Lin Zhele, 22, shows off the DVD of his short film "Fill Kish," which has earned him trip to the Cannes Film Festival in May.

BEIJING, Feb. 14 --  LIN Zhele was staring at the aquarium in his home one day last March when he came up with the idea for a short film that has earned him one award plus a trip to the Cannes Film Festival in France in May.

    "Fill Kish," the story of a pet fish that goes on a murderous rampage, earned top prize at the first short-film contest hosted by UniFrance - an international organization promoting French Films - in Beijing last week.

    The award was handed to Lin by French film star Jean Reno, and earned him a trip to Cannes where he will attend a forum of young directors and perhaps talk a few industry bigwigs into watching his short.

    The trip is a dream come true for a young director who has always wanted to study film direction in France.

    Lin, 22, will join another young filmmaker from Beijing as the only two young Chinese directors taking part in the 10-day international film pageant.

    The short film, which cost less than 1,000 yuan (US$123) to shoot on digital video, tells the story of a one-eyed fish who day dreams of killing all the other fish in the aquarium except for his lover.

    "I was hoping to go to Cannes when I signed up for the contest, but it never occurred to me that I could receive the prize from Jean Reno," said Lin, who couldn't help clapping his hands when discussing the magic moment.

    Lin, who graduated from Shanghai University's advertising department last year, said he began making short films and mock TV ads during his second year at the school.

    He spent a whole day persuading his father, an artist, to buy him a 20,000-yuan film camera two years ago.

    His first work with the camera was a mock TV ad for a Japanese video cell phone manufacturer that he made a part of a classroom assignment. His teacher was stunned by the quality of the production.

    He sent another mock ad depicting the importance of toothpicks to Shots Magazine, a British publication with a strong reputation in the advertising world. The magazine mentioned Lin's work last year, earning him an interview for an advertising job with Adidas.

    "But the opportunity escaped, probably because I look too young," Lin said, adding that he grew a beard for the interview to demonstrate his maturity. The interviewers still asked Lin how old he was as soon as they saw him.

    Lin said he was trying to write a short film about the distorted thoughts of underprivileged people last year when he began to think about his fish.

    Once inspired, it took less than 24 hours to write the script.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)