Festival Awards 2009

[puxzkkx]

"FESTIVAL SEASON" is kicking off right about now. We've already had a few 'A' festivals come and go (Cannes, Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Shanghai) and there are some big ones coming up. Here's the thread to discuss any and all film festivals that aren't the "Big Ones" (Toronto, Venice, Berlin, Cannes, Sundance).

Here's a chart of the major awards passed out by the various 'A' festivals (I'm going by the definition of an 'A' festival in Wikipedia which is:
Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Shanghai, Moscow, San Sebastian, Montreal, Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Mar del Plata, Cairo and Tokyo)

FIRST PLACE 'BEST PICTURE'/EQUIVALENT:
Berlin: The Milk of Sorrow by Claudia Llosa
Cairo: Letters to Father Jacob by Klaus Haro
Cannes: The White Ribbon by Michael Haneke
Karlovy Vary: Angel at Sea by Frederic Dumont
Locarno: She, a Chinese by Guo Xiaolu
Mar del Plata: Five Days Without Nora by Mariana Chenillo
Montreal: Korkoro by Tony Gatlif
Moscow: Pete on the Way to Heaven by Nikolai Dostal
San Sebastian: City of Life and Death by Lu Chuan
Shanghai: Original by Antonio Tublen & Alexander Brondsted
Tokyo: Eastern Plays by Kamen Kalev
Venice: Lebanon by Samuel Maoz

SECOND PLACE 'BEST PICTURE'/EQUIVALENT:
Berlin: Everyone Else by Maren Ade
Berlin: Gigante by Adrian Biniez
Cairo: The Hedgehog by Mona Achache
Cannes: A Prophet by Jacques Audiard
Karlovy Vary: Twenty by Abdolreza Kahani
Locarno: Tambourine, Drum by Alexei Mizgirev
Mar del Plata: Horn of Plenty by Juan Carlos Tabio
Montreal: Weaving Girl by Wang Quan'an
Moscow: Chudo by Aleksandr Proshkin
San Sebastian: The Refuge by Francois Ozon
Shanghai: The Search by Pema Tseden
Tokyo: Rabia by Sebastian Cordero
Venice: Soul Kitchen by Fatih Akin

THIRD PLACE 'BEST PICTURE'/EQUIVALENT (IF APPLICABLE):
Berlin: n/a
Cairo: n/a
Cannes: Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold
Cannes: Thirst by Park Chan-wook
Karlovy Vary: n/a
Locarno: n/a
Mar del Plata: n/a
Montreal: n/a
Moscow: n/a
San Sebastian: n/a
Shanghai: Empire of Silver by Christina Yao
Tokyo: n/a
Venice: n/a

BEST DIRECTOR/EQUIVALENT:
Berlin: Asghar Farhadi for About Elly
Cairo: Mona Achache for The Hedgehog
Cannes: Brillante Mendoza for Kinatay
Karlovy Vary: Andreas Dresen for Whisky with Vodka
Locarno: Alexei Mizgirev for Tambourine, Drum
Mar del Plata: Elia Suleiman for The Time That Remains
Montreal: Kichitaro Negishi for Villon's Wife
Moscow: Mariana Chenillo for Five Days Without Nora
San Sebastian: Javier Rebollo for La Mujer Sin Piano
Shanghai: Julius Sevcik for Normal
Tokyo: Kamen Kalev for Eastern Plays
Venice: Shirin Neshat for Women Without Men

BEST ACTOR/EQUIVALENT:
Berlin: Sotigui Kouyate in London River
Cairo: Subrat Datta in Madholal Keep Walking
Cairo: Jai Tank in Dream Cuts
Cairo: Fathy Abdel Wahab in Nile Birds
Cannes: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Karlovy Vary: Paul Giamatti in Cold Souls
Karlovy Vary: Olivier Gourmet in Angel at Sea
Locarno: Antonis Kafetzopoulos in Plato's Academy
Mar del Plata: Gary Piquer in Bad Day to Go Fishing
Montreal: Cyron Melville in Love and Rage
Moscow: Vladimir Ilyin in Ward #6
San Sebastian: Pablo Pineda in Me, Too
Shanghai: Sverrir Gudnason in Original
Tokyo: Christo Christov in Eastern Plays
Venice: Colin Firth in A Single Man

