KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 24 – The Sunny Side of The Street, PETRA Films’ first feature clinched three major awards at the recent Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (TGHFF).
Malaysian-born director Ray Lau won both the Best New Director and Best Original Screenplay awards for his maiden film whilst veteran Hong Kong actor Anthony Wong won the Best Leading Actor award.
TGHFF is one of the most reputed festivals in the world where the awards are among the most prestigious recognitions for the Chinese language film industry.
The film had earlier garnered six nominations in the Best New Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film, Best Leading Actor, Best New Performer and Best Cinematography categories, a press release issued by PETRA recently said.
The Sunny Side of the Street follows the story of a 10-year-old Pakistani refugee boy on the run but finds an unexpected kinship with a Hong Kong taxi driver. Director Ray Lau drew many aspects of the story from his own experiences as a Malaysian immigrant in Hong Kong who arrived there at the age of 18 to pursue his studies.
“This was a great result for us. Six nominations and three major category wins. As a company, we set out to find projects that are rooted in real life experiences, stories that deal with challenging topics and that highlight issues that aren’t always understood by wider society.
“This film embodies all that. We brought together new and established talent and together carefully crafted a film that deserves the recognition. We couldn’t be happier,” said Darren Shaw who heads PETRA Films.
“I’m so thrilled that as a Malaysian company, working with a Malaysian director we have achieved such recognition at the prestigious Golden Horse awards, where the standards are incredibly high. It’s a beautiful film about unlikely relationships, different cultures, and generations, and yet gives hope to an otherwise tragic situation,” said PETRA Group Chairman, Datuk (Dr) Vinod Sekhar.
Petra Films, a part of PETRA Group’s media division, already has plans to announce two more global projects soon.
PETRA Films is an independent, internationally oriented film company based in Singapore and
Hong Kong that develops and produces feature films and episodic programming.
–WE