In an awards ceremony Saturday afternoon, the Silverdocs juries announced their choices for best films. “Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You, Mommy),” the debut feature from Stephanie Wang-Breal, took home the award for Best U.S. Feature at the 2010 AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival. Wang-Breal’s film, set to air on POV this August, follows an 8 year old girl, born in China and given the name Faith upon adoption, who is taken into a Jewish New York family. The award for Best World Feature went to Vadim Jendreyko’s “The Woman with the 5 Elephants,” which recounts the story of Svetlana Geier, a renowned translator who gained fame by translating the five magnificent tomes from Dostoyevsky into German. Amongst the other winners was the honoree for the Cinematic Vision Award, Jeff Malmberg’s “Marwencol,” which received, in addition to an in-kind prize from Alpha Cine and Canon, a Sunday Best Barbie for the “staged catfights” in the subject of the film’s created miniature town, Marwencol. The festival’s audience awards will be named on Monday.
The complete list of winners from Silverdocs:
Sterling U.S. Feature: “Wo Ai Ni Mommy (I Love You, Mommy),” Stephanie Wang-Breal
Special Jury Mention: “The Kids Grow Up,” Doug Block
Special Jury Mention: “My Perestroika,” Robin Hessman
Sterling World Feature: “The Woman with the 5 Elephants,” Vadim Jendreyko
Special Jury Mention: “Steam of Life,” Joonas Berghall & Mika Hotakainen
Sterling Short Award: “This Chair Is Not Me,” Andy Taylor Smith
Special Jury Mention: “Between Dreams,” Iris Olsson
Special Jury Mention: “The Poodle Trainer,” Vance Malone
Cinematic Vision Award: “Marwencol,” Jeff Malmberg
WITNESS Award: “Budrus,” Julia Bacha
Writers Guild of America Documentary Screenplay Award: “A Film Unfinished,” Yael Hersonski
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