LET THE RIGHT ONE IN 

Saturday, May 3-------Following a packed 10-day marathon of film screenings, industry events, seminar panels and chic parties, the Tribeca Film Festival ended this weekend with the announcement of the winners of the juried awards in several categories. The World Competition winners were chosen from 12 narrative and 12 documentary features from 18 countries. Two awards were also given to honor New York films, which were chosen from seven narrative and nine documentary features. Awards were also given for the best narrative, best documentary and student visionary films in the Shorts competition.   

European films figured strongly in the winners circle. The Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature was given to LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Lat den rätte komma in) by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson. Novelist John Ajvide Linquit adapted his best-seller to tell the beautifully touching tale of the first romance of 12-year-old Oskar and the girl next door, Eli….who also happens to be a vampire. The jury commented that the film was exceptional “for its mesmerizing exploration of loneliness and alienation through a masterful reexamination of the vampire myth.” Director Tomas Alfredson receives a cash prize of $25,000 plus the art award "Maternal Nocture: Clearing Storm” created by Stephen Hannock.  The film has a North American distribution in place, with Magnet Releasing, the specialty arm of Magnolia Pictures. 

Winner of the Best New Narrative Filmmaker prize is Turkish director Huseyin Karabey for the film MY MARLON AND BRANDO. The film, a co-production with The Netherlands and the UK, is a cross-cultural love story between a Turkish actress living in Istanbul and a Kurdish actor living in Iraq. The story is set on the eve of the American invasion and spins a unique take on the “Romeo And Juliet” legend with contemporary references. The jury praised the film for “its skillful blending of documentary style with a classic love story.” The film had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival. The director receives a cash prize of $25,000, sponsored by American Express, and the art award “Bonfire,” created by Ross Bleckner.   

Best Actor honors were shared by Thomas Turgose and Piotr Jagiello, the teenage protagonists of the UK drama SOMERS TOWN, directed by Shane Meadows. Turgose plays a lad from the British Midlands who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Jagiello, who plays a Polish refugee living with his construction worker fa (...)

Friday, April 11--------The 13th Annual Gen Art Film Festival Presented by Acura wrapped an exciting week with the U.S. Premiere of THE TAKE, an intense policier directed by Brad Furman and starring John Leguizamo and Rosie Perez. The film opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles today. A packed audience attended the Closing Night Screening at the newly dubbed Visual Arts Theater, recently purchased by the School of Visual Arts. Director Brad Furman was visibly moved by the strong audience reaction to the film, asking audience members “to spread the word when the film opens later this week….it could use help in getting noticed, like any independent film.” 

During the past week, the Gen Art Film Festival showcased seven features and seven shorts from emerging filmmakers, each followed by seven parties at New York’s hottest venues, including The Bowery Hotel, Kiss & Fly, Spotlight Live and Prime. The Festival not only specializes in showcasing cutting-edge talents but allows its enthusiastic audiences to experience a premiere like a true insider, with full VIP treatment at the screening and after-party.  T

he Festival was able to attract the participation of a glittering roster of film talents, including Matthew Broderick, Alan Alda, Julianna Margulies, Adrian Brody, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Rosie Perez, Jason Behr, Alan Cumming, Alicia Witt, Michael McGlone, Nick Cannon, Kieran Culkin, Bobby Cannavale, Louis CK, Anson Mount, Ryan Donowho, Rachel Dratch, Ally Sheedy, Alan Cumming, Norman Reedus, Yul Vazquez and Lydia Hearst, among many others.  

Following the Closing Night Premiere of THE TAKE, audience members joined with film professionals at the After Party and Awards Ceremony held at Spotlight Live in Times Square.  Gen Art Vice President of Film Jeffrey Abramson and Jurors Alan Cumming, Saskia Wilson-Brown and Norman Reedus announced the Festival winners, followed by a music performance by Brooklyn-natives MGMT. 

The Acura Grand Jury Award for Best Feature was awarded to HALF-LIFE, by director Jennifer Phang. In this unusual indie drama, a precocious boy and his jaded sister use their imaginative powers to escape a confining home-life, save their self-destructive mother from her charmingly manipulative boyfriend, and finally reinvent their world in a mind bending conclusion. The film had its world premiere at the (...)

