Odyssey 2024 festival winners announced, Snow in Midsummer takes multiple titles |

It’s awards season of the year again, we have just witnessed BAFTAs last weekend and here we announce the winners from our annual film festival Odyssey from last year.

Odyssey is a UK based independent film festival engaging with Greater China via a unique theme each year. During the festival period, It showcases over 60 films, hosts discussion panels and exclusive Q&As online and offline across the country in different cities. We also partner with organisations to present special screenings and events out of the festival period internationally. The theme of 2024 was “Food and Travel” with Chris Lau and Qi Wu as C0-Lead Curators.

BEST FEATURE FILM, SCREENPLAY & DIRECTOR

Snow in Midsummer, Chong Keat Aun

Dir. & Written by CHONG Keat Aun | 2023 | Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore | 116m

If it suddenly snows in midsummer, there must be grave injustice somewhere – so says the ancient Chinese play Dou E Yuan. Injustice, indeed, unfolded in Malaysia on 13 May 1969: significant sectarian violence erupted after the ruling coalition’s subpar performance in the General Election, leading to the deaths and disappearances of many Malaysian Chinese. Using Dou E Yuan as a metaphor for this tragedy in Malaysian history, this film revolves around two women whose lives have forever been changed by the 13 May incident. The director, Chong Keat Aun, based this remarkable work on his interview with 14 family members of the victims of the 13 May incident, whom he got to know from his visits to a mass grave that buried the unfortunate souls who perished that night. Food, in this film, becomes a bridge connecting the living and the dead, reminding us of the injustice over 50 years ago. – Chris Lau

BEST SHORT

Asubha

Dir. ZHAO Ruimin | 2023 | China | 26m

A young man in China’s Yunnan province, near the border with Myanmar, struggles to get himself an identity document.

To many, it is easy to have a document proving one’s identity, but the same might not be true for minorities living near international borders. This short shows a young boy from the Dulong minority in China’s Yunnan province who needs to get himself an identity document to keep his job. Faced with the threat of economic insecurity, he travels afar and goes back to his family home for the identity document, yet he faces different challenges. Through enchanting scenes shot in the rainforest in southwest China, this short shows its audience the beauty of Dulong people’s tradition and culture, and their struggles in face of modernisation. – Chris Lau

BEST FILM FOR INTERNATIONAL CONVERSATION

Eggs

Dir. Saito Chong | 2023 | Taiwan | 19min

A migrant couple from Vietnam, A Li and A Mai, fall in love in Taiwan, but A Mai’s pregnancy turns her into a burden to her employer, forcing them into cash-in-hand work to survive. As A Mai’s nears childbirth, they face a police raid, driving them to flee to the mountains teeming with lychee stink bugs, yet they remain trapped in a fate of isolation and despair.

The director sheds light on the plight of “lost-contact migrant workers” in official records. Through A Li’s story, the film uses the lychee stink bug – an invasive pest in Taiwan – as a metaphor for marginalised individuals who are stigmatised and forced to confront a fragmented and precarious reality. With realistic imagery, the film powerfully captures the tragedy of those living as outsiders in a foreign land. – Qi Wu

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Snow in Midsummer, Chih-Chun Hsu

BEST EDITING

Surf Nation – Kristin Bye, John Farbrother, Luther Clement Lam

Dir. Jessica Q. Chen, Jeremiah M. Bogert Jr. | 2022 | USA | 88m

Surf Nation delves into the lives of young athletes in Hainan, China, training with the National Surf team in pursuit of Olympic dreams. Living in a tropical paradise under the guidance of international coaches, they face the pressure of success and the threat of dismissal. Over two years, the film follows two top surfers, Alex and Lolo, as they navigate training, competitions, and the search for their own identities in a culture that values conformity over individuality.

