Japanese director Wataru Sato placed second at Young Director Award in Cannes

Japanese director Wataru Sato (left) of TYO Inc, Tokyo has won 2nd prize in the Non-European Broadcast category at the Young Director Award (YDA) held in Cannes last week.

ADFEST submitted Four Fabulous Four directors; plus two short films that were awarded Gold and Silver in the New Director category at ADFEST 2011, into the Young Director Award this year.

Last week, Sato’s short film, “Dad’s Love‟, was the only film from the Asia region to win at this year’s YDA in Europe.

“ADFEST would like to congratulate Wataru Sato on his success at one of the world’s most prestigious awards for new directors. We are proud to give young directors in the Asia Pacific the chance to achieve global acclaim by entering their works into competitions like YDA. Sato-san’s success at YDA proves ADFEST is an important career stepping stone for new directors in this region,” says Jimmy Lam, ADFEST President.

The Young Director Award has supported and promoted debuting international creative talent in commercial film production since 1998. It is run by Commercial Film Producers of Europe.

Sato began to direct in 2006, and currently works at TYO Inc. as a Director/Creative creating commercial, multi-channel and online films. He won a Silver Cyber Lotus at ADFEST 2009, and a Gold New Director Lotus at ADFEST 2011.

ADFEST also entered eight Fabulous Four directors from ADFEST 2010 and ADFEST 2011 into the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival (LA Shorts Fest), and is proud to confirm that two Fabulous Four films have been selected for this year’s Festival: ‘Fifteen Day’, directed by He Peng from Beijing; and ‘Through Lives’, directed by Takeshi Kogahara from Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo Lab. Both films premiered at ADFEST 2011. The winners of LA Shorts Fest – which is the largest short film festival in the world – will be announced on 29th July 2011.

ADFEST has also entered all four Fabulous Four 2011 short films into the Busan International Film Festival, Asia’s largest and most respected film festival. The winners will be announced in mid-August 2011.

“This is the first year that ADFEST’s Fabulous Four participants have been entered into LA Shorts Fest and Busan International Film Festival, and ADFEST is immensely proud of providing a career path in which emerging directors can shine not just locally but internationally too,” says Vinit Suraphongchai, Chairman of the ADFEST Working Committee.