Hong Kong veteran director Tsui Hark said at a press conference Saturday that it is essential for short films targeted at mobile phones to reflect social reality.

"One key aspect of mobile phone-targeted short film, which can be downloaded and watched anywhere, is its connection with society and conveying of social messages," said Tsui, who presided over a jury for a mobile phone film competition at this month's Shanghai International Film Festival. "Another important aspect is its reflection of new culture."

Fortunately, the jury watched "a lot of films reflecting the immediate situation of every corner of the society," Hsui said, adding these films were nicely done and enjoyable to watch.

In order to select winners for the competition, the first of its kind in the world, Hsui said that his jury followed five criteria: content, technique, complexity of theme, originality and personal aesthetic perspective.

Film's length was also taken into consideration, jury member Zhao Tao said. This kind of film should be five to eight minutes long to make it suitable for people to watch on cell phones, she added.

At a ceremony following the press conference, Fading Flowers, a 16-minute documentary by Chinese director Su Jiaming, was named the Best Short and the Best Documentary on Saturday night. Germany's Fred R. Willitzkat received the Best Director award for his film The Soup. The Special Jury's Prize went to Leave Without Running by Jurgen Tonkel of Germany. Venezuelan film Centripetal by Alexis Mendez Giner was given the People's Choice award. Switzerland's Laurent Fauchere and Antoine Tinguely got the Best Creativity award for their film The Mirror. Another four films each won an award in the categories of animation, drama, action and comedy.

Fifty short films from 27 countries were shortlisted to compete for the ten awards. But 10,000 films from all over the world were submitted to the organizers.

(China.org.cn June 19, 2011)