Latest update December 24th, 2014 6:12 PM
Chinese Director Li Yatao Shortlisted for the Best Live-action Short Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this Thursday that 10 out of 141 films have been chosen to compete for the Best Live-action Short Oscar. CARRY ON, one brilliant film directed by a young Chinese talent Li Yatao is on the shortlist.
Born in Beijing, Li Yaotao earned an MFA at Rochester Institute of Technology. His 17 minutes graduate thesis film, CARRY ON, has won the Best of Festival Award at Palm Springs International ShortFest. Li is a film director signed with Aim Entertainment in Beijing and his representative in Los Angeles is Amotz Zakai, the executive of Echo Lake Entertainment. Here is what Li says to The Chinese Film Market.
“When I was 14, I found out cinema is more interesting than computer games. I wish to be a film director since then. I liked FALLEN ANGEL, STRAWMAN and KIDS RETURN, but A CHINESE ODYSSEY was my favorite.
My short film CARRY ON is a story about family and bravery: during the brutal withdrawal of Japanese forces at the end of the World War II, a Chinese father does whatever he can to save his daughter. It was inspired by an essay written by Montaign: the enemy won’t liberate a man because he is pathetic, but might liberate him because he is brave. Although it is really hard for a student to make a war film, but I have to say the most difficult obstacle above all is the script – the story.
After I won the top prize at Palm Springs Short Film Festival, I started to have chances to talk to studios, agents and managers.
I come back to work in China because I have met a great boss Li Yaping (producer of BEIJING LOVE STORY) and an energetic team. The current China film market is booming. I feel so lucky since I’m in. Generally speaking, the future is bright, but we need a lot more professionals in this field than ever. I consider myself more of a commercial film director, but I also hope this market can have more attention and distribution channels for small budget art films.
In the coming five years, I hope to make two films with theatrical releases. One of them will be comedy. I hope that years later, people would say that I want to watch that film made by Li Yaotao once again: it is really funny.”
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