Tibet-set drama Linka Linka and Markus Schleinzer’s Rose have scooped the top prizes at the 50th Hong Kong International Film Festival’s Firebird Awards.
Linka Linka by rising director Kangdrun won the Firebird Award for best film in the Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-langauge). It also claimed the Fiprseci prize. The story follows a young woman who returns to Lhasa after years of drifting in Beijing to make a film about her childhood, unearthing long-buried memories and a secret from her youth.
It is the first-ever fiction feature directed by a female Tibetan filmmaker and premiered in Tokyo’s Asian Future competition before its bow at HKIFF. Kangdrun accepted the award in Hong Kong from guest presenter and French actress Juliette Binoche.
Further awards in the Chinese-language competition saw Singapore’s Tan Si You win best director with her debut feature Amoeba; Yu An-shun win best actor for boxing drama A Dance With Rainbows; and young performer Ong Xuan Jing named best actress for Ah Girl.
Schleinzer’s Rose won the top Firebird Award in the Young Cinema Competition (world) category. The Austria-Germany co-production is set in 17th-century and stars Sandra Huller as an enigmatic soldier who returns to a secluded German village and claims to be the heir of a long-abandoned farmstead, all the while pretending to be a man. Huller won best leading performance when the film premiered in Competition at Berlin in February.
The best director prize went to Lithuania’s Andrius Blaževičius for How To Divorce During The War, adding to his directing award from Sundance Film Festival, where the film debuted. Best actor was won by Canada’s Edik Beddoes for his performance in Sophy Romvari’s debut feature Blue Heron and best actress went to Germany’s Sabine Thalau for her first on-screen role in I Understand Your Displeasure.
The 50th HKIFF closed last night (April 12) with the Asian premiere of Philip Yung’s Cyclone. The 51st edition of the festival is provisionally scheduled to run from March 24 to April 5, 2027.
HKIFF 2026 winners
Young Cinema Competition (Chinese-language)
Firebird Award: Linka Linka, dir. Kangdrun
Best Director: Tan Si You, Amoeba
Best Actor: Yu An-shun, A Dance With Rainbows
Best Actress: Ong Xuan Jing, Ah Girl
Young Cinema Competition (world)
Firebird Award: Rose, Markus Schleinzer
Best Director: Andrius Blaževičius, How To Divorce During The War
Best Actor: Edik Beddoes, Blue Heron
Best Actress: Sabine Thalau, I Understand Your Displeasure
Documentary Competition
Firebird Award: Past Future Continuous, dirs. Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani
Jury Prize: The Ground Beneath Our Feet, dir. Yrsa Roca Fannberg
Fipresci Prize
Linka Linka, dir. Kangdrun
Short Film Competition
Firebird Award: God Is Shy, dir. Jocelyn Charles
Jury Prize: Robert And June (And All The Time In The World), dir. Jem Cohen
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