2011 Nastri d’Argento Nominations and Award Winners

Last night was the award ceremony and the big winner is Nanni Moretti's Habemus Papam with six awards. Award winners are in *BLUE. Positively pleased with the Rohrwacher sisters awards, congrats!

To read winners in all categories go here and here available only in Italian.

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5/30/11

Today the Sindicato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani (SNGCI) announced the nominations for these prestigious awards and here they are for some categories. Top nominee is Habemus Papam by Nanni Moretti with 7 nominations.

Best Director
Marco Bellocchio for Sorelle Mai
Saverio Costanzo for La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi
Claudio Cupellini for Una Vita Tranquilla
*Nani Moretti for Habemos Papam
Pasquale Scimeca for Malavoglia

Best New Director
Aureliano Amadei for 20 Sigarette
Massimiliano Bruno for Nessuno mi può giudicare
Ascanio Celestini for La Pecora Nera
Edoardo Leo for 18 Anni Dopo
*Alice Rohrwacher for Corpo Celeste

Best Actress
Paola Cortellesi in Nessuno mi può giudicare and Maschi contro femmine
Angela Finocchiaro in La banda dei Babbi Natale and Benvenuti al Sud
Donatella Finocchiaro in Manuale d’amore 3 and Sorelle mai
Isabella Ragonese in Il Primo Incarico
*Alba Rohrwacher in La Solitudine dei Numeri Primi

Best Actor
Claudio Bisio and Alessandro Siani in Benvenuti al Sud
Raoul Bova in Nessuno mi può giudicare
*Kim Rossi Stuart in Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male
Toni Servillo in Una vita tranquilla and Il gioiellino
Emilio Solfrizzi in Se sei così ti dico sì

Best European Film
Another Year, Mike Leigh, UK
*The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper, UK
In a Better World, Susanne Bier, Denmark
Potiche, François Ozon, France
Of Men and Gods, Xavier Beauvois, France

Best Non-European Foreign Film
*Hereafter, Clint Eastwood
Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky
Inception, Christopher Nolan
The Social Network, David Fincher
Winter’s Bone, Debra Granik

To check nominees in all categories go here available only in Italian. Besides the obvious 2011 Cannes films there aren’t much new Italian movies that wish to see from above films as there are too many comedies which I don’t like. Nevertheless looking forward to watch Sorelle mai by Bellocchio and of course Il Gioiellino (The Jewel) directed by none other than Andrea Molaioli (remember great La Ragazza del Lago?) with Toni Servillo in the lead.

Award ceremony will be on June 25 at Taormina, Sicily.

Sebbe

Since I’m in my Swedish movies mood what better movie to review than the one that beat great Svinalängorna (Beyond) at the 2011 Guldbagge Awards? Yes Sebbe won the Best Film award and honestly I have not a clear idea why this film was considered better than Pernilla August outstanding film.

Babak Najafi film has a strong story, great tech specs and good pace, sometimes slow and other times fast. But film is structured with a narrative that keeps audiences far from getting involved, from feeling deeper than just being sorry for the bulling, the sad situation with Sebbe’s mother, his isolation, and being happy that he’s great with his hands, that he can build things, that even when he’s desperate to do something radical he doesn’t do it, that he’s a survivor. Maybe there is something relevant in Sweden that I’m unable to gasp, but this film allows you to contemplate, never to really feel. Still has a strong story that will keep your attention from beginning up to end.

Movie tells the story of Sebastian, Sebbe, a fifteen-years-old boy that lives with his mother in an apartment that’s much too small; he skips school because he’s horribly bullied by his classmates and he’s a loner that finds solace at the junkyard where he finds things that will come alive in his hands but his detachment from what surrounds him increments at the same pace as his own little world shrinks. One day his mother fails him due to a red jacket and nothing else is the same; everything fails and crumbles. Must be a trend but this film, in my opinion, has a happy ending that is so uncommon in great excellent European –even Nordic- cinema.

Maybe because Najafi’s style actors’ performances are adequate to their characters but never outstanding or remarkable, which is a pity as I believe that Sebastian Hiort af Ornäs character (Sebbe) should be allowed to shine as character absolutely carries movie in his shoulders.

I really wish someone from Sweden could explain me why this movie was considered by their top awards better that Pernilla August film, as I can’t understand it. Obviously what I’m really looking is the reason why this film can be considered outstanding by Swedish awards, critics and audiences. If you can help, I highly appreciate your feedback.

Nevertheless, this is another family Swedish drama that will keep your attention since beginning up to end and yes, I believe is a good representative of Swedish -and European cinema- and as such I do recommend watching the film that won top award at Guldbagge Awards and the Best Debut film at the 2010 Berlinale where was premiered.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC

Svinalängorna (Beyond)

There are not many raw family dramas that are so well constructed that make you feel like if you were there, inside the movie, living everything that’s going on in the present as well as in the past. Pernilla August debut absolutely will take you inside her movie and not only makes you the observer but also makes you feel the pain and the impotence of not being able to do something while Leena is a child.

You will not see much of the terrible things that happens to young Leena but you will feel everything thanks to an extraordinary performance by Tehilla Blad that plays young Leena and the outstanding visual narrative storytelling that August chose to tell a common story (damaged kids from alcoholic parents) and turn it into a tense, strong, intense, down turning voyage into a damaged family.

But if young Leena is fantastic, older Leena is superb as is played by none other than Noomi Rapace that again gave a strong performance as the happy mother of two young girls that suddenly gets a phone call that turns her happy world upside down as she is doomed to relive her past while traveling to the hospital where her mother is about to die. Can’t help but to think what is to have your real-life husband playing your husband in the movie and see that he is not as good actor as you, must be something not easy to accept. Yes in this movie Ola Rapace, Noomi’s real life husband, plays her husband and definitively is not as good actor as she is. Also with an amazing performance Outi Mäenpää (remember Black Ice?) as Leena’s mother.

Movie has very good tech specs but what stands is editing as an extraordinary tension builder as you know since the very beginning that something not good is going to be seen but August takes us in a slowly built voyage that flawlessly goes from present to past, from happiness to unhappiness, from deep buried secrets to release them, and unbelievable but true, to a happy ending. Great performances by the three female actresses, excellent director, very good tech specs and outstanding editing make this common story into a new, different and very compelling story and consequently, movie.

As we know film premiered at 2010 Biennale where won the Best Film Award in the Settimana Internazionale della Critica and had eight nominations at the 2011 Guldbagge Awards where Pernilla August won the Best Director and Outi Mäenpää the Best Supporting Actress awards plus movie has more international honors in the festival circuit; all honors, in my opinion, extremely well deserved. I strongly recommend this film to adult audiences that like very good and raw family dramas but be prepared for an intense, painful, emotional voyage into the life of damaged people.

Enjoy!!!

Watch trailer @MOC