CARAMEL 

Tuesday, April 8-------The 2008 edition of the Bermuda Interntional Film Festival came to a close this past weekend, with its Gala Awards Ceremony and dazzling After Party at The Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel. The Festival, celebrating its eleventh season, has one of the most ambitious and energetic film slates in North America, as well as the one of the most beautiful environments for its many special events and receptions. Lucky attendees not only could experience Bermuda’s legendary pink sand beaches and historic architecture, but some of the best films on the international film festival circuit. 

CARAMEL, by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, won the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Award for Best Narrative Feature. According to a statement by Jury President Robert Favreau (director of A SUNDAY IN KIGALI), the film “shows us a complex microcosmos where many stories and sub-stories take place. The stories are all well-developed and involve many characters to whom we become strongly attached.” The director received a cash prize of $5000. XXY, the unique story of a teenage hermaphrodite by Argentine director Lucia Puenzo, was given a Special Jury Mention in the Narrative Features category. 

The Best Documentary prize was split between two worthy films. SAVING LUNA by Canadian directors Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm, is the inspiring story about Luna, a baby killer whale who gets separated from his family in a remote Vancouver Island fjord and becomes attached to the island residents. According to jury members Linda Hattendorf (THE CATS OF MIRIKITANI) and Peter Raymond (SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL), the film was praised as “an inspiring, mesmerizing, spiritual and poetic story, featuring spectacular locations and beautiful cinematography.” 

Sharing the Best Documentary Prize was the Israeli film SOUVENIRS by directors Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat. The film is an intimate, revelatory work of a father and son relationship. The jury praised the film’s “cinematography, cinema verite style and its eart and terrific scored music.” The Jury also gave a Special Mention to Steven-Charles Jaffe’s film, GAHAN WILSON: BORN DEAL, STILL WEIRD, a tribute to the screenwriter of fantasy/sci fi films for television and the big screen. 

The Shorts Jury of Al Seymour Jr. and Ted Bezaire gave the M3 Wireless Bermuda Shorts Award to TOYLAND, by German director Jochen Freydank. The Shorts Jury also awarded Special Mentions to ARK (Grzegorz Jokajtys, Poland) and THE LEGEND OF THE SLOW MAN (Armando del Rio, Spain). 

The Bacardi Limited Audience Choice Award, which is voted on by filmgoers, was won by RED DUST, by British director Tom Hooper, which starred Oscar winner Hilary Swank as a crusading, anti-apartheid lawyer in South Africa. The director gratefully received the $3000 cash prize from Bacardi’s Vernon Pemberton. 

Director Mike Leigh 

Wednesday, March 19------Acclaimed UK director Mike Leigh will be honored with inaugural Founder's Directing Award at the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival (24 April-8 May). The Founder's Award will be presented to Leigh at the Film Society Awards Night, the annual benefit gala, on Thursday, 1 May at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.

The Founder's Directing Award is presented each year to one of the masters of world cinema and is given in memory of Irving M. Levin, who founded the San Francisco International Film Festival, the longest-running film festival in the Americas, in 1957.

Mike Leigh will also participate at a public screening event on 30 April at the historic Castro Theater. The special event will include an onstage interview, a clips reel of his career highlights and a showing of TOPSY-TURVY (1999), his kaleidoscopic and visually entrancing backstage comedy/drama portraying the tumultuous world of 19th-century theatrical impresarios Gilbert and Sullivan.

Leigh's history with SFFS stretches back to 1986 when SFIFF held the first US retrospective of the director’s gritty and unsparing, often bitingly funny work. That program presented Leigh’s lesser known works, including short films and television films produced for the BBC in the 1970s and early 1980s. Leigh triumphantly returned to SFIFF in 1989 with HIGH HOPES, the alternately hilarious and moving story of a working-class couple living in a tiny London flat.

Leigh is one of the UK and Europe’s most well-respected and loved directors. His film NAKED (1993) won him the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival that year. SECRETS AND LIES (1996) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as an unprecedented five Oscar nominations. In 2004, his film VERA DRAKE was a major international hit that perfectly blended his interest in class-conscious drama and social realism. He is also known as an “actors’ director”, having helped make household names of such discoveries as Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, while further propelling the careers of Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks, David Thewlis, Alison Steadman and others. Newcomer Sally Hawkins was honored last month at the Berlinale for her performance in his newest film HAPPY GO LUCKY.

