By Creative Media Times

Aoi Pro, Inc.

South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong was also a big winner, taking home Best Director for his work on the psychological drama mystery, “Burning.”

But it was the Chinese period film from Zhang Yimou “Shadow,” which won the most awards, bagging four technical awards including Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing.

“Shoplifters” premiered at Cannes last year and won the top prize Palme d’Or, highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It is also on the Academy Awards’ shortlist for a Best Foreign Language category.

The family drama, which was also scripted and edited by Kore-eda, tells the story of an impoverished Japanese family who reply on shoplifting to cope with their life.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Picture
“Shoplifters”

Best Director
Lee Chang-dong, “Burning”

Best Actor
Yakusho Kōji, “The Blood of Wolves”

Best Actress
Samal Yeslyamova, “Ayka”

Best Supporting Actor
Zhang Yu, “Dying to Survive”

Best Supporting Actress
Kara Wai, “Tracey”
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The United Kingdom in the near future. Civil war rages, and martial law has been declared by a military government hellbent on squashing the opposition.

A woman (Scottish BAFTA nominee Shauna MacDonald, The Descent) wakes up in a blindingly white cuboid cell, where General Zakarian (Oded Fehr) uses increasingly sophisticated and cruel methods to torture her for information – information she claims not to have. As questions of trust are placed both on captor and captive, they find themselves embroiled in an increasingly spiraling journey into the nature of authority. Tense, shocking, and all-too relevant, WHITE CHAMBER poses the question: can there even be such a thing as certainty in these most uncertain of times?

Shauna MacDonald and Oded Fehr star in “White Chamber”, set for release in select theaters and on VOD on March 29, 2019.

Level 16 will be in theaters and on VOD on March 1, 2019.
In the thematically rich fantasy Level 16, teen-aged Vivien (Emmy-nominated actress Katie Douglas) and Sophia’s (Celina Martin) are locked away in a sterile top secret facility where they’re taught the finer points of “feminine virtues” by Miss Brixil (Sara Canning), a Stepford-like headmistress, and left to question what fate awaits them when they age out of the institution.

Wedding of-the-moment concerns (think The Handmaid’s Tale) to throwback aesthetics (think Joss Whedon’s criminally under-appreciated Dollhouse by way of Argento employing a desaturated palette), writer/director Danishka Esterhazy (Black Field, H&G) crafts a sinister allegory that packs a wicked feminist punch.

Film Synopsis
Sixteen-year-old Vivien is trapped in The Vestalis Academy, a prison-like boarding school, keeping to herself and sticking her neck out for no one. Until she is reunited with Sophia — the former friend who betrayed her. Together the girls embark on a dangerous search to uncover the horrifying truth behind their imprisonment. Soon running for their lives, the girls must save themselves or die trying.

Theater List (as of Jan. 15)
New York City – Nitehawk in Brooklyn
Yonkers, NY – Alamo Drafthouse Yonkers
Los Angeles – Laemmle Music Hall
Houston, TX – Alamo Drafthouse LaCenterra
Austin, TX – Alamo Drafthouse Mueller
Kansas City, MO – Screenland
Colombus, OH – Gateway
Phoenix, AZ – FilmBar