’s heart, the protagonist returns to his original wish
of world peace and health, which is very humorous.

Lo:

This work resonates strongly with a lot of people. When we were in secondary
school, many people had good friends of the same sex or the opposite sex who
suddenly drift apart. Many years later, we will still experience some emotions.
Watching this work reminds me of my past relationships with friends.

Sonia:

Some of the scenes show the character's loneliness and happiness, and capture
these emotions accurately. For example, in the scene where the character buys acake for himself, I can feel his loneliness.

Chiu:

The work expresses the young man's emotions candidly, and the sadness is also
very clear. I don't really feel that the work is about changing friendships as thesynopsis suggests, but it is a story of a boy who has a crush.

Wong:This “otaku” story is honest and sincere. The idea of making a wish for world
peace at the end is quite delicate.

Cheuk:The story is straightforward. The treatment at the beginning is conventional, but
the ending is different from other similar works.

Lo:

The premise may be similar to other works, but the ending is very unexpected andcreative.

Fan:

Okay, the next work is Judging.
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Wong:

The work is very passionate, and the director masters the use of camera very well,but I don't accept young people playing adult roles.

Cheuk:The effect will be very different if it is performed with age-appropriate actors.

Wong:

It could be a very powerful film if it had regular actors.

Sonia:

It's a pity, the idea is good, but the actors are not strong enough to convey theoverall emotions, which is a waste. Had there been many works that show social
concern in previous years?

Wong:

Among Youth Category works that I have seen, senior family members such as
grandparents are frequent subjects, and appear every year.

Cheuk:

They rarely make films about their parents?

Lo:

If the subject matter was parents, the filmmakers usually talk about being
misunderstood by them. If they make films about their grandparents, they areusually the main subjects.

Chiu:

I would not categorize this film as being caring about the elderly. It just touches on
this subject matter, and the elderly just serves as background to the story. The
creator is actually expressing his attitude towards the current situation. When I
watched it the second time, I felt that the actors' performance was not as awkward
as when I watched it the first time.

Wong:

The maturity of the work is extraordinary in terms of cinematography. The camera
work is very conscious, and the court scenes deliberately use black and white. The
dialogue is well-written.

Cheuk:The script and editing are excellent.

Fan:

The next work is In Pursuit of Love.

Chiu:

The casting of this work directly affects our perception. It captures the youthfulfeeling of love, which I like very much. Although it is puppy love, it also focuseson the protagonist’s doubts, which is very good.

Sonia:

It’s a little bit superficial, much of the content is not explored in depth, and thework is not complete enough.

Chiu:

I like this incompleteness, because these doubts about love have no answers andthe feelings are purely personal.

Wong:

I don't remember the content very much anymore. I only remember certain visuals.
For example, the public housing scene is very impactful, but the scenes and story

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afterwards seem unrelated. The dialogue between the boy and girl is vague andunclear.
Chiu:

I don't know if they use artificial lighting or is it really dusk? I'm talking about
Reunion, I like the lighting in that film. Did they wait around for dusk?

Lo:I have seen the film many times and still feel confused. I can't grasp the clues, andthe director’s handling is not clear enough. Is the girl typist the same as theprotagonist? Are they the same person? If not, it means there are three female
characters in the film, which give the film different dimensions. However, thedirector is not clear about these points.

Chiu:

It's a bit confusing, the clothing and hairstyle keeps changing, so it is hard to tell.

Sonia:

Yes, I was also wondering who the person wearing the flower headband is. I was a
bit confused.

Wong:

The shots are pretty good.

Fan:

The next work is Solution:love.

Wong:

Is Mei-ling a character from Candy Candy?

Sonia:

It’s the mother’s friend.

Lo:

Is the character’s name based on Candy Candy? In this film, the girlfriend of themother when she was young is named Mei-ling.

Chiu:

I really like a scene at the end, it is like a comics.

Wong:

There are no gay elements in Candy Candy, right?

Lo:

Not sure.

Sonia:

It's more like a girl's comic.

Wong:That’s the aesthetics, but the story is not strong.

Sonia:The story has some surprises. I didn't expect the daughter to find her mother’s
letter. It's amazing that they can come up with such a story at their age. However,
the acting falls a bit short.

Wong:

The story is well structured.

