Chinese director Jia Zhangke's "Still Life", surprised the Venice International Film Festival, first by joining the competition when the festival had already begun, then by taking the grand prize, beaten many frontrunners favored by critics and journalists.

However, critics from a few trade newspapers, such as Derek Elley from Variety and Dan Fainaru from Screen Daily, dislike Jia's latest near-documentarized narrative on the life of the working class in the drastically modernized China.

"But in Toronto," said Anthony Kaufman from indieWIRE, "many critics welcomed the presence of 'Still Life' as a beautiful, thought-provoking film quite unlike anything else in the festival."

Same treatment was also given to Jia's documentary "Dong", which has also been shown in Toronto. French-based Memento Film, which acquired the international rights to both "Still Life" and "Dong" before their Venice premiere, announced successful sales of "Still Life" to 25 counties in just three days.

"Still Life" should be China's best shot for capturing the Best Film Film award of the Oscar early next year. The film industry regulator should seriously consider nominating it, rather than The Banquet, which has received mixed revenue both at home and on the international front, or "The Curse of Golden Flower," Zhang Yimou's third big-budget martial-art film, which we have yet to see.

Editor: Donald