This film captures the young surfers’ lives as they travel and train across various countries and cities, using mature cinematography to present a full panorama of their experiences. It delicately explores the complexity of human relationships through the details of food – familiar flavours from home serve as the only emotional support the coach can offer to the children training abroad, while a female surfer, having left the team, finds herself entangled in her boyfriend’s so-called food adventures. Despite the multiple protagonists, their personalities and nuances are intricately portrayed through professional storytelling, allowing the audience to empathise with their journey, even from afar. – Qi Wu

BEST FOOD SCENE

Lykke Til

Dir. Bobby Yu Shuk Pui | 2023 | Norway, Hong Kong | 30m

Dealing with visas, finding a job, and finding a place to live are hard enough for an immigrant in Norway. On top of these, the woman protagonist faces an array of problems: an unexpected pregnancy, racism, and a rift in the relationship with her girlfriend. Luckily, she finds herself a shelter in a restaurant ran by a Hongkong immigrant, being able to have a taste of home away from home. This short brilliantly echoes the plight of many immigrants in Europe who long for their hometown yet feel compelled to stay for various reasons. A music video on the protagonist’s experience with hemorrhoids is a comedic and fitting inclusion, elevating this short with a fresh wave of creativity. Winner of the best director award at the 17th Fresh Wave International Short Film Festival, this very worth-watching recent work of Hong Kong cinema showcases what Hongkong-Europe collaboration can achieve. – Chris Lau

BEST TRAVEL SCENE

Lykke Til

Dir. Bobby Yu Shuk Pui | 2023 | Norway, Hong Kong | 30m

BEST MADE IN UK FILM

Chef Peng

Dir. Fabia Martin, Freddie Martin | 2020 | UK | 8m

A glimpse into five decades of advancing Chinese cuisine in the UK, Chef Peng’s kitchen philosophy is: Cooking must be done from the heart.

From Taiwan to London, cooking has been the foundation of his life in the UK, with food serving as the language he speaks here. Over the past fifty years, Chef Peng, a unique innovator in Chinese food, has struggled and fought against expectations of Chinese cuisine and British culture, using his culinary philosophy to transform his restaurant, HUNAN, into one of London’s most distinctive dining destinations.

The camera quietly inhabits a corner of the kitchen, following Chef Peng as he touches, smells, tastes, and converses with diners to gather inspiration. Moving seamlessly between the dining table and the kitchen, much like the alternating shots of a calm, order-awaiting kitchen and a sizzling, bustling wok at the start, this documentary captures a culinary journey that reflects half a lifetime of his work. – Qi Wu

Audience Award

Girl of the Wind

Dir. YUEN Nan-Hsi | 2023 | China | 37m

She said that she never had any big dreams before, but now she wants to become the best documentary director in sign language – the contemporary portrait of youth woven from the life journeys of a deaf girl who climbs skyscrapers alone and the director who met her by chance.

Yang Yang, a solitary deaf girl with a passion for free climbing skyscrapers, lives in a silent world without wealth or power, driven only by her untamed and free spirit. The director meets her by chance, and their life journeys begin to intertwine. Over five years of filming, their conversations evolve into reflections on each other’s lives as well as their own, and they grow into friends who can explore each other’s worlds and dreams at any moment. As Marcel Proust said, “The true journey of discovery lies not in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” This is Yang Yang’s life journey, as well as the director’s introspective examination of her own life.

This documentary, built on a foundation of respect and equality, subtly incorporates the filmmaker’s own transformation into the narrative. Winner of the Best Documentary Short at HiShorts! Film Festival and nominated for Best Documentary Short at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, this heartfelt film offers a resilient female perspective on contemporary youth, with the courage and tenderness of its characters delivering a deeply moving experience. – Qi Wu

Founder’s Special Award

Our Best Foot Forward

Dir. Luke Grenfell-Shaw | 2023 | UK | 16m

This is a special award for Luke, in the same spirit of King Charles III and Catherine, Princess of Wales, to inspire all out there who are fighting cancers and all who continue to contribute to the research and practice of cancer treatment.

Luke and DanDan have both been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Luke wants to show that adventure and exercise are possible even with cancer. He meets 31 year old DanDan in Chengdu, China, and they decide to climb to a 4,400m mountain lake to begin a new chapter of their lives. Luke encourages DanDan as she climbs her first mountain whilst DanDan guides Luke through a country and culture that is both deeply unfamiliar and enchanting.

Luke Grenfell-Shaw FRGS MBE was diagnosed with an extremely rare and aggressive sarcoma in 2018. He didn’t expect to see Christmas. After walking, cycling and running his way through treatment he cycled from Bristol to Beijing on a tandem bike. He shared the journey with 800 people, including 30 others with cancer, and raised over £130,000 for cancer charities. He is now producer for A Life In Tandem, the feature documentary of his expedition (release 2024), an elite ultrarunner for Brooks and a lecturer in storytelling at the University of Central Asia.