BEST ACTRESS/EQUIVALENT:
Berlin: Birgit Minichmayr in Everyone Else
Cairo: Karolina Piechota in Splinters
Cannes: Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist
Karlovy Vary: Paprika Steen in Applause
Locarno: Lotte Verbeek in Nothing Personal
Mar del Plata: Allison Janney in Life During Wartime
Montreal: Marie Leuenberger in Will You Marry Us?
Moscow: Elena Kostyuk in Melody for the Barrel Organ
San Sebastian: Lola Duenas in Me, Too
Shanghai: Simone Tang in Aching Hearts
Tokyo: Julie Gayet in Eight Times Up
Venice: Kseniya Rappoport in The Double Hour

If you find any articles or news relating to these or other international festivals [Paris, Rome, Buenos Aires, Thessaloniki, Valladolid etc] please do post them in this thread.

It seems that lots of these films are not yet on IMDb, so fingers crossed that they're added soon.

[puxzkkx]

Locarno is going on as we speak, so I'll update the main post with awards info when it finishes (on the 15th).

[Antoine Doinel]

You might want to add Toronto on there, as its one of the biggest North American film festivals and is often the launching pad for Oscar films. You might also want to remove Montreal, as its World Film Festival is a joke.

[zedz]

You might want to add Toronto on there, as its one of the biggest North American film festivals and is often the launching pad for Oscar films. You might also want to remove Montreal, as its World Film Festival is a joke.

Toronto is non-competitive, though. (Unless you count the generally meaningless 'People's Choice' Award, which nobody in their right mind would consider a 'best film' accolade.)

[puxzkkx]

As zedz said, Toronto is non-competitive and, after all, it really is more of a film market than a true "festival". Plus it'll get attention in a thread of its own when it starts in a month or so.

I'm really excited to see Everyone Else. Maren Ade's previous feature, The Forest for the Trees, is a masterpiece and showcases a fantastic leading performance from Eva Lobau. I'm hoping than Minichmayr is just as good in this film as Lobau was in hers.

[brendanjc]

You might want to add Toronto on there, as its one of the biggest North American film festivals and is often the launching pad for Oscar films. You might also want to remove Montreal, as its World Film Festival is a joke.

Toronto is non-competitive, though. (Unless you count the generally meaningless 'People's Choice' Award, which nobody in their right mind would consider a 'best film' accolade.)

Forgive me if I'm completely misunderstanding since I don't have much beyond Wikipedia-level knowledge of the other film festivals, but I'm not really sure how an award summing up votes from tens of thousands of people choosing from among hundreds of films should be considered less valid than one given by a small board of judges picking a film from a pre-ordained selection of a dozen or two? Whether Toronto should be discussed here or not is unclear anyway, based on the self-contradicting first post which says this thread is for discussing the festivals that are not the "Big Ones", and then goes on to list all the awards from the big festivals anyway :-k

To make a more useful contribution, I caught Everyone Else at SIFF and loved it - it's definitely going to make my top 10 for the year. I feel like it may have been a film that just resonated with me since so many facets of the relationship portrayed seem to mirror things in my life right now - the rest of the audience seemed to have a much more mixed reaction than I did. I have to catch up with Ade's earlier feature in hopes that it's equally impressive.

Speaking of the local fest for a moment - Seattle is a weird festival, I suppose, for many reasons. I believe it's the largest festival in North America in terms of films included (more than Toronto) and largest in the US in terms of attendance (150-200k a year I believe) but it seems to have no reputation and there hardly seems to be a distributor presence. Both are probably due to the fact that it happens at a really awkward time - after Sundance and near simultaneously with Cannes - so it tends to only pick up the hyped films from Sundance and less hyped films from outside the US (often including many from the previous year's festivals all the way back to the prior Cannes) that weren't picked up in the US yet. As far as this thread goes it doesn't fit in either I guess, since the bulk of their awards are based on public opinion and they only have small jury competitions beyond that (for shorts, documentaries, and youths). The awards do skew a bit US-centric, as does the whole festival unfortunately, but I think that's often due to the fact that all the big films from foreign auteurs premiere at other festivals and get picked up before they ever have a chance to screen at SIFF. All the winners from this year are listed here. You can also check out the awards from a niche group of series passholders who tend to think of themselves as more discerning critics, even though their list usually ends up pretty similar, available here.