Cheuk:

Actually, the work has many flaws in terms of the actors, technique and even thesound effects. You need to read the subtitles to know what the characters aretalking about. In the first round, the jurors thought the story was special, although
the ending was a bit too direct.
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Chiu:

I remember that we discussed this work during the first round. Although the work
has flaws, it has its value. The work was shot by a student together with her mother,which is very meaningful and interesting. The ending credits thanks “the best mom
on earth”. I believe they had established a deep understanding and discussion
before shooting.

Sonia:

The film portrays the views of two generations towards sexual orientation, andsuccessfully compares the two.

Chiu:

Our generation often challenges the conservative ideas of the previous generation,
but in fact they lack understanding about the subject because the environment backthen did not allow people to be themselves. When I looked at this work again, I feltthat it lacked discussion in this area, as if being true to oneself is the only rightthing to do.

Sonia:

Indeed, the daughter constantly condemns the mother in the film.

Lo:

It is true in the dialogue, the younger generation keeps questioning and attacking
the older generation, but visually, you just see the mother quietly examining at her
history with Mei-ling, and the audience sympathizes with her. The shots are kind tothe mother and her point of view is represented.

Fan:

The next work is Reunion.

Lo:

On the screen, I can see a lot of flaws. Although the father's styling and the whitebalance effect attempt to create the atmosphere of a bygone era, the range hood andelectric plugs give it away. When the granny looks at the photograph, which is
obviously taken the week before, my suspension of disbelief was broken.

Wong:

I believe the director received assistance from teachers. For example, the filming of
the scenes in the classroom is smooth, and the production method is also
professional.

Chiu:

Both the subject matter and production do not seem to be by young people. The
attitude and reflection of the characters towards the old man in the story seem a bit
inauthentic.

Sonia:

Perhaps that’s because this work was part of a social enterprise fund project, but it
is not very satisfactory to us.

Chiu:

This is like something the filmmaker created to meet the requirements of a project,
not something that he originally wanted to do.

Sonia:The granddaughter is so good at making glutinous rice dumplings, and the actor
who plays the granny is good.

Fan:

The next work is Terrolice.
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Lo:

I like this work very much. The method of expression is very theatrical. The
disjointed sound and visuals help to establish the mood and conveys emotions
without the use of words. The design is also very clever, with children blindfolded
to play games, but when transformed into images, it becomes more than just agame.

Sonia:

I think the connection between the camera and the live performers is not strong.

Cheuk:

Like the “villain hitting” scene?

Sonia:

The act is “villain hitting”, but what does the filmmaker want to express? Anotherexample is the character suddenly crying when putting on make-up, which also
makes me wonder why.

Lo:

She was pepper-sprayed.

Cheuk:

And then she coughs.

Lo:

My understanding is that the director wants to use this object to suggest pepper
spray.

Sonia:The sounds, movements, and editing all contribute to an oppressive feeling.

Wong:

I saw a watch without a strap.

Lo:

Like a coin wrapped in tin foil.

Sonia:

I noticed her curlers, and the Granny’s clothes are also very beautiful.

Chiu:

The feeling of oppression is expressed, but many question marks remain. This is a
successful experiment, but can it be called a work? I'm not so sure.

Sonia:

If the filmmaker wants to achieve the same effect, should it do less?

Wong:

The filmmaker merely directly expresses anger with some impactful images, suchas knives, blindfolds, red books, etc. However, these images have not been further
developed, and the theme is not expressed through traditional dialectics. The threeworks of this entrant are all open-ended, but I wish that he will try to explore how
to make a greater impact. This work has a very basic feel, and the images will
strike a chord with some people, but it should be taken a step further.

Cheuk:In the director’s statement, he calls this a video artwork, which is different from theother two. Perhaps video artworks don’t have to be complete, and maybe
displaying the work in an art gallery on two screens will impart a different feeling.

Wong:

The design of each character can be used for a poster. The character design can bea photographic work, which can be read on a multitude of levels.
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Sonia:Just like looking at Manifesto in an Australian gallery, which was also a very
unique experience.

Chiu:

I enjoyed watching the movie very much, my mind was constantly engaged.

Wong:

It has an impact, and it is better to have an impact than no impact.

Fan:

The next work is -.079.-.

Sonia:

Making a science fiction film with no budget is commendable. The filmmaker tries
to make everything not too cheap and crude-looking.

Lo:

It is not easy to make the audience sympathize with the computer character,especially since this work is so short and has a limited budget.

Sonia:

Are people being put in the computer or what? The character setting is quite
interesting. I think the impact of the work is greater than what the filmmaker saidin the director’s statement.

