The 20th Annual Vancouver
International Film Festival ends
in celebration, announces award winners

Screening a total of 217 feature films and 78 shorts, the Vancouver International Film Festival wrapped its successful 20th Anniversary edition on October 12.

According to Festival Director Alan Franey, this year’s VIFF was the most successful to date, with Festival admissions passing the 140,000 mark and box-office revenues eclipsing $800,000.

"Despite the unexpected challenges, we are pleased to say that the festival was a great financial success, and we hope even more, something of a cultural victory as well. The festival began on September 27th, just 16 days after September 11th. Approximately 15 percent of the over 300 scheduled guests decided to cancel their plans to attend, but we were able to transfer their tickets to other filmmakers and business people. Amazingly, only two film prints needed to be cancelled outright."

Franey went on to elaborate that, "This year’s Festival will represent our most successful year to date in terms of box-office revenues and audience attendance. The overwhelmingly positive audience ballots and comments indicate that despite the current global political climate of anxiety and trauma, local audiences were not only able, but keen, to come together and enjoy the festival experience and the pursuit of art. There was a renewed spirit of camaraderie and civility apparent at the often-packed theatres, while attendance at screenings of non-fiction films was notably stronger than ever. Never was the festival’s chartered mandate to ‘increase the understanding of other nations through the art of cinema’ more relevant and well supported."

AWARDS

The Festival announced its full slate of awards at the Gala Film screening of Bruce Sweeney’s LAST WEDDING, on Friday, October 12.

MIRROR IMAGE wins The Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema

Taiwanese director Hsiao Ya-Chuan won the ninth Dragons & Tigers Award for Young Cinema for his debut MIRROR IMAGE. Jury members Quintín, Adrian Martin and Stanley Kwan congratulated the writer-director for his "superbly made film which mixes distance and passion, and achieves an engaging lightness of tone." The award is graciously sponsored by Brad Birarda and is accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize. The jury went on to commend all of the nine competitors this year for overall quality. Special mentions were also given to three films: GLOWING, GROWING (Japan) by Horie Kei; THE ORPHAN OF ANYANG (China) by Wang Chao; and TEENAGE HOOKER BECAME KILLING MACHINE IN DAEHAKNO (South Korea) by Nam Ki-Woong.

TURNING PAIGE wins The Telefilm Canada Award For Best Emerging Western Canadian Feature-Film Director and the Rogers Video Western Canada Screenwriter’s Award

Robert Cuffley’s debut feature film TURNING PAIGE won the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Emerging Western Canadian Feature Film Director. Cuffley earned praise from the jurors Martin Bilodeau, Wolfgang Kabisch and Colin Browne for "his handling of sensitive material, his work with a first class team of actors, and his cinematic understanding of all aspects of this complex story about death and denial." The award is accompanied by a cash prize of $5,000. The jury gave special mention to Asghar Massombagi for KHALED, "an unsentimental portrait of a boy of the projects who finds his own way to deal with his problems."

For TURNING PAIGE’s screenplay, writers Cuffley and Jason Long were commended for writing "a script about family which is intelligent, convincing and deeply moving. [The jurors] admired the writers’ genuine understanding of their characters, their ability to develop a unique structure, and their willingness to face the full consequences of the story they set in motion." The award is a high-end computer and software package.

10-SPEED wins the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Emerging Western Canadian Director of a Mid-Length or Short Film

Jeff Cunningham and Adam Locke-Norton’s short film 10-SPEED won the Telefilm Canada Award for Best Emerging Western Canadian Director of a Mid-Length or Short Film. Shot while Cunningham was a student at Point Grey Secondary School, 10-SPEED is the first film the festival has ever programmed made by filmmakers too young to legally attend the event (officially restricted to 18 and over).It tells the tale of a young boy’s endeavours to acquire a new bicycle, and was applauded by the jury of Bilodeau, Kabisch and Browne for "an honest, highly cinematic but never sentimental or didactic portrait…the writing, the cinematography, the acting and the editing [are] of a very high order." The award is accompanied by a $4,000 cash prize.

