A VCD of Chairman Mao's poems and a TV series called Comic Doctor are two of the big winners at this year's National Audio-video Product Awards. It's the third time that the awards have been held and the judges decided that more than 100 nominees were deserving of recognition. This year, two new categories were added to the judging criteria, distribution and social impact.
This year, the top prizes went to 13 productions. Among them were the VCDs Chairman Mao's Poems and The Dancing Miao Ethnic group and the CD Chinese Classic Songs.
The profit issue is a key criteria in the awards and this is where filmmaker Chen Kaige's sensation Together gained ground. 50,000 copies of the movie made it into the marketplace and it was the only film listed in the first prize titles.
World-acclaimed director Zhang Yimou's "Hero" took a prize, as did "Pretty Big Feet" which featured another actress, Ni Ping.
The VCD TV drama Comic Doctor, the Shadowy Puppet Art of Tang Dynasty and other 31 publications won second-prize awards.
(CCTV.com September 27, 2003)
