this year we have another truly stellar jury to select one film from the nine finalists that they
believe is worthy of special mention. And here they are: Really, really outstanding films done by
all the students. Really, really impressive, so thank you for making beautiful content to add to
the world. Congratulations to all of you. I spent the last two days watching your films a number of
times. I laughed, I cried, I was moved, and I was just astounded by the amount of talent
and the incredible achievement that is your work, so thank you for your offerings to us and
yeah man - there's bright futures for all of you for sure. This was such remarkable work and I, to
all of you, I watched all of the movies in one day and it was just a pleasure and joy and all of you
so incredibly talented and I'm super jealous of all of your talents. And I want to work with all
of you one day. So I hope I get to. But, um, this was an incredibly difficult decision for all of us
and to pick one film, but I think all of you have incredible careers ahead of you. It has been such
a pleasure to be part of this incredible jury of my peers, who I value and respect,
and we deliberated, and we deliberated and deliberated because we knew what we wanted to help
promote with this special jury prize. You're all on this Zoom because you love the power of film.
That's the reason why you got in here you want to change the world, you want to entertain,
you want to educate. You want to make people think. There's one film in particular we believe
had all of these aspects, and just a little bit more. That film where you want to reach out to
an audience member someone in the dark and say that we're more alike than unalike. You want to
promote change, you want to change a heart, you want to bring us closer together and really see
all aspects of our humanity. And the film that did that, even more so, and I'm saying - all
of these films did this in many different ways, but there was one in particular that really hit
all those notes and that was 'Unfinished Lives' by Yucong Chen. Congratulations.
Thank you, thank you jury members and thank you BAFTA GSA. Thank you everyone. It's such a huge
and powerful recognition at this point. This documentary is dedicated to Xinran,
a chinese student who was beaten to death near campus seven years ago. And in 2017,
I got the offer from USC the School of Cinematic Arts and my parents were so worried,
instead of happy for me because they heard about Xinran's case and they never wanted the same
thing to happen to me. And then I came to USC and lived in the same neighborhood as Xinran.
As a foreigner I could still sense those insecure feelings, walking alone from my apartment to the
campus. So at that moment I started to think of 'why', why this insecurity still exists
after this heartbreaking tragedy. So we made this film. I'd like to thank Rose
and John and all the people who helped us, and supported this documentary along the journey.
Thank you for what you did for us and thank you for what you did for Xinran's case.
Also, couldn't have done this film without my mentor, Amanda, and my dear crew members.
We finished this film, we finished our post session last year under lockdown so basically
lived together, worked together, ate together for months to make it happen.
I feel so blessed to have this perfect team around me during this unforgettable journey.