Sonthar Gyal

{{Infobox person

|name=Sonthar Gyal

|birth_place=Tongde County, Qinghai, China

|birth_date={{birth year and age|1974}}

|occupation=filmmaker, cinematographer

|years_active=2004–present

|alma_mater={{Unbulleted list|Qinghai Normal University|Beijing Film Academy}}

|module={{Infobox Chinese|child=yes|c={{Linktext|松|太|加}}|p=Sōng tài jiā|tib={{Linktext|ཟོན|་|ཐར|་|རྒྱལ|།}}|wylie=Zon thar rgyal}}

}}

Sonthar Gyal (born 1974) is a Tibetan film director in People's Republic of China. His films include The Sun Beaten Path (2011) and River (2015).{{cite book |author=Dan Smyer Yü |year=2015 |title=Mindscaping the Landscape of Tibet: Place, Memorability, Ecoaesthetics |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |page=31 |isbn=9781614514237}}{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Jeremy A. |last2=Nadeau |first2=Kathleen M. |year=2016 |title=Pop Culture in Asia and Oceania |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=146 |isbn=9781440839917}}

Biography

Sonthar Gyal was born in Tongde County, Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai. His father was a primary school teacher who was the first person to graduate from college in the region. Sonthar Gyal studied at the Tsolho Nationalities Teacher Training College in Hainan (Tsolho) Prefecture and taught in the nomadic community for four years. Afterwards he received a scholarship to study fine arts at the Qinghai Normal University in Xining.{{cite web|url=http://www.trace.org/profile/interview-sonthar-gyal|title=An Interview with Sonthar Gyal|website=Trace Foundation|date=18 November 2014 }} After graduating in 2003 with a B.A. in Fine Arts, he worked as an art teacher and a curator at the Tongde Cultural Museum.{{cite web|url=https://www.asiapacificscreenawards.com/apsa-academy-members/songtaijia|website=Asia Pacific Screen Awards|title=Songtaijia (Sonthar Gyal)}}

Although he grew up on the grassland with very few opportunities to watch films (and the ones he watched were in Chinese{{cite news|url=http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/kindle/2015-12/11/content_22690696.htm|title=Tibetan film plays to Lhasa fans|last1=Palden Nyima|last2=Da Qiong|newspaper=China Daily|date=2015-12-11}}) he became so fascinated by films that he began to collect scraps of films after each open-air showing. Later, encouraged by his friend Pema Tseden who also hails from Hainan Prefecture, Sonthar Gyal followed him to the prestigious Beijing Film Academy, where he studied cinematography for 2 years with the support of Trace Foundation. Upon graduation, he worked as a cinematographer and artistic director for a series of films and documentaries, many directed by Pema Tseden. He made his directorial debut in 2011 with The Sun Beaten Path.

Filmography

Year !English title !Tibetan title !class="unsortable"\|Notes
class="wikitable sortable"
2005	The Silent Holy Stones	ལྷིང་འཇགས་ཀྱི་མ་ཎི་རྡོ་འབུམ།	rowspan=3\|cinematographer, artistic director
2009	The Search	འཚོལ།
rowspan=2\|2011	Old Dog	ཁྱི་རྒན།
The Sun Beaten Path	དབུས་ལམ་གྱི་ཉི་མ།	rowspan=2\|director, screenwriter
2015	River	གཙང་པོ།
2018	Ala Changso		director, screenwriter, producer

Awards and nominations

class="wikitable sortable"
Year !# !Award !Category !Work !Result
rowspan=6\|2011 \|5th \|Asia Pacific Screen Award \|Achievement in Cinematography \|Old Dog \|{{nom}}
\|Vancouver International Film Festival \|Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema \|rowspan=6\|The Sun Beaten Path \|{{won}}
\|Locarno Festival \|Golden Leopard: Filmmakers of the Present \|{{nom}}
rowspan=2\| \|rowspan=2\|Hong Kong International Film Festival \|Golden DV Award \|{{nom}}
FIPRESCI Prize \|{{nom}}
\|Cinemanila International Film Festival \|Lino Brocka Award \|{{nom}}
2012 \| \|Deauville Asian Film Festival \|Lotus: Best Film \|{{nom}}
2015 \| \|Berlin International Film Festival \|Crystal Bear, Generation Kplus: Best Film \|River \|{{nom}}
rowspan=2\|2018 \| \|rowspan=2\|Shanghai International Film Festival \|Golden Goblet: Grand Jury Prize \|rowspan=2\|Ala Changso \|{{won}}
\|Golden Goblet: Best Screenplay \|{{won}}

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

!Award

!Category

!Work

!Result

rowspan=6|2011

|5th

|Asia Pacific Screen Award

|Achievement in Cinematography

|Old Dog

|{{nom}}