Serious fun

Liu Wenzhuo, a student of the Central Academy of Drama, receives the "work of the year" award for his short film Tableland.

The winners, shortlisted from 27 nominees, were selected from 1,810 aspirants from 26 countries, including the United States and Britain.

Quality works from this will be screened in a special section at the Netherlands' Tampere Film Festival, another significant platform for short films.

"This year's participants have scored both in quality and quantity," Hu says.

Shattered, directed by Gao Jianming from Shanghai University's cinema school, won the awards for best director and best gender focus. The 31-minute drama revolves around the struggles for survival of a poor woman whose husband is badly injured in an accident, and they have a son with autism.

While the award-winning films have been made by people in their 20s, around half of the stories are about the elderly.

Go Gentle into That Good Night, coproduced by Liu Min of the Communication University of China and Wu Yawen from the University of Southern California, captures the last days of those living in Beijing Songtang Hospice, the first such service in China to care for terminally ill people. The 22-minute documentary won the award for best editing.