[puxzkkx]

I included Cannes, Venice and Berlin just to be thorough, as they are the most prominent of the 'A' international festivals and this thread is basically about the 'A' festivals and their awards. But they have already had threads with intense discussion devoted to them and this thread is mainly for the discussion of the other festival bodies.

These festivals are, for the most part, world premiere festivals but they don't really fit the title of 'film market' in the way that Sundance or Toronto do. Plus, neither of those two festivals were really intended to be 'festivals' in the traditional sense - they have audience awards and Sundance has jury prizes but they really are more for showcasing films to potential buyers than for showing films for film's sake.

[rohmerin]

You can't imagine how cool is the fact of reading people talking about my friend Claudia Llosa and her Golden Bear.
=D>

[puxzkkx]

It's awesome that you know her - personally I can't wait to see her movie, and it is great that a country without a huge international presence in the film scene is getting recognition for a homegrown effort!

[zedz]

(Unless you count the generally meaningless 'People's Choice' Award, which nobody in their right mind would consider a 'best film' accolade.)

Forgive me if I'm completely misunderstanding since I don't have much beyond Wikipedia-level knowledge of the other film festivals, but I'm not really sure how an award summing up votes from tens of thousands of people choosing from among hundreds of films should be considered less valid than one given by a small board of judges picking a film from a pre-ordained selection of a dozen or two?

Because the small board of judges have actually seen all of the films in competition (one hopes)? The 'People's Choice' award is an open ballot that tends to reward crowd-pleasing films because there are more people in crowds.

More important, however, is that a non-competitive festival is (and should be) a completely different beast from a competitive one, with a different focus and often a different programming philosophy, and this thread is about competitive festivals.

[ugobo]

You might want to add Toronto on there, as its one of the biggest North American film festivals and is often the launching pad for Oscar films. You might also want to remove Montreal, as its World Film Festival is a joke.

Why is the Montreal World Film Festival is a joke? I've attented the festival for the last 10 years and i see about 55-60 films there each year. I can safely say that the festival is a cinephile's paradise. I'm proud to be part of this unique film festival where normal people can make great discoveries as opposed to the ultra hyped crowded Toronto one...

Just my thoughts...

[brendanjc]

More important, however, is that a non-competitive festival is (and should be) a completely different beast from a competitive one, with a different focus and often a different programming philosophy, and this thread is about competitive festivals.

I agree with the assessment that they're different things, I suppose I just find the awards from both types of festivals equally interesting. I don't think anyone takes "best film lists" completely seriously as has been discussed endlessly elsewhere in this forum, and I certainly didn't intend to imply that one type of award is better than another - at best they're just another tool to hear about and build interest for things you might want to see.

It should be clarified whether thread was intended to be about something more inclusive of all types of film festivals, since the first post says:

Here's the thread to discuss any and all film festivals that aren't the "Big Ones" (Toronto, Venice, Berlin, Cannes, Sundance).

[rohmerin]

It's awesome that you know her - personally I can't wait to see her movie, and it is great that a country without a huge international presence in the film scene is getting recognition for a homegrown effort!

I studied with Claudia (and other now-becaming famous international people) in 2001 in Madrid, and of course we kept our friendship (I was a guest on her wedding last year). Well, the film is 90 % Spanish, she lives in Barcelona, and the money cames from there. But the plot and subjet is 100% Peruvian, is even more spoken in Quechua-language than her previous film Madeiunsa (it's on DVD in USA by filmovement). I saw, 1st person outside the crew, a work print last 2008 july in Claudia's house and she won the Golden Bear months later. So cool.
I started a topic on this forum abut La teta asustada with links.
She's now writting her 3rd film and expecting her 1st baby.

