“Push” Wins Three at Sundance; “Public” Top Doc by Eugene Hernandez and Peter Knegt (January 25, 2009)
U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize winner "Push"'s director Lee Daniels on stage at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival awards ceremony. Photo by Brian Brooks.
Amidst continuous brief refrains from U2’s “The Sweetest Thing,” awards were presented at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival tonight in Park City. Lee Daniels’ “Push: Based on a novel by Sapphire” was the big winner tonight winning three major awards. It received the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, the Audience Award and a special acting prize for Mo’Nique. The film remained without distribution as the prizes were presented tonight, with seller Cinetic Media hoping to stir buyers today as the festival neared its conclusion. Ondi Timoner’s “We Live in Public,” also seeking a distribution deal, won the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize. “This is so important to me,” said Daniels, accepting the audience award prize, “Because this is speaking for every minority that’s in Harlem, that’s in Detroit, that’s in Watts, that’s being abused, that can’t read, that’s obese and that we turn our back on. And this is for every gay little boy and girl that’s being tortured. If I can do this shit ya’ll can do this shit. Thank you very much.” “I’d like to dedicate this award to my mother and father,” said Ondi Timoner, winner of this year’s U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize this year for “We Live In Public” (and also the winner in 2004 for her film “Dig!”). “[They] always taught me to go for it—anything I believe in—and they have done everything they can to help me realize my dreams.” “I feel sick, I’m sweaty and I smell bad,” quipped Charlyne Yi, accepting the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for “Paper Heart” alongside co-writer Nicholas Jasenovec. “This is a weird prize to give this film because there were about five written pages,” Jasenovec added. Picking up the speech, Yi added, addressing her remarks to the other filmmakers in the audience, “Who knows what will happen to our films, but at least they were seen!” Lone Scherfig’s “An Education” won the World Cinema Audience Award, after a successful week at the Festival in which the film was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. “I am very proud to receive this award from that jury,” director Lone Scherfig said, after returning to the festival this morning to present a final screening and then accept her prize tonight. After thanking Geoff Gilmore and the festival audiences, she also singled out new U.S. President Barack Obama. “That was a big event for me to be in this country on this day,” she added, and then thanked Sony, “so that more people than the people of Park City get to see our film.”
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AFI Fest
AFI Fest '09
AN EDUCATION
Now Playing New York, Los Angeles and other select cities Where is it playing? When does it open by you? www.sonyclassics.com/aneducation/dates.html From Nick Hornby, Writer of ABOUT A BOY and HIGH FIDELITY "Wonderfully fresh and original" Joe Morgenstern, WALL STREET JOURNAL "One of the best films of the year" Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES A Lone Scherfig film Starring Peter Sarsgaard and Carey Mulligan as Jenny http://www.aneducationfilm.com http://www.facebook.com/aneducation |
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Nice typo in the photo caption for Ondi Timoner’s film