Winter Comes Early To Chi-Fest

by Mark Rabinowitz

The 33rd Chicago International Film Festival wrapped up on Sunday, with the
fest’s juries announcing its Hugo Award winners in several categories, with
several categories not receiving Hugos as, according to the festival, Hugos
are awarded only to films “of incomparable excellence, creativity, and
originality.” Best feature film Gold Hugo winner (and U.S. premiere) was
Alan Rickman’s directorial debut, “The Winter Guest“, starring Emma Thompson
and Phyllida Law (also Thompson’s mother), which also screened at the
recently concluded Hamptons International Film Festival. The second place
Silver Hugo went to Taiwan’s “The River“, by Tsai Ming-Ling. The documentary
category is broken up into two sections, with two Sundance films taking the
Gold and Silver Hugos in the History/Biography section — Mark Jonathan
Harris’ “The Long Way Home“, a documentary about Holocaust
survivors and their search for a new homeland and narrated by Morgan
Freeman and Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell’s “Riding The Rails“, respectively.
Hugos were not awarded in the following categories: Documentary Feature
(Science/Nature), Documentary Feature (Arts/Humanities), Documentary Short,
Experimental.

In addition, the International Film Critics Association FIPRESCI
(Federation Internationale de la Presse Cinematographique) awarded its top
prize to Bruno Dumont’s New York Film Festival Entrant, “La Vie De Jesus” and
a Special Mention Certificate was given to Richard Kwietniowski’s “Love And Death On Long Island“.

[More information on the Chicago International Film Festival can be found
on their website @ “www.chicago.ddbn.com/filmfest“]

KEYWORDS: