DISPATCH FROM AWARDS SEASON | "4 Months" Crowned in Berlin as European Film Awards Celebrate 20 Years

Pride was the theme of the evening on the occasion of 20th anniversary of the European Film Awards, and fittingly so. The awards, first presented with a small group of founding members in 1988 -- with Pedro Almodovar's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" winning best picture == has now grown into one of the most prestigious film awards in the world. The European film community, maybe losing a little of it's identity with the euro zone, is still a strong symbol of creative filmmaking, with films emerging from sometimes unexpected places along with a continued strong proliferation of work from France, England, and Germany.
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SF INT'L '07 | "The Violin" and "Souvenirs" Among Top Golden Gate Award Winners at SFIFF 50

Mexican director Francisco Vargas Quevedo's "The Violin" (El violin) won the San Francisco International Film Festival's Skyy Prize, while Israeli duo Shahar Cohen and Halil Efrat's "Souvenirs" took best documentary feature (West Coast premiere), capping the Golden Gate Awards ceremony Wednesday evening for the festival's landmark 50th edition. SFIFF's golden year closes Thursday May 10th with Olivier Dahan's Edith Piaf biopic, "La vie en rose." Picturehouse will release the feature beginning June 8.
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ROTTERDAM '07 | Fest Names Four Tiger Award Winners

Four titles received accolades at the 2007 International Film Festival Rotterdam Friday evening in The Netherlands. Traditionally, three films take the festival's VPRO Tiger Awards, however four were named in this year's 36th edition, including Malaysian filmmaker Tan Chui Mui's "Love Conquers All," "The Unpolished" (Die Unerzogenen) by Pia Marais (Germany), while both Claudio Assis' "Bog of Beasts" (Baixio Das Bestas, Brazil) and Morten Hartz Kaplers' "AFR" (Denmark) tied for the third Tiger. The festival will conclude on Sunday in Rotterdam.
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PARK CITY '07 | "Padre Nuestro" and "Manda Bala" Win Top Prizes at Sundance '07

A pair of Latin American stories won the top prizes at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, which will close tomorrow night here in Park City, UT. Christopher Zalla's "Padre Nuestro," a Spanish-language immigrant drama set in New York City was awarded the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize, and Jason Kohn's "Manda Bala" ("Send a Bullet"), a profile of lives in Brazil, won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize (along with the cinematography prize), capping the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. Also receiving accolades at the packed ceremony inside the Park City Racquet Club tonight were Eva Mulvad and Anja Al Erhayem's "Enemies of Happiness," winners of the Documentary World Cinema Jury Prize and Dror Shaul's "Sweet Mud" which received the Dramatic World Cinema Jury Prize. [Editor's Note: The complete list of winners is available at the end of this article.]
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DISPATCH FROM HAWAII: With a Spotlight on Asia, Hawaii Int'l Fest Shines

Film festivals are like weddings: at any given time, there's one going on somewhere in the world. It's pretty safe to say, however, that there really is no festival on the circuit quite like the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival. In part that's because well, it's Hawaii, complete with sunset screenings on the beach and tiki-torch lined streets. What's more, Hawaii's unique geography gives this regional fest a distinct international flair. Now in its 26th year, the LVHIFF wrapped Sunday after ten days of screening 254 films from 47 countries, with more than 70,000 people attending.
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"Betelnut" and "Love Conquers All" Take Pusan Prizes; American Presence Slowly Increases

Chinese director Heng Yang's "Betelnut" and Malaysian director Chui Mui Tan's "Love Conquers All" shared the Pusan International Film Festival's New Currents Best New Asian Filmmaker of the Year award, capping the 11th edition of the event in the Korean port city of the same name. In addition to its New Currents win, "Love Conquers All" also took the FIPRESCI prize, which is awarded by visiting film critics. PIFF's 2006 event marked a seminal year for the festival, with the launch of the new Asian Film Market and a festival that is cementing both its pan-Asian and international focus and its place as arguably Asia's most important film event.
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Jia Zhang-Ke's "Still Life" Takes Golden Lion At Venice

As the 63rd Venice Film Festival came to a close, winners were announced from the twenty-two films in competition. Chinese feature "Still Life" by (Sanxia Haron) took the Golden Lion, the festival's top prize for best feature film. Director Jia Zhang-Ke, whose previous efforts "The World" and "Platform" competed in past years, took the award for his sixth feature. The Silver Lion for best director, meanwhile, went to French director Alain Resnais for his work on "Private Fears in Public Places."
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"Bawke," "One Rat Short" Among Top Jury Winners at 12th ShortFest in Palm Springs

