sundance 2006 - Zoael

BY STEPHEN ASHTON
WHEN THIRTY YEAR FESTIVAL
vet Darryl Macdonald rode
into the desert from the
Great Northwest (he had been with
Seattle International for years), he
brought with him a posse of seasoned
cinema warriors to watch his back. His
sidekick Carl Spence took the reins as
Director of Programming, and led his
team of trusty programing workhorses
(six specialists in various areas) to
round up 232 films from senty-one
countries, including eighty-four pre-
mieres and forty-nine of the fifty-four
foreign entries for this year’s Academy
Awards. Not to mention a gang of
“back-grounders”—festival pros in
every area of administration from
operations and events to print trafficking
and promotion.
IN HIS OWN WORDS:
MACDONALD ON PALM SPRINGS
STEPHEN ASHTON: What excites you
most about the Festival this year?
DARRYL MACDONALD: The new intiatives
we are undertaking: paying more
attention to the programming of films
of historical merit, including Chaplin’s
The Circus, Frank Borzage’s film noir
classic Moonrise and rarest of all for
American audiences, Alfred Radockk’s
Distant Journey, a Czech masterwork
incorporating elements of expressionist
and surrealist cinema. Further
underlining this archival programming
strand is our retrospective of the work
of Pupi Avati, which, while it is not
widely known in America, represents a
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PALM SPRINGS
It’s NoMirage, It’sWhere to be Seen
Film literacy, visible on the horizon, makes the desert bloom
Lifetime Achievement...which lifetime?
17TH ANNUAL PALM SPRINGS
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
AWARD WINNERS
FLASH! THE FIRST FESTIVAL
of 2006 closed just days
ago with a flood of raves for
its films, fun and smooth operation.
Minh Nguyen-Vo’s feature debut
from Vietnam, Buffalo Boy,
received the FIPRESCI Award.
Ion Fiscuteanu received the
FIPRESCI Award, Best Actor for
his performance in The Death of
Mr. Lazarescu (Romania), directed
by Cristi Puiu.
Meltem Cumbul received the
FIPRESCI Award, Best Actress for
her performance in Lovelorn
(Turkey), directed by Yavuz Turgul.
Love + Hate, directed by
Dominic Savage, received the
New Voices/New Visions Award.
AUDIENCE AWARD WINNERS
Five Days in September (Canada)
received the Audience Award for
Best Documentary Feature.
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont
(U.K.) and Mother of Mine
(Finland/Sweden) tied for
Audience Award for Best Narrative
Feature.
This year’s FIPRESCI jury members
were president Kirill Razlogov
(Russia), Henrik Uth Jensen
(Denmark), Gideon Kouts (France),
Charles-Stephane Roy (Canada)
and Robert Koehler (U.S.).
New Voices/New Visions Jury
members included actor Udo Kier,
Los Angeles Times writer John
Horn and Screen International
writer Jeremy Kay.
Two Sons of Francisco received
the John Schlesinger Award for
Outstanding First Feature
(Narrative or Documentary).
Carl Spence, director of programming
said, “Breno Silveira is
a celebrated cinematographer who
has masterfully made a flawless,
IN THE DETAILS
distinctive directorial voice in European
cinema who has done exceptional
work in a number of genres. Each of
the prints is newly struck, and collectively,
they represent a fitting foray
into cinema’s past, which is intended
to provide some balance for our
emphasis on cinema’s present and
future, which are the focus of the other
showcases in the Festival line-up.
Speaking of that cinematic future,
I’m particularly pleased with our New
Voices/New Visions section of the
Festival this year, which encompasses
the work of twelve exceptional new
directors on the world stage, each of
whom provides cause for excitement
about the filmmaking talent emerging
in different countries around the globe.
SA: Do you think the PSIFF has
contributed to “film literacy” amongst
the public? That is to say, is the
audience more accepting of innovative
cinema or more experimental
out of the ordinary work. If you
think the Festival has contributed
to this, how?
moving and visually stunning film
with his feature-length film debut.
Our hope is that with the presentation
of this award, Two Sons of
Francisco will receive the critical
acclaim and attention in North
America that it deserves. The
Festival looks forward to watching
Silveria’s continuing career as an
emerging master filmmaker.”
In addition to the Film Awards,
Palm Springs is high on the “glam
charts” as well, with its Annual
Black Tie Gala. This year delighting
the crowds were Shirley
MacLaine, who received the
Lifetime Achievement Award presented
by Academy Award winner
Kathy Bates. Shirley danced a bit
and joined in song.
Charlize Theron was presented
with the Desert Palm Achievement
Award, Actress, presented by her
Sweet November co-star Keanu
Reeves. They clowned around.
David Cronenberg received the
Keanu presents Charlize with her award.
DM: Part of our overall mission is to
raise both the appreciation for and
the level of discourse about films and
filmmaking in general amongst audiences.
Certainly the Festival has gone
a long way towards achieving those
goals in its first seventeen years,
encompassing post-screening discussions
and seminars, master classes
and panel discussions in its program-
CONTINUED ON PAGE 62
Sonny Bono Visionary Award presented
by A History of Violence
star Viggo Mortensen. Not only
did he seem to be moved by the
award, but he gave a most well
thought-out acceptance speech.
Jake Gyllenhaal was given the
Desert Palm Achievement Actor
Award, presented by his Jarhead
co-star Peter Sarsgaard and
Terrence Howard took home the
Rising Star Award presented by
his Crash co-star Chris “Ludacris”
Bridges and director Paul Haggis.
Felicity Huffman grabbed the
Breakthrough Performance Award
presented by her Transamerica
co-star Fionnula Flanagan and
Michael London got the Producer
of the Year Award presented by
Sideways star Virginia Madsen.
Thomas Newman took the
Frederick Loewe Award for Film
Composing presented by Finding
Nemo director Andrew Stanton.
—STEPHEN ASHTON