“Burma VJ” Leads SFIFF Winners

A scene from Anders Ostergaard's "Burma VJ." Image courtesy of Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Anders Østergaard’s “Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country” took home the Golden Gate Award for best investigate documentary, which comes with a $25,000 cash prize, last night as the 52nd San Francisco International Film Festival came to a close.  The film, being released in theaters next week through Oscilloscope, follows the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), aka the Burma VJs. Compiled from the handheld footage of the DVB, the film details the VJs as they themselves become the target of the Burmese government.

Other major winners include Gaël Métroz’s “Nomad’s Land,” which won the $20,000 Golden Gate Award for best documentary feature. Previous winners in this category include Yung Chang’s “Up The Yangtze,” Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat’s “Souvenirs,” and Michael Glawogger’s “Workingman’s Death.” Jim Granato’s “D Tour” won the award for Bay Area doc, while Aida Begic’s “Snow” won the New Directors Award. Both carry $15,000 prizes.

The San Francisco Film Society, which puts on SFIFF, additionally announced the SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant, which they co-award with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.  The $35,000 grant, given to “a filmmaker for a narrative feature film, with a social justice theme, being made in the San Francisco Bay Area,” was awarded to Richard Levien for the screenwriting/script development of “La Migra.”  The film follows eleven-year-old Alondra, who comes home from school to find that her mother, Guadalupe, has been taken by the immigration police. “Every day across the U.S. families are separated, often for life, by the deportation process,” SFFS stated. “‘La Migra’ makes this story personal.”

The complete list of Golden Gate Award winners is below.  Check back with indieWIRE for a dispatch from the festival.

Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners

Investigative Documentary Feature:
Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, Anders Østergaard (Denmark/Sweden 2008)
· Winner receives a $25,000 cash prize

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Bay Area Documentary Feature: D tour, Jim Granato (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $15,000 cash prize, Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 software courtesy of Apple and $2,000 worth of lab services from EFILM Digital Laboratories Documentary Feature: Nomad’s Land, Gaël Métroz (Switzerland 2008) · Winner receives a $20,000 cash prize and Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 software courtesy of Apple Golden Gate Award Short Film Winners Adobe Youth Film for Change: A Generation of Consolidation, Samantha Muilenburg, Brooke Noel (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $1,500 cash prize and an Adobe production suite certificate Youth Work: No Light at the End of the Tunnel, Charlotte Burger (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $1,500 cash prize and an Adobe production suite certificate Honorable Mention: Poetry in the Dark, Daniel Kharlak (USA 2008) Work for Kids and Families: Mutt, Glen Hunwick (Australia 2008) · Winner receives a $1,500 cash prize Animated Short: Kanizsa Hill, Evelyn Lee (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $2,000 cash prize New Visions: Circles of Confusion, Phoebe Tooke (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $1,500 cash prize and 1,000 feet of Kodak film stock Bay Area Short, First Prize: Immersion, Richard Levien (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $2,000 cash prize Bay Area Short, Second Prize: Utopia, Part 3: The World’s Largest Shopping Mall, Sam Green, Carrie Lozano (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $1,500 cash prize Documentary Short: Tongzhi in Love, Ruby Yang (USA 2008) · Winner receives a $5,000 cash prize Narrative Short: Angels Die in the Soil, Babak Amini (Iran 2008) · Winner receives a $5,000 cash prize and 1,000 feet of Kodak film stock New Directors Award Snow, Aida Begic (Bosnia and Herzegovina 2008) · Winner receives a $15,000 cash prize and Final Cut Studio 2.0.1 software courtesy of Apple FIPRESCI Prize Everything Strange and New, Frazer Bradshaw (USA 2008) Loading ... Can issue-centered documentaries find success at the U.S. box office today? Yes, depending on how it's presented and marketed No, we live in an escapist society intoxicated by celebrity right now Only rarely Only if it criticizes George W. Bush or Big Macs Read & React: “Burma VJ” Leads SFIFF Winners Login to recommend this article » posted on May 7, 2009 Films to Snag Login to Leave a Comment »