CALA, MY DOG! Wins Five Chinese Film Media Awards For Celestial Pictures

Cala, My Dog!, won in five of the nine categories that the film was nominated at the 4th Annual Chinese Film Media Awards. The awards ceremony was held in Shenzhen, China on 25 April, 2004. The five awards Cala swept home for Celestial were:

Best Film
Best Director: Lu Xuechang
Best Actor: Ge You
Best Supporting Actress: Li Qinqin
Most Popular Actor in the Mainland (Silver): Ge You

A delighted William Pfeiffer, CEO of Celestial Pictures commented on Cala's latest awards tally: "On behalf of Celestial and our partners, we would like to thank the organizers of the Chinese Film Media Awards, the Chinese Metropolis Daily, for recognizing this production and honoring it with awards in five key categories. Cala, My Dog!, is a wonderful movie, which is representative of Celestial's strategic initiative to bring the best of Chinese and other Asian cinema to audiences worldwide."
Celestial Pictures Receives Nine Nominations for Prestigious Chinese Film Media Awards for CALA, MY DOG!

Ever since the world premiere of Cala, My Dog! in May 2003, at the Cannes Film Festival, the Mainland-produced drama has gone on to win the phenomenal acclaim of critics and has touched the hearts of audiences worldwide. It has been announced that Cala, My Dog! has earned an outstanding nine 'Chinese Film Media Awards' nominations for Celestial Pictures.

The 'Chinese Film Media Awards' is China’s most prestigious movie award ceremony as it is the only awards panel that judges all of the movies from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China that have been released in China during the past year. From this year forward, the Awards will use the same auditors and scoring mechanism as the Academy Awards®. The aim is to elevate its status into the most-respected movie awards in China, something like the Chinese Oscars®. The categories for which Cala, My Dog! has been nominated are: ‘Best Film’; ‘Best Director’; ‘Best Script’; ‘Best Actor’; ‘Best Actress’; ‘Best Supporting Actress’; ‘Media Judging Panel’s Award’; ‘Most Well-Received Picture in the Mainland’ and ‘Most Popular Actor in the Mainland’. The award ceremony will be held in Shenzhen on the 20th of April 2004.

Cala, My Dog! is produced by the award-winning producer and China’s #1 box-office director Feng Xiaogang (Cell Phone, Big Shot’s Funeral, Sigh), and is directed by China’s most promising young talent, Lu Xuechang (The Making Of Steel, A Lingering Face) featuring a stellar cast front-lined by the internationally-acclaimed actor, Ge You (To Live, Be There Or Be Square, Big Shot’s Funeral), three-time winner of China’s 'One Hundred Flowers Best Actor Award' and 'Best Actor' of the 47th Cannes Festival.

Celestial Pictures’ CEO, William Pfeiffer remarked: “We at Celestial Pictures are exceptionally honored that Cala, My Dog! has been nominated in nine categories for one of Chinese-language films' most prestigious awards ceremonies. Cala, My Dog! is a film of the highest pedigree, combining the incredible talents of Feng Xiaogang, Ge You, Lu Xuechang and the fantastic production team at Huayi Taihe. Celestial Pictures is proud to have had the chance to present Cala, My Dog! to audiences around the world, and share this wonderfully thought-provoking story about people and about life.”

Cala, My Dog! is a philosophical tale reflecting the extraordinary struggle of an ordinary, lower-middle-class, worker’s plight to reclaim his pet from the Beijing authorities. It demonstrates to the man the importance of Cala, not only as a dog, but also as a symbol of the need for love and the responsibility of taking care of a companion. Should poor people be deprived of the need to share a caring heart? For today’s world, this critically acclaimed film is full of rich symbolic meaning.