[puxzkkx]

Locarno awards have been announced:

The main jury was:
Jean-Marie Blanchard
Pascal Bonitzer
Hong Sang-soo
Nina Hoss
Luis Minarro
Jonathan Nossiter
Alba Rohrwacher

Golden Leopard
SHE, A CHINESE by Xiaolu GUO, United Kingdom/Germany/France

Special Jury Prize
BUBEN.BARABAN by Alexei Mizgirev, Russia

Best Director
BUBEN.BARABAN by Alexei Mizgirev, Russia

Leopard for Best Actress
Lotte Verbeek in NOTHING PERSONAL by Urszula Antoniak, Netherlands/Ireland

Leopard for Best Actor
Antonis Kafetzopoulos in AKADIMIA PLATONOS by Filippos Tsitos, Greece/Germany

Golden Leopard – Filmmakers of the Present Competition City of Locarno
THE ANCHORAGE by C.W. Winter and Anderson Edstöm, United States/Sweden

CinéCinéma Special Jury Prize / Filmmakers of the Present Competition
PIOMBO FUSO by Stefano Savona, Italy

Leopard for the Best First Feature
NOTHING PERSONAL by Urszula Antoniak, Netherlands/Ireland

Short films

Golden Leopard – SRG SSR idée suisse Prize for the International Leopard of Tomorrow Competition
BELIEVE by Paul Wright, United Kingdom (Scotland)

Silver Leopard – Kodak Prize for the International Leopard of Tomorrow
VARIACIOK by Krisztina Esztergályos, Hungary

Golden Leopard – George Foundation Prize for the Leopards of Tomorrow National Competition
LAS PELOTAS by Chris Niemeyer, Switzerland

Silver Leopard – Kodak Prize for the Leopards of Tomorrow National Competition
NACHTSPAZIERGANG by Christof Wagner, Switzerland

Prix du Public UBS – Audience Award
GIULIAS VERSCHWINDEN by Christoph Schaub, Switzerland

Variety Piazza Grande Award
SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT by Detlev Buck, Germany

++++++++________

The other awards are in a PDF on the official website.

[YazanAshqar]

An Open Letter to the Toronto International Film Festival:
Toronto Declaration: No Celebration of Occupation

http://torontodeclaration.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[puxzkkx]

Montreal and Venice are both going on now... I will post the awards when they're announced.

[puxzkkx]

Updated with Venice and Montreal awards.

[Adam]

Not really the right thread, but maybe it needs a new thread. But just got this email from Mike Plante:

Howdy all,

Unfortunately, due to the recent economy, CineVegas is going on hiatus and
canceling the 2010 event. We will keep the name going online and with some
local Vegas events, hopefully starting the fest back up in the future. A
press release will go out today.

Dammmmmmmmmmit.

[puxzkkx]

San Sebastian awards have been announced:

Golden Seashell - CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH . Lu Chuan
Special Jury Prize - THE REFUGE . Francois Ozon
Best Director - LA MUJER SIN PIANO . Javier Rebollo
Best Actor - ME, TOO . Pablo Pineda
Best Actress - ME, TOO . Lola Duenas
Best Screenplay - BLESSED
Best Photography - CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH

[puxzkkx]

Tokyo Film Festival lineup:

* = world premiere

"ACACIA" - Jinsei Tsuji *
"The Dark House" - Wojtek Smarzowski
"Eastern Plays" - Kamen Kalev
"Eight Times Up" - Xabi Molia
"Heaven Eternal, Earth Everlasting" - Li Fangfang *
"Manila Skies" - Raymond Red *
"Optical Illusions" - Cristian Jimenez
"Rabia" - Sebastian Cordero
"Road, Movie" - Dev Benegal
"Snowfall in Taipei" - Huo Jianqi *
"Southern District" - Juan Carlos Valdivia *
"Staten Island" - James DeMonaco
"Stories" - Mario Iglesias
"Ten Winters" - Valerio Mieli
"The Trotsky" - Jacob Tierney

[knives]

This is what happens when you extend the nominations.

P.S. I realize the Oscars are not a festival, couldn't find a better thread.

[Phil]

Is this an appropriate venue for me to complain about how infuriating the AFI Fest line-up is?

Because it's really fucking annoying.

[brendanjc]

Is this an appropriate venue for me to complain about how infuriating the AFI Fest line-up is?

Because it's really fucking annoying.

Why?

[knives]

Foreign language oscar noms.

[puxzkkx]

Tokyo prizes have just been announced. I'm adding them to the main post right now

Also, the BIFA nominations were just announced