"Mike Leigh is an extraordinary director who has forged a singular path in world cinema over a long and brilliant career," said Graham Leggat, executive director of the San Francisco Film Society. "We are delighted to welcome him back to the International on the heels of his well-deserved success with his latest comedy HAPPY GO LUCKY at this year's Berlinale."

For 22 years the San Francisco International Film Festival has honored a master of world cinema with its Founder's Directing Award. Previous European auteur recipients include: Werner Herzog (...)

COCHOCHI (Mexico)

Sunday, March 9---------The 25th edition of the Miami International Film Festival held its Gala Awards Ceremony last night at the historic Gusman Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Miami. The Festival prizes are not just simple accolades.....each is accompanied by a $25,000 cash prize, one of the highest on the film festival circuit. The inclusion of this major cash award has greatly increased interest from filmmakers and the distribution sector in submitting their projects. The list of winners follows.

2008 MIFF COMPETITION AWARDS

Dramatic Features: World Cinema Competition

• Knight Grand Jury Prize: TRICKS (SZTUCZKI)
  Andrzej Jakimowski’s picaresque film is about a fatherless boy who tries to tempt fate in this charming and bittersweet film from Poland.
• Special Mention: IT'S HARD TO BE NICE (TESKO JE BITI FIN)
  Srdan Vuletic’s urban fairytale about post-war society from Bosnia follows a Sarajevo taxi driver whose attempts to change his life for the better are met with resistance at all turns.
• Special Mention: FOUL GESTURE (TNUAH MEGUNA)
  Itshak (Tzahi) Gradi’s film about vendetta and vigilantism centers on a middle-aged man who decides to take justice into his own hands after becoming the victim of a road rage incident.

Dramatic Features: Ibero-American Competition

• Knight Grand Jury Prize: COCHOCHI
  This Mexican road movie and fairytale by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán is part of this year’s MIFF Abroad program.
• Knight Grand Jury Prize: EAT, FOR THIS IS MY BODY
  Michelange Quay’s debut feature explores the spiritual corrosion of Haiti’s colonialist legacy with surreal, often wordless imagery.
• Special Mention: THE GIRLS (LAS NIÑAS)
  Using film as a scalpel to cut open the feminine mystique, Chilean director Rodrigo Marín’s two-hander pierces the heart of female relationships with uncanny perception.
• Special Mention: (...)

Monday, February 25------European films and talents were the big winners at last night's Academy Awards, making the event very much a foreign affair. In the acting categories, the winners were all European thespians of note. Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrays a morally corrupt oil baron in early 20th century America, won his second Best Actor Oscar for his role in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. In the Best Actress category, the surprise winner was French actress Marion Cotillard, for her stunning reincarnation of chanteuse Edith Piaf in LA VIE EN ROSE. She becomes only the second actress in Oscar history to win for a non-English language role (the last was Sophia Loren in Vittorio de Sica’s TWO WOMEN, 1961).

In the Best Supporting Actor category, all predictions were realized with the win by Javier Bardem, for his myth-making performance as a demonic bounty hunter in the Coen Brothers’ NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. He becomes the first Spanish actor ever to win an Oscar. On the female side, Tilda Swinton of MICHAEL CLAYTON was also a surpise winner. The veteran actress, who made her reputation in edgy independent films in her native England and the United States, won her prize for playing a corrupt American lawyer in the legal thriller.

European films dominated the Best Foreign Language Oscar category, with four out of the five nominees coming from the continent. In the end, it was the Austrian entry THE COUNTERFEITERS that won the golden statuette, with the film's director Stefan Ruzowitzky, clearly moved by the honor. "Since a number of Austrian-born directors, including Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Fred Zinnemann, had to leave their native country because of the Nazis, it is only fitting that the first Austrian film to win an Oscar should also be a story of the crimes of the Nazis", Ruzowitzky said. His film, about the Nazis use of a band of concentration camp inmates to counterfeit dollars and pounds during the darkest days of World War II, will open in the US next week.

LE MOZART DES PICKPOCKETS (Phillipe Pollet-Villard, France), a quirky tale of two unlucky thieves whose fortunes change when they take in a deaf homeless boy, won the award for Best Live Action Short film. Luckily, the film can be seen by the public in theaters, with the recent theatrical opening of THE 2007 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED SHORT FILMS compilation film (a mix of live action and animation nominees), distributed in North America by Magnolia Pictures.