The 2006 Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films & Short Film Market, also known as ShortFest, concluded its 12th annual event Tuesday night with its winners ceremony at the Camelot Theatre in the California desert resort community. Award winners receiving a first place prize are automatically eligible to submit their films to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for Oscar consideration. Norwegian director Hisham Zaman's "Bawke" won the festival's best of the festival award in the jury prizes, which includes $2,000 and a package of software.
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"Brothers of the Head" and "Clerks II" Among Winners at 60th Edinburgh Int'l Film Fest

The Edinburgh International Film Festival closed out its landmark 60th edition Saturday with Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe's "Brothers of the Head" winning the event's Michael Powell Award for Best New British Film, while Kevin Smith's "Clerks II" won the Standard Life Audience Award, and best documentary went to Jake Clennell's "The Great Happiness Space: Tale of an Osaka Love Thief." The announcements were made Saturday in the Scottish capital by the festival's departing Artistic Director, Shane Danielsen.
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"Gymnast" Flies to Two Outfest Prizes

Ned Farr's "The Gymnast" took two prizes at the recently concluded Outfest: Los Angeles Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, including the event's juried OUTstanding American Narrative Feature award and the HBO OUTstanding First Narrative Feature nod, which is an audience prize. Also sharing fest honors were Amnon Buchbinder's "Whole New Thing" (OUTstanding International Narrative Feature) and Malcolm Ingram's Sundance 2006 film, "Small Town Gay Bar" (OUTstanding Documentary Feature).
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"Blessed by Fire" and "The War Tapes" Take Tribeca Film Festival Honors

Two war-inspired films took top honors at the 5th Tribeca Film Festival. "Blessed by Fire" (Iluminados por el Fuego) by Tristan Bauer and U.S. director Deborah Scranton's "The War Tapes" won the Best Narrative Feature prize and Best Documentary Feature prize respectively during an awards dinner this evening (Saturday) in Chinatown in Lower Manhattan. "Fire," (Argentina, Spain) is based on the memoir of a veteran of the Falklands Islands War between Argentina and the U.K. in the early '80s, while present-day Iraq is the backdrop for "War Tapes," which chronicles the stories of several members of a National Guard unit deployed to Iraq sharing their experiences and lives from their point-of-view. Also taking honors this evening were Marwan Hamed for "The Yacoubian Building" for Best New Narrative Filmmaker (Egypt) and Pelin Esmer for "The Play," which took Best New Documentary Filmmaker (Turkey).
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"Workingman's Death" and "Half Nelson" Among San Francisco International Film Festival Winners

The 49th San Francisco International Film Festival, North America's oldest event of its kind, announced its winners Thursday, with Austrian director Michael Glawogger's "Workingman's Death" receiving the fest's Golden Gate Award for Documentary Feature, while Chinese director Ying Liang received the Skyy Prize - First Narrative Feature award for "Taking Father Home." Also receiving kudos this year is lauded Sundance '06 competition feature, "Half Nelson," by Ryan Fleck, which won the FIPRESCI Prize. SFIFF's audience award winners will be announced soon. SFIFF is organized by the San Francisco Film Society.
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"A Little Piece of Heaven" and "Iraq in Fragments" Take Nods at Bustling Cleveland Festival

The Cleveland International Film Festival received a nice boost from locals in celebration of its 30th anniversary. Attendance rose 17 percent from the previous year, and CIFF staffers gleefully mentioned their record-breaking attendance when introducing screenings. "We have broken a record everyday except Monday (March 20th)," said one CIFF rep before introducing British director Brian Hill's "Songbirds" last week. "Cleveland had a certain famous visitor that day, so it interfered..." The mention prompted loud boos from the crowd, since the reference was to President Bush's visit to Cleveland earlier that week. Ohio may be a red state, but the crowd that day was decidedly blue.
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"En El Hoyo", "Vida y Color", "Accused" and "Burnt Out" Take Grand Jury Prizes At Miami International Film Fest

