Asian movie stars get awards

Asian movie stars get awards

SINGAPORE (AFP): Hollywood-based Hong Kong movie director John Woo and four other Asian movie celebrities have been conferred awards here for their contribution to the regional cinema industry, officials said Friday.

Woo, who has more than two dozen feature films to his credit and shot to international fame with his stylized gangster epics in the 1980's, received the "lifetime achievement in filmmaking" award at the CineAsia movie convention.

Two other award winners from Hong Kong were Raymond Chow, chairman of Golden Harvest Entertainment, who received the "lifetime achievement" award and veteran actress Josephine Siao, honored for "excellence in acting."

Indonesia's Benny Suherman and his partner, Sudwikatmono, of the Subentra Group were joint winners of the "exhibitors of the year" award.

"The awards were given in recognition of outstanding contributions to various aspects of the movie industry in this part of the world," Robert Sunshine, managing director of CineAsia, said in a statement.

London-based Andrew Cripps of United International Pictures received the "distributor of the year" award.

The annual CineAsia convention brought together top executives of the motion picture industry, whose latest technologies and services were on show. Discussions were also held on efforts to improve film distribution and exhibition in Asia.