Sandy Mandelberger, Awards Watch Editor

JUNO

Sunday, February 24-----The Film Independent Spirit Awards, held in a tent on the beach at Santa Monica on Saturday, are kind of the “indie Oscars”. Some of the nominees and winners are also up for Oscar gold, but there are refreshingly new names and talents on the roster, from films that have received little or no distribution. The Awards Ceremony, which is broadcast live on cable networks AMC and IFC, gives these newcomers a chance to get some name recognition, and in the case of many, an open door to agents and financiers. Rainn Wilson, the stand up comic who had a featured role in JUNO and stars as one of the ensemble cast of the television hit series THE OFFICE, was the irreverent master of ceremonies. As he stepped out onto the stage, he greeted the crowd with a beguiling “Greetings, indie weirdos!”.

The big winner of the awards event was this year’s “indie that could” JUNO, by Jason Reitman. The film, about a wisecracking teenage girl who gives her baby up for adoption, took home awards for Best Feature Film, Best Female Lead (Ellen Page) and a Best First Screenplay Award for Diablo Cody. Joining JUNO in the winners circle were double awards for THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, I’M NOT THERE and THE SAVAGES.

THE SAVAGES, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, won two major awards: Best Screenplay (Tamara Jenkins) and Best Actor (Philip Seymour Hoffman). THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY was honored for its director Julian Schnabel and for its cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. "The idea that it is an independent spirit is a good thing," Schnabel told the crowd, wearing his signature pajamas suit with a long overcoat. Schnabel acknowledged those who have worked with him over the years, singling out producer Jon Kilik. "There are so many people in this room who I admire that I don't know... this is a nice community of people who have been very generous with me, and I appreciate that. Thank you.”

I’M NOT THERE, the multi-character homage to Bob Dylan by director Todd Haynes won the Robert Altman Award, given to the film’s director, casting director and ensemble cast. Cate Blanchett, who played Dylan in the early 1960s, won the award for Best Supporting Actress.

The award for Best Foreign Film went to ONCE, from Irish director John Carney. "This is amazing to start making a little film for $100,000 with your mates in Dublin," he said. "I guess that's independent film." The film beat out such major contenders as 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS and PERSEPOLIS.

For the full list of winners, log on to: http://www.filmindependent.org/spiritawards

Sandy Mandelberger, Awards Watch Editor

Friday, February 22--------European films and talents are poised for Oscar wins, when the golden statuettes are handed out at the Kodak Theater this coming Sunday in Los Angeles. For the past three months, there has been a lingering cloud of doubt about whether the ceremony was going to happen at all. A strike by the Writers Guild of America, that effectively shut down film and television production and forced the cancellation of the Golden Globe Awards, was only recently settled, in part because of pressure from the industry to not cancel the Academy Awards ceremony (the world’s most watched television event after the World Cup).  

In the Best Picture race, only one film has European pedigree. ATONEMENT, the historical drama based on the best-selling novel by UK author Ian McEwan, is a co-production of Working Titles Films (UK), Studio Canal (France) and Focus Features (US). The film has received the most nominations this year, a total of seven (although its director, Joe Wright, and lead actors, James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, did not make the cut). With nominations in the technical categories of art direction, costume design, cinematography and music, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay (Christopher Hampton) and Best Supporting Actress Saoirse Ronan, ATONEMENT could be the night’s big winner. A win in the Best Picture race is far less certain, with strong competition from such films as NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN and THERE WILL BE BLOOD. But the recent Golden Globe and BAFTA wins for ATONEMENT could be repeated on Sunday night. 

In the acting categories, the frontrunners are all European thespians of note. Daniel Day-Lewis, who portrays a morally corrupt oil baron in early 20th century America, seems a lock for a Best Actor Oscar for his role in THERE WILL BE BLOOD. In the Best Actress category, the award seems a toss-up between Julie Christie’s comeback performance as a woman losing her memory in AWAY FROM HER and French actress Marion Cotillard’s stunning reincarnation of chanteuse Edith Piaf in LA VIE EN ROSE. If Ms. Cotillard wins, it will be the first time since 1961 that an actress would win for a non-English speaking role (the last was Sophia Loren in Vittorio de Sica’s TWO WOMEN).  