The Miami International Film Festival concluded its 23rd edition this past weekend by awarding Grand Jury prizes to four films in the World and Ibero-American competition. Mexico director Juan Carlos Rulfo won the top prize in the Documentary Feature Competition for his film, "En El Hoyo" ("In The Pit"), which takes a look at the construction workers who toiled for years to build the second deck of a Mexico City freeway. In 1997, Juan Carlos Rulfo won international festival praise for his film, "I Forgot, I Don't Remember," which he made in homage to his father. Two special Grand Jury Mentions were also awarded in the Documentary Features competition. Swedish directors Erik Gandini and Tarik Saleh were honored for their documentary "GITMO-The New Rules of War" about the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, and Adan Aliaga for "My Grandmother's House," which examines the themes of generational change and modernization in Spain through the relationship between a grandmother and her granddaughter.
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PARK CITY '06: "Quinceanera" and "God Grew Tired of Us" Each Win Jury & Audience Prizes at Sundance '06; "Iraq in Fragments" Gets 3 Awards

Two new American independent films swept both jury and audience awards at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival this year, a first in the history of this twenty-two year-old festival recognized as the most important in the United States. Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer's "Quinceanera" and Christopher Quinn's "God Grew Tired of Us" were among the big winners tonight as Sundance presented prizes at the conclusion of its 2006 event in Park City, UT. "Quinceanera" won both the dramatic grand jury prize and the audience award, while "God Grew Tired of Us" also won both the grand jury award and the audience prize in the documentary competition.
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"Grandmother'" Wins IDFA Jury Prize, "Sisters" Tops With Audiences in Amsterdam

The 2005 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam wrapped up this weekend with Adan Aliaga's "My Grandmother's House" (La Casa de Mi Abuela) awarded the VPRO Joris Ivens Award for best feature film in competition. The Spanish documentary is story of a grandmother and her grandchild living life in a Spanish industrial town. Nikolaus Geyrhalter's "Our Daily Bread" won a special jury award in the Joris Ivens competition, winning a 12,500 Euro prize. Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi's "Sisters in Law," which opened the festival on November 24th, won the audience award, winning a 4,500 Euro award.
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"Kissed By Winter" "Refugee All Stars" "Tsotsi" and "C.R.A.Z.Y." Honored as AFI Fest Concludes

The AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival capped off its 2005 edition with an awards ceremony atop the Hollywood ArcLight parking structure at the event's festival village, awarding Norway's "Kissed by Winter" its grand jury prize in the international feature competition, while the audience award for best feature film went to both Canada's "C.R.A.Z.Y." and South Africa's "Tsotsi."

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Hamptons Fest Packs Plentiful Films, Celebs, Parties and More Venues Into Five-day Event

For a "long-weekend" event, the Hamptons International Film Festival manages to pack quite a wallop. This year's five-day fest, which ran October 19 - 23, included a 125-plus-film lineup in addition to a slew of panels, parties and other events that can easily fill up any festival itinerary. For two reporters on the beat, it's impossible to fully capture everything. The village of East Hampton has long been the festival's nucleus where a majority of screenings and panels took place, while ancillary screenings were given to surrounding towns. This year, however, HIFF shifted a significant part of its events to Southampton, enlarging the festival to other areas of the famed ritzy enclave on Long Island's east end, but also posing a bit of a challenge for some festival attendees. Despite the festival's October dates, well past the warm Hamptons high season when the area is overrun by weekenders packing into their expensive summer rentals, the region's main drag -- The Montauk Highway -- was quite busy during the event, making trek's between venues in both towns quite difficult at times.

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"My Nikifor" and "The Boys of Baraka" Honored at Chicago International Film Festival

Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Krauze won top accolades at the 41st Chicago International Film Festival over the weekend, taking the event's Gold Hugo - Best Film prize for "My Nikifor." In addition, the film's star Roman Gancarczyk received CIFF's Silver Hugo Award for best actor. The film, which was the top prizewinner at the Karlovy Film Festival this summer, is the story of self-styled street artist, Nikifor whose passion and torment drove him to create over 40,000 works of art during his lifetime. Romanian director Cristi Puiu's recent Reykjavik International Film Festival winner, "The Death of Mr. Lazarescu," meanwhile, won the fest's Silver Hugo - Special Jury Prize. The film builds suspense surrounding one man's quest for care in an overburdened hospital.

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"Bluma", "Mantis", "China" Take Top Prizes at Palm Springs Shorts Fest

The Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films and Short Film Market concluded on September 26, with the "Best of Festival Award" - accompanied by a cash prize of $2,000 - going to American filmmaker Benjamin Ross' "Torte Bluma," about the relationship between a German commandant and the Jewish prisoner who cooks his meals in a concentration camp during World War II.
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