Chinese director Jia Zhangke received the Best Foreign Language Film award for The World at the 31st St. Paul International Film Festival on November 1 Brazilian local time. The award came two years late.
The award was announced at the 29th St. Paul International Film Festival in 2005, when Jia was shooting "Still Life" in China.
The festival organizers informed the international agency of the success of "The World", but the latter failed to deliver the news and trophy cup to the director due to changes in staff.
Both Jia Zhangke and the festival were not aware of the oversight until Jia went to Brazil to attend a retrospective of his works during the festival this year. The festival decided to reissue the award during the closing ceremony.
(CRI.cn November 5, 2007)