Singaporean filmmaker Nelicia Low wins best director award at film festival in Czech Republic

Singaporean director and former national fencer Nelicia Low was recently awarded best director at this year's Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – the largest film festival in the Czech Republic and the most prestigious in Central and Eastern Europe.

Low won for her work on Pierce, her debut feature film. She previously wrote and directed the short film Freeze, which was screened at over 70 international film festivals including the Taipei Golden Horse Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival.

Starring Taiwanese actors Liu Hsiu-fu, Tsao Yu-ning and Ding Ning, Pierce tells the story of high school fencer Jie who chooses to trust and help his dangerous older brother after he is released from jail, defying their mother’s attempts to hide their traumatic past.

According to Low, who represented Singapore in fencing at the 2010 Asian Games, she started writing Pierce in 2015 to explore her relationship with her older brother who has autism.

She previously said: "I used to idealise him to be a loving, caring older brother, but as I grew up, I realised that our entire relationship was made up in my head. Accepting that I would never know if my brother actually reciprocated my love has been a painful journey for me, and is the same one Jie takes in Pierce.

"When we think about unconditional love, we often think about a parent’s love for their child. For me, it is the relationship between siblings that is more pure and unfiltered."

In a celebratory post on her Instagram page, Low thanked "her entire team", adding that she couldn't have done it without them.

She also posted snippets of her acceptance speech where she spoke in a mix of English and Mandarin.

Pierce is produced by Singapore production companies Potocol and Elysium Cine, in partnership with Taiwan’s Flash Forward Entertainment and Poland’s Harine Films. It also received support from the Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore, the Taipei Film Commission and the Polish Film Institute.