Fan:

Are there any more comments?

Lo:

On the contrary, what is said in the director’s statement words of the creator is notreflected in the work. What I saw was the friendship between the prisoner andanother prisoner.

Cheuk:The execution of the concept is very mature. The editing, sound, and setting arealso very effective and made with limited resources. The computer character saysthat he has no emotion, but the character is well established and convincing.

Chiu:

This production is hard to handle. The background of the story and the design arethoughtful. The fact that it was made with limited funds was amazing to me thefirst time I saw it, especially considering the filmmakers are under 18 years old.
The film felt more abrupt the second time around when I watched it on the big
screen, I was still involved in the story, and even though many things could havegone wrong with the film, the filmmakers handled things well.

Sonia:

Especially considering the fact that when dealing with this kind of theme, it is easy
to be preachy.

Wong:

I think there is something wrong with the structure of the ending echoing the
beginning.

Cheuk:

It is indeed not necessary to have the last scene of blocking the door at the
beginning. In fact, at the end of the film, he could have chosen to end it at the
moment that the door is being blocked. Now it ends with the computer recording
this person’s death, which adds another layer of meaning.

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Fan:

Now we come to the second part, which is the award nomination.

Chiu:

I nominate Solution:love for Special Mention, -.079.- for Gold Award, and I don't
have any ideas for Silver Award.

Sonia:

Mr. Tse and -.079.- are both excellent. I would prefer that Mr. Tse wins Gold
Award.

Wong:-.079.-?

Hotaru:That's the science fiction movie. I feel that Days of being Grounded and Terrolice
are similar. I think Solution:love and Judging deserve Special Mention, but I would
pay attention to whether both Gold and Silver awards go to the same person.

Fan:
.
Lo:

It should depend on the quality of the works themselves
I lean towards Mr. Tse and -.079.- getting awards. Is it possible to award double
Gold or double Silver awards? I hope Judging or Birthday Wish will get Special
Mention. I like that Birthday Wish is low key.

Chiu:

What does double Gold and double Silver mean?

Lo:

If two works win the Gold award, there is no Silver award.

Fan:

Double Gold or double Silver is feasible, but I should hope that this arrangement isreally necessary.

Cheuk:The three works by Lee Nim-chung are relatively complete. I think he should get
the Gold award, but the award should recognize him rather than his works. Thisway, we can account for both -.079.- and another work.

Lo:

If we give two Gold awards, there will be no Silver?

Fan:Yes, if there are two Gold awards, the prize money will be shared by the twoworks. The Gold award prize is HK$20,000 while the Silver award prize isHK$10,000. If there are two Gold awards, each winner will receive $10,000, and if
we also give out a Silver award, the winner will also receive $10,000. This means
the Gold and Silver award winners will receive the same amount of prize money.

Cheuk:

If the same person wins Gold award for two works, he will receive a prize of$20,000.

Fan:

It should be based on individual works. If we give out two Gold, two Silver anddouble the number of Special Mention, then almost all finalists will get awards. If
two Gold awards are given, it means that we can’t decide on Gold and Silver award
winners. If we give out two Silver awards, this means we have decided to omit theGold award, signalling that none of the entries this year can reach the level of Goldaward.
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Wong:My choices are Lee Nim-chung’s three works, as well as Judging and Memories of
School. I don't feel strongly about any of the above works winning the Gold or
Silver award. Two Gold or two Silver is also difficult to determine, is it necessary
to give out two Gold or two Silver? However, Mr. Tse actually has two directors,
and he collaborated with another person in -.079.-, so the situation is very
complicated. He stated that there is another director who is over the age of 18,
which is difficult to deal with.

Fan:

There have been similar situations before, but as far as the regulations areconcerned, the entrant did not do anything against the rules. We study how toamend the regulations every year. If the entrant modifies the ending credits, but hiscrew members are already 25 or 26 years old, we still have no way of knowing or
prohibiting him from participating in the Youth Category. Of course, you can saythat they know how to circumvent the rules and take advantage of loopholes. For
the time being, we can only stipulate that the director or main creator is under theage of 18, and we hope that everyone will respect the rules of the competition.

Wong:

Yes, but the fact that he told us there is another director is too strange.

Cheuk:

Both directors can claim that they are Gold award winners in the future.

Fan:

The trophies and all our records will only have the name of the entrant. In this case,
it is Lee Nim-chung.

