The seventh annual Pan Pacific Film Festival (PPFF) kicked off on Thursday evening with the most anticipated part of the festival for filmmakers -- the Pan Pacific Awards, also known as the Stellae Awards.
The Pan Pacific Film Festival is a non-profit film festival that showcases films that convey messages of "hope and inspiration," in the words of the festival organizers. This year, the PPFF received 80 submissions -- the most submissions the festival has ever received -- from 12 different countries, and 40 of them were feature-length.
"This year, the fact that we've had submissions from so many different places made this year's film festival stand out from the previous ones, and the overall quality of the submissions were so high," said Kenneth An, co-founder of the PPFF. Film submissions came from countries including Australia, Rwanda, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, among others.
'Cicada,' a Japanese film about a man who discovers he is unable to have children, won several awards Thursday night, including Best Director, Best Feature Narrative, and Best Actor. The film was shot over 20 days in Tokyo, and the crew was mostly comprised of Biola University students. The director, a professor at Biola, said that in moments he considered giving up on the film, it was his students' "passion that drove the film forward."
The Best Impact award -- one which An described as being given to a film that conveyed the "most love and hope" -- was given to 'The War Within,' a fantasy film that shows the world of the inner man in Michael Sinclair, a syndicated cartoonist who suddenly faces tragic events that crush his dreams.
"We want to impact people with our film," said the directors of the film. "And it's all about the gospel. We're hoping that through our film, people will see their personal struggles, and that the solution is to surrender to Jesus."
As they do each year, the organizers of the PPFF will be sending DVDs of these submitted films for missional purposes to countries around the world, subtitled in their native languages.
"We want to shine our light to the world through media," said An, "and these filmmakers are shining their light through their work."
Several well-established figures were present at the awards ceremony, including Gary Hall, the vice president of post-production at 20th Century Fox; Fullerton City Mayor Greg Sebourne; Young Kim, Assemblywoman for the 65th District; and "Big Wave" Dave, a radio show host at The Fish FM.
"Hollywood can be a very dark place," said Hall in concluding statements at the ceremony, "we need to shine our light there. And I'm so encouraged by the talent that was represented here from all over the world, and all of this for Christ alone."
The festival, which is taking place at Grace Ministries International in Fullerton, CA, continues Friday and Saturday, and will feature workshops, panels, and screenings.
