Lucky Miles picked up the prize for Best Screenplay at the fifth International Film Festival of the Asia-Pacific region countries ‘Pacific Meridian’ on the weekend, while The Home Song Stories will screen in Competition in the third International Eurasia Film Festival in Turkey, later this month.
Screened alongside 166 films from 36 countries, Lucky Miles won the Scripts Magazine Editorial Award for Best Script and will now be translated into Russian and published by Scripts Magazine.
Jo Dyer, producer of Lucky Miles, said; ‘This is a fantastic achievement for debut screenwriters Michael James Rowland and Helen Barnes. And it means Lucky Miles has now been awarded on three separate continents.’ Lucky Miles also won the Audience Award for Best Film at the Sydney Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the Czech Republic‘s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
Tony Ayres’ The Home Song Stories continues its successful international festival run by screening later this month in Competition in the third International Eurasia Film Festival in conjunction with the 44th Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, held in Antalya, Turkey.
The Competition section includes 12 films only from Asia and Europe, competing for a 75,000 USD prize for Best Film and 25,000 USD for Best Director. The Festival’s opening film is Lust Caution by acclaimed director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain).
Tony Ayres, director of The Home Song Stories said, ‘It’s an honour to be invited to attend the Antalya Film Festival in competition, especially given the prestigious line-up with Ang Lee’s latest film opening the competition.’
The Home Song Stories is the true story of a glamorous Shanghai nightclub singer (Joan Chen), who struggles to survive in seventies Australia with two young children. It is an epic tale of mothers and sons, mothers and daughters, unrequited love, betrayal and secrets. The Home Song Stories is based on events that took place during Ayres’ childhood. His extraordinary life story makes for a compelling film – it’s a deeply emotive, dramatic and compelling tale of love, hope, adversity and survival. Most recently Tony attended both Edinburgh and Toronto International Film Festivals where the film screened to positive receptions, and he appeared on the immensely popular Al Jazeera English channel’s program The Fabulous Picture Show which hosts screenings and live audience Q & As, and is broadcast throughout the world.
Richard Payten, joint general manager of Dendy Films congratulated both Tony Ayres and Michael James Rowland on their successes; ‘These films are both truly unique and inspirational immigrant stories. They have a contemporary and personal relevance to many people, which obviously translates across all international borders’.
Dendy Films Media Room : http://www.dendyfilms.com.au/mediaroom/
[release from Dendy Films]