Award winning film, ‘The Kid From The Big Apple’ by Jess Teong has been shortlisted to compete at 8th Golden Koala Chinese Film Festival (GKCFF) 2018 in Australia after the first round of review by judging panel consisting of celebrated Australian directors. Nominated together with films from the Chinese mainland (The Strangers, Interval, Funeral Wake, Fist & Faith and Seventy-seven days), Taiwan (Cloudy, Black Sheep and Pakeriran), Hong Kong (Heaven In the Dark and Mad World), this critically acclaimed film about love and relationship between two generation in a modern family has triumphantly won four awards at 7th Macau International Film Festival in 2015 as well as Best Screenplay for Jess at PIFFA International Film Festival last year.

The awards of GKCFF are made by Chinese Film Festival Association and Australian Director Guild (ADG), with all films for award competition are the works by new directors. The jury are well-known Australian directors, who enjoy a great reputation in Australia and have no Mandarin-speaking background. The chairman of the judging panel of 2018 GKCFF is ADG’s vice president Nadia Tass. Jury members include ADG’s secretary general Ray Argall, Deakin University Associate Head of School of Communications and Creative Arts Professor Simon Wilmot, Head of Griffith Film School Professor Herman Van Eyken and famous Australian director Mark Poole. Covering six capital cities; Melbourne on February 15 followed by Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, the festival has become a great event for Sino-Australian cultural exchange and supporting new film makers.