'Niño' gets special jury prize in France

MANILA, Philippines - Niño, a film by award-winning theater designer and first-time film director Loy Arcenas, took the Special Mention Award (third place) in the recently concluded 18th Festival International des Cinemas d’Asie in Vesoul, France.

Niño, about the disintegration of the family of a fading opera star, also took the Special Mention for the Langues O' (Inalco) Award.   

“August Drizzle” from Sri Lanka won both the Best Film (Cyclo d'Or award) and the Netpac Award. Nine Asian films competed in this year’s festival.

Niño was a co-winner for Best Film in the 2011 Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, and picked up the Speical Jury Prize in the 2011 Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Arcenas, who is based in New York and Cebu, has won Obie (off-Broadway) awards for his work in theater, including a Best Director award for The Romance of Magno Rubio. He is also an acclaimed set designer in the US.

This year’s jury in Vesoul was headed by Atiq Rahimi, an award-winning Afghan scriptwriter now living in Paris; Kazakh filmmaker Ermek Chinarbaev; Indian scholar and writer Latika Padgaonkar; and Filipino Nestor Jardin, president of Cinemalaya and former president of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.