Wong:

Going back to the Lee Nim-chung issue. If a primary school student got help fromhis father, whose name doesn’t appear in the credits, I think it’s fine. But he statesin the credits that there is more than one director. Is that cheating?

Sonia:

Maybe he thought there was little chance of winning a prize, and he wanted to give
credit to someone who offered him help?

Wong:

But that person should not get director credit.

Lo:

The embarrassing thing is that the work is actually homework which wascompleted with a group of classmates, but some of the classmates were over 18
years old. When they learned about ifva, they must have considered whether theyshould participate in the Youth or Open category, but if they participated in theOpen category, they may have a lower chance of winning. I feel that the creative
team behind the work is people from the same generation.

Chiu:

Will you consider giving only one Silver award, but omitting Gold award?

Lo:

But should we use the distribution of awards to resolve the ambiguities in theregulations?

12Wong:The Hong Kong Film Awards are very strict. We were not allowed to register forthe best action director for The Way We Dance, because we only listed achoreographer but no action director in the ending credits.

Fan:

Of course, the ending credits seems irregular, but we should always judge
according to the quality of the work. I respect the decision of the jury members. I
just want to provide a clear guide. Based on the current competition regulations,
we accepted the work in the Youth category, but of course you can question
whether the work has received too much outside help and therefore should notreceive any awards.

Cheuk:

Originally, I wanted to nominate Lee Nim-chung for the Gold award. Now I
nominate -.079.- and Mr. Tse for the Gold award.

Fan:

To summarize briefly, Sonia selected Mr. Tse for the Gold award, while Cheukselected both -.079.- and Mr. Tse for the Gold award.

Wong:

I choose Mr. Tse for the Gold award.

Lo:

I also prefer Mr. Tse, although I am a bit hesitant to award Gold and Silver to thesame person.

Chiu:

I don’t think there should be double Gold awards. -.079.- has a strong commercial
flavor. If this film wins a Gold award, he may follow this path in the future. If Mr.
Tse wins Gold, he may feel that he should continue to shoot this kind of more
personal and more provocative subject matter. For Youth category works, I think
Mr. Tse should be encouraged.

Wong:

Works like Mr. Tse are quite rare, whereas -.079.- is not a big surprise to me. I did
not think much of the idea of using AI (artificial intelligence) to synthesize thevoice of reason. The use of English dialogue makes the whole thing more
acceptable.

Lo:

When I watched the film, I wondered if he was from an English school. The
English dialogue makes the film really easy to engage.

Fan:

Everyone agrees that Mr. Tse should get the Gold award. Now we can discuss theSilver award. According to our discussion, -.079.- has received more nominations.
Do you have any opinions?

Lo:

Are there any other nominations?

Sonia:

I have thought about Judging, but the production quality is too uneven.

Wong:

There are not many other choices for the Silver award. I would choose -.079.-. On
the other hand, there are more works worth discussing for Special Mention.
Because it is an award that aims to encourage, the reasons for winning the award

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can be broader. The quality of the work may not necessarily be very good, but thework has something worth encouraging.
Fan:

Does anyone object to -.079.- getting Silver award?

Lo:

I thought about whether to give out double Gold, but when comparing Mr. Tse and-.079.- there is an obvious difference in quality.

Cheuk:

I still have reservations about giving Gold and Silver awards to the same person.
The creative spirit of Mr. Tse is good, even though there are flaws, I think it isbetter to have two works win the same award rather than giving one Gold and one
Silver award. We should consider the significance of the same person winningGold and Silver, versus two works of his winning the same award.

Chiu:

I think the two works should share Silver awards, not Gold awards. Just now, wehave discussed a lot about the qualifications of the entrants, but in any case, I feelthat the two works don’t deserve to win Gold.

Sonia:

I agree.

Lo:

Are these two works really not good enough to win Gold? I have questions about
that.

Sonia:

Does giving two Gold or two Silver awards reflect our stance and attitude towards
his application process?

Lo:

The application procedure should not be taken into consideration, because theorganizer has accepted his application.

Cheuk:

I want to know why you have reservations about giving double Gold award.

Sonia:

I think the overall quality is different. Mr. Tse is better.

