Leviathan triumphs at Palm Springs film festival

UPDATE: The awards were handed out on January 10 as the January 2-12 festival draws to a close. Audience Award winners were announced late on January 11 (see below).

“This year’s festival has been a huge success on all fronts, with consistently packed theatres, terrific audience response to the line-up of films and special programmes and record film-maker and industry attendance,” said festival director Darryl Macdonald.

“I’m especially pleased that our Another Europe showcase and Cine Latino programme received such a warm response from audiences and critics alike. I’m equally delighted with the juries’ award choices, though given the outstanding overall quality of the films on view at this year’s event I wish we could present awards to each and every one of them.”

“Eastern European film-makers — both emerging and established — have utterly dominated our juried awards this year,” said artistic director Helen du Toit.

“First-time feature director Vuk Rsumovic from Serbia takes the New Visions New Voices prize for No One’s Child, the Bridging The Borders award goes to Georgian director George Ovashvili’s Corn Island plus a special jury prize to Kosovo’s Three Windows And A Hanging directed by Isa Qosja, and the Schlesinger award goes to Polish director Eliza Kubarska for her debut documentary Walking Under Water. The power of stories from this region is palpable and infectious.”

The complete list of award winners are:

Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Selma

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
Keep On Keepin’ On

FIPRESCI Prize for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Leviathan (Russia), Andrey Zvyagintsev

FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actor of the Year in a Foreign Language Film
Haluk Bilginer from Winter Sleep (Turkey), Nuri Bilge Ceylan

FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actress of the Year in a Foreign Language Film
Anne Dorval from Mommy (Canada), Xavier Dolan

New Voices/New Visions Award
No One’s Child (Serbia), Vuk Ršumovic - winner
Fidelio, Alice’s Journey (France), Lucie Borleteau – special mention

Cine Latino Award
Flowers (Spain), Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga – winner
Not All Is Vigil (Spain-Colombia), Hermes Paralluelo – special mention

The John Schlesinger Award
Walking Under Water (Poland), Eliza Kubarska – winner

HP Bridging the Borders Award
Corn Island (Georgia), George Ovashvili – winner
Three Windows And A Hanging (Kosovo), directed by Isa Qosja – special jury award