14th Swiss Film Prize Quartz Award Winners

Two days ago they had the award ceremony and winners are in *BLUE; to check winners in all categories go here.

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1/29/11
A few days ago at the Solothurn Film Festival the nominations for Quartz 2011 were announced and here they are.

Best Fiction Film
Cosa voglio di più (What More Do I Want), Silvio Soldini
Der Sandmann (The Sandman), Peter Luisi
*La Petite Chambre (The Little Room), Stéphanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond
Sennentuntschi, Michael Steiner
Stationspiraten, Michael Schaerer

Best Actress
*Isabelle Caillat in All That Remains, Pierre-Adrian Irlé, Valentin Rotelli
Sabine Timoteo in Sommervögel (Little Paradise), Paul Riniker
Linda Olsansky in Zu Zweit (The Two Of Us), Barbara Kulcsar

Best Actor
Fabian Krüger in Der Sandmann (The Sandman), Peter Luisi
Andrea Zogg in Sennentuntschi, Michael Steiner
*Scherwin Amini in Stationspiraten, Michael Schaerer

Best Performance in a Supporting Role
*Carla Juri in 180°, Cihan Inan
Martin Hug in How About Love, Stefan Haupt
Stefan Kurt in Stationspiraten, Michael Schaerer

To read nominees in all categories and check info about each movie go here. Awards ceremony will be on March 12 in KKL Luzern.

Villa Amalia

Seems that lately I have been choosing to watch films where female protagonists leave everything behind to start a “new life”. First was Nothing Personal and now Villa Amalia. Is someone sending me a message? (LOL!) Anyway this Benoît Jacquot film couldn’t be more different than the Irish film as not only is a great example of what I can call very-very French cinema but the lead character is played by none other than Isabelle Huppert.

Film tells about Ann (Huppert) that what she sees in one night detonates not only the rupture of her love life but also propels a decision that as you get to know her story and circumstances you will totally understand why she does what she does. This is a story that explores themes of identity and fugue. Yes Ann leaves her live-in boyfriend, her successful concert pianist and composer career, and her possessions to search for a new meaning for her life. Not totally willingly helped by Georges -a childhood friend she re-encounters in that one night- she ends up at the island of Ischia in Italy.

This is a film with what some have called “gay subtext” because Georges ‘seems’ gay as well as Ann meets Giulia and she ends up sharing her bed. But I believe is not subtext as I was able to clearly see that Georges is gay and it was very clear what happened to Ann with Giulia. In a sense I regret that the treatment to the lesbian interest moments was so superficial, but if I take into account Jacquot storytelling technique absolutely understand why he chose to do those moments the way he did them.

As always extraordinary performance by Isabelle Huppert that more than with words is with her body language and facial expressions that make you feel all kind of emotions that range from numbness to total sympathy for whatever the character is doing, feeling or living. As a movie has good cinematography, slow pace, many extraordinary silences (most notably during Ann’s last visit to her mother), is full of narratives ellipses plus truncated conversations which transmits fracture and makes the storytelling technique quite extraordinary.

I liked the film for the story, great performance by Huppert and her co protagonists, and beautiful sights of the Italian island; but most of all I liked for Jacquot narrative and visual storytelling technique and as such I do recommend it to those that enjoy great –but very particular- French cinema. Also I don’t recommend the movie to those that enjoy the lesbian or gay interest genre as absolutely is not the ‘normal’ genre film; still is important to share that the film has been in the European LGTB fest circuit, so some maybe dare to give the film a try.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

63rd Locarno Film Festival Award Winners

Just a few minutes ago winners were announced and here they are as published in the official fest site.

Golden Leopard: Han Jia (Winter Vacation), Li Hong qi, China (Watch film excerpt @ Storyteller facebook wall, link in first column)

Special Jury Prize: Morgen, Marian Crisan, Romania, France and Hungary

Best Director: Denis Côté for Curling, Canada

Leopard for Best Actress: Jasna Duric in Beli Beli Svet (White White World), Oleg Novkovic, Serbia, Germany and Sweden
Leopard for Best Actor: Emmanuel Bilodeau in Curling, Denis Cote, Canada

Filmmakers of the Present

Golden Leopard: Paraboles (The Art of Speaking), Emmanuelle Demoris, France (documentary)
Special CineCinema Jury Prize: Foreign Parts, Verena Paravel and JP Sniadecki, USA and France
Special Mention: Ivory Tower, Adam Traynor Canada and Frace

Best First Film: Foreign Parts, Verena Paravel and JP Sniadecki, USA and France
Special Mention: Aardvark, Kitao Sakurai, USA and Argentina

FIPRESCI Award: Han Jia (Winter Vacation), Li Hong qi, China
Special Mention: Karamay, Xu Xin, China

Ecumenical Jury Award: Morgen, Marian Crisan, Romania, France and Hungary
Arte & Essai CICAE: Beli Beli Svet (White White World), Oleg Novkovic, Serbia, Germany and Sweden
FICC/IFFS Award: Morgen, Marian Crisan, Romania, France and Hungary

Variety Piazza Grande Award: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale, Jalmari Helander, Finland, Norway, France and Sweden.

