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Canberra Today 13°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Alex directs his way to a top film award

Director Alex Wu

CANBERRA-born director Alex Wu was one of the big winners at last night’s (June 18) 67th Sydney Film Festival’s Virtual Awards Ceremony, taking out the $7000 “Live Action Short Award” for best Australian short film for this short film “Idol”. 

His film, which is now Academy Award-eligible, focuses on a young Chinese celebrity, who is called into an emergency meeting after a fan of his commits suicide. It was filmed completely in Mandarin, although Wu is not a native speaker or, on his own admission, particularly good at speaking it.

Wu said last night: “I am absolutely stunned by this massive honour. I still remember volunteering at the Sydney Film Festival when I was 18 years old; to not only be a part of the festival, but to also be awarded the Dendy Award for Best Live-Action Short, is nothing short of a dream come true.”

A shot from “Idol”.

The award was chosen by a jury, which included George Miller, Bryan Brown and Sophie Hyde.

Born and raised in Canberra, at the age of 17, Wu made his first short film on Super 8mm, “Compass”, a western that went on to win the Audience Choice Award at the 2011 Canberra Short Film Festival and top prize at the 2011 Leonid Film Awards.

He moved to Melbourne to study at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television in 2013, then 2015 his work “Beneath the Cotton Clouds” got into LA Indie Film Festival and Toronto Student Film Festival.

In 2016, his most representative work “Motown” (2015) had its world premiere at the 60th BFI London Film Festival and since then, his shorts have enjoyed festival runs at the Student Art Festival (USA), St Kilda Film Festival, Edmonton International Film Festival and Barcelona Film Festival.

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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