www.filmfestivalreporter.com 212-262-7499 PUBLISHER/EXECUTIVE EDITOR Scott Bayer mail to: bayers@filmfestivalreporter.com restorationandarchiving@yahoo.com FILM FEATURES EDITOR/ DESIGN EDITOR Eddy Gilbert Herch TECHNOLOGY EDITOR Michael Silbergleid restorationandmastering@yahoo.com MANAGING EDITOR/ BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Christina Kotlar SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR Sandy Mandelberger INTERNATIONAL EDITOR/ PHOTOGRAPHY Stephen Ashton MUSIC FEATURES EDITOR/ PHOTOGRAPHY Lily Hatchett ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Olga Melman ADVERTISING SALES Scott Bayer David Hatchett Christina Kotlar CONTRIBUTORS Jorge Ameer Dane Andrew Justine Ashton Peter Broderick Mike Caporale Martie Evans-Charles Marc Furstenberg David Hatchett Bob Heiber Gill Holland Randolph Hudson Jim James Jose Martinez Claus Mueller Cristiane Roget Peter Rosenthal Gary Springer Drake Stutesman Russ Suniewick Larry Thorpe T. C. Rice Joe Tripician Gordon Tubbs Karen Vanmeenen Phil Vigeant Rhonda Vigeant Michael Vitti Awards Ceremony Ends In Surprised Parties BY SANDY MANDELBERGER SEVERAL SURPRISE WINNERS dominated the Sundance Film Festival Awards, which were presented to a packed house of enthusiastic filmmakers, professionals and audience members at a gala ceremony held on Saturday night at the Park City Racquet Club. The concluding awards ceremony and party bring to an end a ten-day film bonanza that drew nearly 40,000 visitors to the Festival. Two films, both surprise choices based on early predictions, won the four top prizes in the American Independent Film competition. Quinceanera, a heartfelt family drama set in the Mexican community of Los Angeles’ Echo Park, won both the Grand Jury Prize as Best Dramatic Film and the Audience Award, voted on by the general public. The film, co-directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, focuses on a family preparing for a Mexican version “La Quinceneara”, a rite of passage that has since evolved into a debutante’s “coming out party” for a young Chicano girl. The film touched on themes of tolerance, gentrifrication and the eroding of traditional Latino culture. The documentary film God Grew Tired of Us won both the Grand Jury Prize as Best Documentary and the Audience Award. The film, directed by Christopher Quinn, is an intimate look at three Sudanese “lost boys” who leave their war-torn country to start new lives in the United States. Neither film had been handicapped in the press as potential winners, nor have either secured distribution deals. Of course, all this can change rapidly, since the films obviously scored points with both the discriminating professional juries and the “grande publique.” Expect to hear about pickups of both titles in the coming days. For the second year, films competed in the World Cinema Competition in both documentary and dramatic categories. 13 Tzameti, a black-and-white thriller directed by Georgian-born French director Gela Babluani won the Grand Jury Prize as Best Drama. The film is a gritty tale of making moral choices, as a taxi driver decides to follow instructions intended for someone else that lead him to confront the underbelly of society. The World Cinema Audience Award went to the New Zealand sleeper No. 2, a feel-good family comedy starring 4 SUNDANCE <strong>2006</strong> American actress Ruby Dee. The film, which comes alive with the heat and passion of the South Pacific, was written and directed by Toa Fraser. Two Mexican documentaries dominated the Best World Documentary categories. In the Pit, written and directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo, chronicles the daily lives of workers building a new freeway in Mexico City. De Nadie, directed by Tin Dirdamal, won the Audience Prize for his telling of a woman’s terrifying journey through Mexico to enter the United States illegally. The documentary film Irag in Fragments walked away with the most prizes, winning awards for best direction and cinematography (James Longley) and editing (Billy McMillin, Fiona Otway and Longley). The film offers a harrowing look at the violent atmosphere of the war-torn country seen through the eyes of a young boy. The film has not yet been picked up for distribution, but seems a likely bet for a courageous distributor. If Sundance has launched any career this year, it would be that of Dito Montiel. The debut director won the Best Director prize for his autobiographical A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, a memoir of growing up on the drug-infested streets of Astoria, Queens in the 1980s. The film, which featured good performances by such veterans as Robert Downey Jr, Chazz Palminterri, Diane Weist and a host of dynamic young actors, also earned an award for Best Ensemble Cast. The film, which has not yet found a distributor, may yet have the good luck of benefiting from a bidding war. The film certainly seems destined to have a future on the big screen, and Dito Montiel is a new indie name to be reckoned with. The prestigious Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award went to Hilary Brougher, for her sensitive portrayal of a young girl’s unexpected pregnancy in the film Stephanie Daley. The Best Cinematography prize was awarded to Tom Richmond for his work on the terrorist bombing thriller Right at Your Door, the only film to win an award that secured a distributor during the Festival (Lions Gate). Several films that early opinion polls predicted as frontrunners, including such dramatic films as Come Early Morning, Sherrybaby and Steel City, and documentary titles A Lion in the House, Thin and The Trials of Darryl Hunt came away empty handed. However, as has been endless repeated in the trade press, the Sundance awards are not always terrific predictions for box office success. There is talk of a “Sundance curse” which has bedeviled the Festival from the beginning. However, as Festival Director Geoff Gilmore eloquently put it at the awards ceremony, “All the films shown at the Festival are to be lauded as a tremendous achievement for simply being made against great odds.” Now that Sundance <strong>2006</strong> is history, the films, award winners and official selections that moved audiences during an extraordinary ten days of cinema excellence will have lives of their own. Some will make it to the big screen, some will only make it to the small screenand others will only get seen at other film festivals. Whatever their fate, their Sundance pedigree will distinguish them as filmgoing events. AQUISITIONS COMPILED BY EDDY GILBERT HERCH By alphabetical order, director, distributor, rights purchased and amount (if announced): The Darwin Awards Finn Taylor Bauer Martinez (domestic) Factotum Bent Hamer IFC Films The Film is Not Yet Rated Kirby Dick BBW (UK broadcast) The Foot Fist Way Jody Hill Momentum (UK rights) God Grew Tired of Us: The Lost Boys of Sudan Christopher Dillon Quinn, Tom Walker TF1 International (all non-English language territories) The Ground Truth: After the Killing Ends Patricia Foulkrod Distributor information not available at press-time Half Nelson Ryan Fleck ThinkFilm CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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