Audience Award: The Human Resources Manager, Eran Riklis, Israel, Germany and France

Settimana della Critica Award: Reindeer Spotting - Escape from Santaland, Joonas Neuvonen, Finland
Special Mentions
Blood Calls You, Linda Thorgen, Sweden
The Furious Force of Rhymes, Joshua Litle, France and USA

To check other awards and the short film winners please go here.

63 Festival del Film Locarno - Open Doors Awards

Today the fest co-production lab announced the award winners of the 2010 session devoted to cinema from Central Asia. A total of 12 projects, selected from 114 applications from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan participated in the Open Doors Factory.

These are the winners of the grants for production or development.

Production: Sunny Days, Nariman Turebayev, Kazakhstan
Development: Aral, Ella Vakkasova, Uzbekistan
Development: Barzagh, Saodat Ismailova, Uzbeistan

To read the announcement at the official site go here.

2010 Settimana della Critica at Locarno Film Festival

The independent and parallel section of the Locarno fest will screen the usual seven (7) films -only 'state of the art' documentaries- at their competition and here they are.

Article 12 - Walking Up in a Surveillance Society, Juan Manuel Biaiñ, UK and Argentina, 2010
Auf Wiedersehen Finnland, Virpi Suutari, Finland, 2010
Blood Calls You, Linda Thorgren, Sweden, 2010
Das Schiff des Torjägers, Heidi Specogna, Germany and Switzerland, 2010
Reindeer Spotting - Escape from Santaland, Joonas Neuvonen
Summer Pasture, Lynn True, Nelson Walker and Tsering Perlo, USA and China, 2010
The Furious Force of Rhymes, Joshua Atesh Litle, France and USA, 2010

To read about each of the films go here . The section runs from August 4th to 14th.

63rd Locarno Film Festival Lineup

Yesterday the fest opened with the premiere of much awaited (by me) of Benoit Jacquot's Au fond des Bois (Deep in the Woods) starring none other than Isild Le Besco, who also directed a film in the main international competition.

Today the International Competition opened and here are the films in competition.

Bas-Fonds, Isild Le Besco, France (lesbian interest and first time that I see in a fest: Not suitable for those under 18!! yep, will be heavy!)
Beli Beli Svet (White White World), Oleg Novkovic, Serbia, Germany and Sweden
Beyond The Steppes, Vanja d'Alcantara, Belgium and Poland
Cold Weather, Aaron Katz, USA
Curling, Denis Cote, Canada
Han Jia (Winter Vacation), Li Hong qi, China
Homme Au Bain, Christophe Honoré, France (Gay interest, again not suitable for those under 18)
Im Alter von Ellen (At Ellen's Age), Pia Marais, Germany (story seems interesting)
Karamay, Xu Xin, China (Documentary) (must be very hard to watch)
L.A. Zombie, Bruce LaBruce, USA, Germany and France (obviously gay interest and the no under 18 notice, lol! yep, been reading about this film that has been called 'pornography')
La Petite Chambre, Stéphanie Chuatand and Véronique Reymond, Switzerland and Luxembourg
Luz Nas Trevas - A Volta Do Bandido Da Luz Vermelha (Light in Darkness - The Return of Red Light Bandit), Helena Ignez and Icaro C. Martins, Brazil
Morgen, Marian Crisan, Romania, France and Hungary (yes will watch)
Periferic, Bogdan George Apetri, Romania and Austria (Yes, Must Be Seen for me)
Pietro, Daniele Gaglianone, Italy
Saç (Hair), Tayfun Pirselimoglu, Turkey and Greece
Songs of Love and Hate, Katalin Gödrös, Switzerland
Womb, Benedek Fliegauf, Germany, Hungary and France

To check the list and read information about the films go here and select Films & Screening Schedule then Concorso Internanazionale, film info is in English. Some films have trailers or scene videos. Have to say that there are some quite strange and weird stories in some movies, just the synopsis made me gasp when reading, some absolutely will have to see them just to find how the filmmaker dealt with the story.

There is also the Cineasti del Presente Competition (Filmmakers of the Present Competition) dedicated to emerging directors from the world; check the films in the competition section. The shorts competition Pardi di Domani (Leopards of Tomorrow) has up to 40 minutes shorts by directors who haven't yet made feature films and has an award for international filmmakers and another for Swiss filmmakers.

The fest runs until August 14 and will be checking for the winners as soon as they're published.

63rd Festival del Film Locarno

Today festival organizers announced the complete lineup as the fest will run this year from Augus 4 to 14. To check the 50 World Premiers plus many more films in the several sections, that include three competitive sections, please go here. Can't do my regular post but wanted to let you know.

Enjoy!