6th HIIFF closes with Golden Coconut Award Ceremony

On the evening of December 10, the seven-day 6th Hainan Island International Film Festival (HIIFF) came to a close in Sanya in south China's Hainan Province. The ceremony, held on the coastal city's Phoenix Island, saw the announcement of the winners of the highly anticipated "Golden Coconut Awards."

Holy Electricity by Georgian director Tato Kotetishvili won Best Picture. Serbian director Emilija Gasic's film 78 Days won the Grand Jury Prize. Laetitia Dosch won Best Director for Dog on Trial. Alberth Merma won the Best Actor award for Through Rocks and Clouds. Preeti Panigrahi won Best Actress for Girls Will Be Girls. Ruth Becquart and Leonardo Van Dijl won Best Scriptwriter for Julie Keeps Quiet. My Friend An Delie, Chinese director Dong Zijian's debut feature film, won both Best Visual Effect and Best Chinese Contribution of the Year. Chilean-Argentinian director Celeste Rojas Mugica's An Oscillating Shadow won Best Documentary Film. Vox Humana, a film by Filipino director Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan, won Best Short Film.

This year's film festival, co-organized by China Media Group and the People's Government of Hainan Province, saw 4,330 film entries from 117 countries and regions. A total of eight documentary features, ten short films and 14 feature films were shortlisted for the awards. The jury, led by renowned French director Luc Besson, selected the final ten awards.

The "HIIFF Talents" venture capital training camp, a first for the festival, was also held with the aim of supporting young directors in shooting short films. The program provides a raft of support to selected candidates, including financing, free trial use of film sets, full-process post-production, and professional guidance from senior filmmakers. In addition, five outstanding domestic film and television works signed film and television copyright overseas licensing agreements during the film festival, marking the first substantive international copyright transaction in HIIFF's history.

In addition to the award ceremony, this year's HIIFF also held special events such as the Coconut Forum, various master classes, Spanish Film Week and screenings of films from ASEAN member countries. The festival also expanded outdoor screening to four cities and counties in Hainan, integrating movies with the natural environment and providing the audience with a rich and colorful cultural experience.