(...)

SAVING LUNA (Audience Award Winner) 

Wednesday, February 6----------While such mega-watt movie stars as Angelina Jolie, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones steal much of the limelight in the media coverage of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, the true heart of the event are the American indie and international films that the festival showcases. More than 70,000 visitors (a record number) came out for the mix of glamour and discovery in one of America's most beautiful festival venues. So, for the record, the winners of this year's SBIFF include:

The Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema, given to a unique independent feature that has been made outside mainstream Hollywood, went to Amal, Directed by Richie Mehta.  The film follows and Autorickshaw driver named Amal who is bequeathed an entire estate with only one month to discover and claim the inheritance.   Winner received a camera package worth approx. $60,000

The Heineken Red Star Award, recognizing and celebrating the achievement of the most progressive and gifted independent film director, went to Tao Ruspoli for his film “Fix” starring Shawn Andrews and Olivia Wilde.  The film, shot in the first person, is a one day odyssey through the myriad worlds of Los Angeles as documentary filmmakers Bella and Milo race to get Milo's brother Leo from jail to rehab before 8pm.  Winner receives a $25,000 promotional package.

The Best Foreign Film Award goes to “Beautiful Bitch” from Germany, directed by Martin Theo Krieger and starring Katharina Derr, Patrick von Blume, Sina Tkotsch.  The film offers a powerful and honest look at friendship across social boundaries and a young's woman will to break free. 

The Nueva Vision Award for the best Spanish-language film was awarded to the Cuban film “La edad de la peseta (The Silly Age)” directed by Pavel Giroud.  La edad de la peseta (a common Cuban phrase that refers to the period right before entering adolescence) is a quirky, surprising coming-of-age film about Samuel who has just arrived in town with his recently divorced mother.  After taking up residence in the house of his eccentric grandmother, Samuel is introduced to a new, mysterious world where he finds himself an adult in comparison to his child-like mother.

The Iconix Video Award for Best Documentary went to “ONE BAD CAT: The Reverend Albert Wagner Story” directed by Thomas G. Miller.  The documentary gives rare access into the life of Reverend Albert Wagner, who after a life of poverty, adultery and charges of child molestation, is inspired to take up painting as a means toward redemption. The winner will receive a camera pac (...)

Javier Bardem in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN 

Monday, January 28--------After the cancellation of the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards (and with the possibility of a no-show Oscars next month), the Screen Actors Guild Awards held last night in Los Angeles was a return to movie glamour. SAG had gotten a waiver from their fellow union, the Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November and has forced other awards shows to cancel their events (actors and directors refused to cross picket lines). In what was a very dignified ceremony, awards were given to individual performers and ensemble casts in motion pictures and television.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN solidified its status as an Oscar frontrunner for Best Picture with a win for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, the night's top honor. Josh Brolin accepted the award, hailing the film's directors, Joel and Ethan Coen, as "freaky little people." Javier Bardem, the Spanish actor whose bounty hunter villian in the film has become an instant movie classic, won the Best Supporting Actor award, almost assuring his Oscar statuette next month.

Other frontrunners who were feted at the event included past Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis of  THERE WILL BE BLOOD and Julie Christie of  AWAY FROM HER, who won Best Actor and Best Actress awards, also giving them a boost to win the same trophies at the Academy Awards. Day-Lewis, in a heartfelt acceptance speech, dedicated his win to Heath Ledger, the 28-year-old Australian actor who was found dead in his Manhattan loft last week.

The only real surprise of the evening was the announcement of Best Supporting Actress. Pundits have long predicted that Cate Blanchett was a shoo-in in this category, for her portrayal of one of the seven portraits of Bob Dylan in the Todd Haynes-directed I'M NOT THERE. Another actress, Amy Ryan, has also been feted by end-of-year film critics associations for her performance in GONE BABY GONE. But the surprise winner turned out to be veteran black actress Ruby Dee, who plays the mother of drug kingpin Denzel Washington in AMERICAN GANGSTER. Dee, who seemed truly surprised and touched by the honor, dedicated the award to her late husband, the actor Ossie Davis. Her win makes the Oscar choice in this category far less certain. Now if the Oscars actually happen, we will can see for ourselves who will win. Stay tuned.

Sandy Mandelberger, Awards Watch Editor