Wong:

I think the two works are obviously very different creatively. -.079.- is handled
well and the subject matter is unconventional. It has something to say about AI(artificial intelligence) having emotions. Bu overall there is not much that issurprising about the film. Mr. Tse is refreshing, and uses real environment as thesetting, mixing the real and the fictional and depicting the atmosphere of thepandemic at this time. There is also a storyline of cats interspersed within.
Although the subject matter is not clear, the episodic structure feels complete. The
texture is strong and the cinematography also has a good feel. The standard of Mr.
Tse is higher. Judging from Youth category entries in the past five or six years, thishalf-documentary and half-narrative work is of very high-quality, and there are no
documentaries on this year's finalist works. This format is worth encouraging.
There is indeed a difference in quality between the two.

Lo:

I think the organic feeling is not easy to create. He has mastered a certain amountof film techniques, but still manages to create this organic feeling. He did not
14

deliberately create precise a work, and the inaccuracies in the works impart a
special charm. The real and unreal spaces are used well, which also reflects his
skill. If he wins two Gold awards, will it show that the standards of the two works
are the same? I think we should let him know that the two works are different inquality. This is important.
Wong:

I would like to know whether Cheuk feels that Mr. Tse has any shortcomings.

Cheuk:

My considerations are more complicated. I'm just thinking about how to distributethe awards among the two works.

Wong:

You are a documentary film director. Are you particularly sensitive to the halfdocumentary and half-narrative mixed format in Mr. Tse?

Cheuk:The parts that I find the most distinctive are the dream-like scenes. The scene withmany plants makes me think that the blurring of fiction and documentary is good.
But there is a series of shots that I don’t think is necessary. When the students talkto Mr. Tse through the gate, the shots are taken from inside and outside the gate
and the scene cuts back and forth between the two. I think this affects the
documentary feel of the film. It affects his sense of observation and the ambiguity
between the real and the fictional, which is a flaw. The director wants Mr. Tse toperform for the camera, which makes it flawed. Even so, the overall creativity ishigher than that of -.079.-.

Wong:

What do you think of the dying cockroach? I feel it is very strong, but perhaps it is
too much.

Cheuk:

The film may not need that ending. Perhaps I don’t get what he is trying to say.

Fan:So, we stick to Mr. Tse for Gold award and -.079.- for Silver?

Chiu:

If Mr. Tse wins Gold, I don't want -.079.- to win Silver award.

Wong:

In the past few editions, there have been several occasions where we had two
Silver awards and omitted Gold, because all ten works made us feel indifferent and
we didn’t have any strong feelings toward them, but Mr. Tse has many strong
points.

Fan:

In the Youth category, we had omitted Gold once every few years, because thequality of the entries did not reach the level of the Gold award. Jury members did
not have much to say about the works. I hear that many people are concerned withthe entry requirements of the entrants, but we hope that everyone considers thework itself. Lee Nim-chung should read the minutes of today's meeting carefully,
because you gave him a lot of valuable creative advice. His three works havecompletely different styles, and the video work could have been entered into theMedia Arts category, which shows how versatile he is. If we return to the works
themselves, perhaps we don’t have to consider the filmmakers’ motivations todetermine the awards. He needs to know that everyone has spent a lot of time15

discussing his works. I also agree with Lo’s comment, that if he only submitted one
work, would he have won the Gold award hands down?
Wong:

Terrolice should get Special Mention.

Sonia:

I agree.

Cheuk:

Do you agree that aside from -.079.- and Mr. Tse, no other works will beconsidered for the Gold and Silver awards?

(Everyone nods)
Cheuk:

So, we can start discussing Special Mention awards.

Wong:

There is a lot of room for discussion for Special Mention. This year's works rarely
mention the anti-extradition bill movement, perhaps everyone is avoiding it, which
made me feel a little disappointed. Terrolice is the only work that depicts hidden
anger and shows it in a supressed way, so it deserves to be recognized.

Sonia:

I agree.

Cheuk:

I nominate Birthday Wish.

Sonia:

I concur.

Wong:

No one has any special feelings for Memories of School. This is a complete work
made by very well-behaved and kind students, and I like it a lot.

Sonia:

I like sense of concern in Judging and Solution:love.

Chiu:

Birthday Wish is not worthy of Special Mention, because the work is too safe andnot special enough.

Wong:

I think the production of Solution:love is too simple. I understand the reasons why
everyone chose it, but it is too simple and difficult to compare with Judging. The
film language of Judging is very good, but the content is flawed, while its grasp offilm language is wrong, and Solution:love has a poor grasp of film language.

Lo:

If being among the finalist is a form of encouragement, then Solution:love hasreceived its fair share of encouragement.

