Herod's Law wins top prize at Ajijic fest

Herod's Law (La Ley de Herodes), Luis Estrada's controversial political satire, added to its growing collection of prizes when it took home Best Feature at the Ajijic Festival Internacional de Cine 2000 in Mexico (November 8-12).

The film won several Ariel awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor, from the Mexican Academy of Film Sciences and Arts earlier this year. It also took home Best Screenplay and Best Director at the 4th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival in July.

Ajijic bestowed three types of awards on documentaries, shorts, features and animation films: the Los Charales Awards for the best film in each category; Jury Awards for additional films of special merit' and President's Awards for the festival president's selection of outstanding films. Documentary Uncle Saddam, whose director Joel Soler has had his Los Angeles home ransacked and life threatened by Hussein supporters, won a Los Charales Award.

Harold Ramis' Bedazzled opened the festival on November 8th. Other high profile features were Rob Walker's Circus, Bob Gosse's Niagara, Niagara, Istvan Szabo's Sunshine and Michael Almereyde's Hamlet. Mexican entries included multi-award-winning Love's A Bitch (Amores Perros) and Ashes To Ashes (Por La Libre), both produced by Mexican production powerhouse, Altavista Films.

Sidebars included various forums and a tribute to leading Mexican actor Pedro Armendariz who has appeared in over 120 local and international films including Original Sin starring Antonio Banderas and The Mexican by Gore Verbinski.

Best Feature:
La Ley De Herodes (Herod's Law) (Mexico)
Dir: Luis Estrada

Animation:
Freedom Song (India)
Famous Animation Studio

Documentary:
Uncle Saddam (US)
Dir: Joel Soler

Independent Feature:
Largos Nochas De Insomnia (Mexico)
Dir: Julian Hernendez

Screenplay:
The Stuff Of Dreams (Mexico)
Scr: Alejandro Grattan Dominquez

Short Subject:
The Offering (Canada)
Dir: Paul Lee

Animation:
Man And Cat (US)
Dir: Oleg Kuzovkov

Documentary:
Auschwitz:The Final Witnesses (UK)
Dir: Sheldon Lazarus

Independent Feature:
Breathing Hard (US)
Dir: Erik Neal Young

Screenplays:
La Cuestion De La Dama (Argentina)
Scr: Luis Guttman

Yorgo's Young (Canada)
Scr: John Roumelis

Short Subject:
The Apartment (South Korea)
Dir: Luna Kim

Child Bride (US)
Dir: Mabel Gan

Hestoria D'Un Vez (Belgium)
Dir: Santos Hevia

Animation:
Manhititlan Chronicles (US)
Dir: Felipe Gallindo

Documentary:
Ghost Bird: The Life And Art Of Judith Deim (US)
Dir: John Gavin and Irena Salina

Short Subject:
Mulligans (US)
Dir: Miles Hood Swarthout

Independent Feature:
Das Zimmer (Germany)
Dir: Roland Reber