Star-gazing was the order of the day in east China's Jiangsu Province on October 22 as thousands of people jostled to catch a glimpse of their favorite Chinese film actors, actresses and directors.

They crowded inside and outside Wuxi's Great Hall of the People, waiting for the screen stars to attend the awards ceremony of the 11th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival.

The presence of about 100 famous stars and directors brought the five-day festival to a successful climax.

Dawan'er de zangli (Big Shot's Funeral), directed by famous director Feng Xiaogang, won the prize of Best Film of the Hundred Flowers Movie Awards.

The Best Actor was Ge You while Best Actress was Zhou Xun.

Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress were Ying Da and Yuan Li respectively.

Ge You and Ying Da owed their prizes to their excellent performance in Big Shot's Funeral.

As for the Golden Rooster Awards, the Best Directors Award went to Yang Yazhou for his film Meili de dajiao (Pretty Big Feet), and Chen Kaige for his film Tianshang caoyuan (Heavenly Grassland).

Ning Cai won the Best Actor Award for his role in Heavenly Grassland while both Tao Hong and Ni Ping won the Best Actress Awards.

Chongchu Yamaxun (Charging Out of Amazon) and Pretty Big Feet were named Best Feature Films.

During the festival, directors and scholars from different areas came to Wuxi to hold discussions and write papers about Chinese films.

"Chinese films are at an important turning point now," said Ma Ning, who works in the creating and planning department of Shanghai Film Studio. "The greatest change is that China has entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), so we will now have to face sharp competition from the world."

Deng Jianguo, general manager of Guangdong Junxing Film Corporation, said China's entry to the WTO has brought challenges as well as opportunities. "Exploring new ways is inevitable for Chinese films and their market to overcome all the difficulties," he said.

(China Daily October 23, 2002)