Sonia:Is Judging worthy of encouragement?

Wong:

It's difficult. Its flaws and imbalance are too serious.

Sonia:

Yes, I don't know what the work wants to say after watching it.

16

Fan:

I should remind everyone that Special Mention can actually be understood as a
Bronze award to some extent, or that a work as something special that is worthy ofpraise. At the award ceremony, the jurors will make general comments about thecategory. For example, in previous years, Wong Sau Ping and Kit Hung had madesevere criticisms in their comments. Kit Hung chided the entrants for having very
good shooting equipment and conditions, but the quality of their works was
unsatisfactory. When they came up on stage to accept their awards, the winners
blamed themselves and apologized, which was very cute.

Wong:

When I was an entrant in the competition in the past, I also remember that there
were many negative comments of the works in the booklet. I was criticized byLeung Man-tao when I won the Gold award more than ten years ago.

Lo:

It may be that in the past, the jurors were harsher. I remember the year I won theSilver award, Ann Hui said that my cinematography was too academic.

Wong:

In the past, entrants who were students from the Academy for Performing Arts
were often criticized for being too academic and lacking in passion. I rememberthat most of the comments published in the booklet were negative.

Lo:

Going back to the discussion of Special Mention, does it mean that Terrolice is ashoo-in?

Fan:

All agree?

(Everyone nods)
Lo:

It seems that there is no other work that everyone agrees deserve Special Mention.

Chiu:

Special Mention is called "praise" in Chinese, but I feel that Judging deserves to be
specially mentioned.

Wong:

The ribbons that they use to tie their feet could have been handled better.

Lo:

The judge’s gavel is a meat mallet, which is funny.

Sonia:

I think the work is absurdist.

Wong:

But it doesn’t fully express the sense of absurdity.

Sonia:

Are there other works worthy of praise?

Wong:

I would choose Memories of School.

Lo:

Judging has a very serious problem. It’s too easy on itself. Memories of School has
a similar problem. The ending is too obvious, especially when the girl said, "I don’t
want to be so blunt."17

Cheuk:But she has already said everything bluntly, which is very obvious.

Chiu:

Could it have been more obvious?

Cheuk:

Some of the narrative methods in the middle are surprising. For example, thestudents who don’t want to show their faces on Zoom is interesting.

Lo:

Showing their names but not their faces is very interesting, and the dialogue isobviously written by the director, it is not their real everyday speech.

Cheuk:

I believe they are filmed one by one. Some students’ shots are repeatedly used.

Lo:

If they took a screen shot of the scene with the five people on Zoom, that might bemore powerful.

Chiu:

Did they learn this way of talking from TV? It feels very strange, because in reality
they don't talk like that. Does this competition stipulate that works cannot containfoul language?

Sonia:

Obviously there is a character who wants to use foul language, but I don't know if
it is because of the teacher's presence and the work contains the name of the school,
they hesitate to use it.

Fan:Previously, there had been works in the Youth category that were rated Category
III. As a result, the entrants themselves could not come into the theatre to watch
their own works. When Kaki Sham2 entered his work in the competition, he was
not able to come in to watch his film. This type of thing happened a lot.

Sonia:

I think the creators of Birthday Wish have done as much as possible within theirabilities. The work is quite satisfactory even though there are few surprises, but thefilm is handled properly. I nominate Judging, Birthday Wish and Terrolice forSpecial Mention.

Lo:

If I use up my three slots, my choices are the same.

Fan:

We don’t need to have three Special Mentions.

Wong:

The casting of the female lead in Birthday Wish seems to be unsatisfactory.

Sonia:It seems that she has been portrayed as a villain with loose morals.

Chiu:

The scene where the first girl appears is very similar to old animes. The filmmakermust have watched many of these works.

Sonia:

Just like those dating games.

2

Kaki Sham was a Gold Award winner in the Youth Category at the 14th ifva.
18

Cheuk:It seems that everyone is not opposed to Terrolice and Judging getting Special
Mention. I also support Birthday Wish for Special Mention.

Lo:

I also support Birthday Wish.

Sonia:

I support Birthday Wish, too.

19

26th ifva Youth Category Award Winners

Gold Award
Mr. TseLee Nim-chungSilver Award-.079.Lee Nim-chungSpecial Mention
Birthday Wish
Sung Ting-hin
Judging
Luo Yi-ming
Terrolice
Lee Nim-chung20