SANYA, December 8. /TASS/. The second Hainan International Film Festival wrapped up in Sanya on Sunday with a Chinese film's triumph. Pema Tsedan’s Balloon was named best picture during the closing ceremony. 

"This year's contest reminded me that despite the fact that we all came here from different countries and are from different cultures, we are all united", said French actress Isabelle Huppert speaking at the closing ceremony. "

"I was honored to have lead the jury of HIIFF <...> I would like to thank everybody who worked the films, as we all know how hard is it to create a good movie", the actress noted. 

The Golden Coconut 

Golden Coconut is the highest award of this year's film festival — it is a figurine of a coconut palm growing out of sand with nuts, symbolizing the fruits of the filmmakers' hard work. It was awarded for the first time in the  festival's history this year. 

According to the organizers, during the preparations they received 1,485 films from 80 countries. Thirteen films were nominated for the main prize. Pema Tsedan’s Balloon won the main prize in Best Film category. Chinese actress Sonam Vanmo, who played the leading part, won in Best Actress category. 

Two actors got the prize in Best Actor category — Sami Bouajila (A Son by Mehdi Barsaoui) and Ryuhei Matsuda for his performance in Keishi Ohtomo’s Beneath The Shadow. The jury, which included Isabelle Huppert, American film director Abel Ferrara, Chinese actress Jiang Wenli, Macedonian director Milcho Manchevsky, Chinese actor Chen Sichen, Indian director Aruna Vasudev and French film critic Thomas Sotinel, also named leaders in other nominations.

The Size Of Things by Carlos Felipe Montoya won the award in Best Short Film category, and About Love by India's Archana Phadke is the best documentary. China's Wang Lina with her film A First Farewell was praised as the best director, A Son by Mehdi Barsaoui won in Best Screenplay. 1982 by Oualid Mouaness won in Best Picture for Children category, Fire Will Come by Oliver Laxe became the winner in Special Jury Prize nomination, and, finally, the film White Snake by Zhang Xianfeng (evaluates the work of costumers, makeup artists, sound engineers and other specialists involved in creating the motion picture) won in Best artistic contribution category. 

To be continued 

The second Hainan International Film Festival wrapped up with fireworks and a drone presentation — dozens of multi-colored drones were flying the night sky in shapes of various figures — a symbol of the Hainan Province, a Golden Coconut statue, “Beauty” written in hieroglyphs and other combinations.

Many guests of this year's film festival expressed the hope that the event would be developing, attracting even more guests and reaching a new level.

The festival was first held on Hainan in December 9-16, 2018, and it was officially declared "one of China's major film festivals." The screening is supported by the Hainan authorities and with the approval of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. The world's first Hainan film festival was attended by such world-famous actors and directors as Jackie Chan, Aamir Khan, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, Nuri Bilge Ceylan.