Congratulations to the winners of the 1st Annual Calgary Asian Film Festival’s “Lotus Awards”. They were announced at the TELUS WORLD of SCIENCE during its closing ceremony on Monday night. Four local filmmakers of Asian decent were selected as grand prize winners by a jury committee of Alberta industry professionals including local animators Carol Beecher, Kevin D.A. Kurytnik, Alberta Filmworks’ Randy Bradshaw, and Telus World of Science’s Inez Brady.
The winning finalists were:
“EXANGUIS”, a stylish erotically-charged tale about a Vampiress and her female prey won the two South Asian co-directors, Farhan Daya and Hussein Juma, “The Most Promising Emerging Filmmaker Award”.
South Asian producer Smita Acharyya won “The Best Locally Produced Narrative Short Film Award” with her whimsical “SUPERHERO WANNABE”, a music video about a nerd’s lust for an attractive older girl at the local swimming pool. It was directed by Patricia Harris Seeley from Calgary.
Chinese Canadian filmmaker Leonard Lee won “The Best Locally Produced Documentary Short Film Award” for his video memoir, “CHINATOWN LOST”. In a short 9 minutes’ time, Lee managed to include a short historical tour of Calgary’s Chinatown, a visit with a young enterprising Anime store owner, a multi-lingual Chinese elderly community centre, and a visit with a prominent local Chinese Architect!