JUNG (WAR): IN THE LAND OF THE MUJAHEDDIN wins The National Film Board Award for Best Documentary Feature

Jurors Nettie Wild, Gerald Peary and Diane Weyermann gave the National Film Board Award for Best Documentary Feature to Alberto Vendemmiati and Fabrizio Lazzaretti’s JUNG (WAR) IN THE LAND OF THE MUJAHEDDIN (Italy/Afghanistan). The directors were commended by the jurors for "courageous and uncompromising filmmaking. It exposes the complexities and brutality of life within Afghanistan, a country torn by decades of war. [The jurors] chose this film for its extraordinary cinematic language achieved under the most difficult of conditions." The jury also awarded two films in the competition with special mentions; Rithy Panh’s THE LAND OF WANDERING SOULS (Cambodia) "takes its audience deep inside the poverty and humanity of Cambodia. Reminiscent of The Grapes of Wrath, the film follows extraordinary characters who toil and remarkably survive in the shadow of so-called progress." Ra’anan Alexandrowicz’s THE INNER TOUR (Israel/Palestine) is "a pensive, deeply humanist articulation of the Palestinian claims to their lost heritage within Israel."

The People’s Choice Awards

This year the Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Film goes to OBAACHAN’S GARDEN by British Columbia director Linda Ohama.

Searingly powerful and at times heartbreaking, Ohama’s portrait of her grandmother’s journey to Canada elegantly blends fascinating documentary footage with graceful historical recreations. The runner up for Most Popular Canadian Film was ATANARJUAT (THE FAST RUNNER) by Nunavut director Zacharias Kunuk, a groundbreaking debut feature combining digital cinematography with rich historical detail to bring an ancient Inuit legend to the screen.

Also among the most popular, in order of voting: Anne Wheeler’s SUDDENLY NAKED (British Columbia); William Phillips’ TREED MURRAY (Ontario); Jill Sharpe’s CULTUREJAM: HIJACKING COMMERCIAL CULTURE (British Columbia); Jeff Macpherson’s COME TOGETHER (British Columbia); Sturla Gunnarsson’s RARE BIRDS (Newfoundland); Andrew Currie’s MILE ZERO (British Columbia); David Finch and Maureen Marovitch’s WHEN TWO WON’T DO (Quebec); Julie Hivon’s ICE CREAM, CHOCOLATE AND OTHER CONSOLATIONS (Quebec); Lynne Stopkewich’s LILITH ON TOP (British Columbia); André Melançon and Geneviève Lefebvre’s LE CIEL SUR LA TÊTE (Quebec); Francis Leclerc’s UNE JEUNE FILLE À LA FENÊTRE (Quebec); Émile Gaudreault’s NUIT DE NOCES (Quebec); and André Turpin’s UN CRABE DANS LA TÊTE (Quebec).

This year’s balloting was distinguished by the across-the-board popularity of the Canadian selection. Fifteen of the 32 features polled above 4.00 (out of 5.00) and none were below 3.10.

The Air Canada Award for Most Popular Film goes to PROMISES by directors B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro and Carlos Bolado.

This inspired documentary views the complexities of the Middle East conflict through the eyes of seven Israeli and Palestinian children. The film also won audience awards at the Rotterdam and San Francisco film festivals. The runner-up was the Festival opening gala, AMÉLIE (Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain), directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Following is a list of the 30 next most popular films of the festival, in order of popularity, out of a total of 200 features presented. These films were all very well attended, substantially voted for, and scored an average of between 4 and 5 out of 5 (4 being "very good"; 5 being "excellent") in public voting. Please note that the Canadian films have their own separate category

Roland Suso Richter’s THE TUNNEL (Der Tunnel) (Germany); Billie August’s A SONG FOR MARTIN (Sweden/Denmark); Reza Parsa’s BEFORE THE STORM (Före stormen) (Sweden); Lukas Moodysson’s TOGETHER (Tilsammans) (Sweden); Tom Tykwer’s THE PRINCESS AND THE WARRIOR (Die Krieger und die Kaiserin) (Germany); Shantha Bloemen’s T-SHIRT TRAVELS (USA/Zambia); Achero Mañas’ PELLET (El Bola) (Spain); Geir Hansteen Jörgensen’s THE NEW COUNTRY (Det Nye Landet) (Sweden); Paul Carlin’s SPECTRE OF HOPE (Great Britain/Germany); Mickey Lemle’s RAM DASS FIERCE GRACE (USA); Lone Scherfig’s ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS (Italiensk for Bergyndere) (Denmark); Alberto Vendemmiati and Fabrizio Lazzaretti’s JUNG (WAR): IN THE LAND OF THE MUJAHEDDIN (Italy/Afghanistan); Árpád Sopsits ABANDONED (Torzok) (Hungary); Digvijay Singh’s MAYA (India); Spike Lee’s A HUEY P. NEWTON STORY (USA); Bob Connolly and Robin Anderson’s FACING THE MUSIC (Australia); Robert Connolly’s THE BANK (Australia); Richard Linklater’s TAPE (USA); Yu Zhong’s ROOTS AND BRANCHES (Wo de Xiongdi Jiemen) (China); Stefan Schwietert’s THE DEVIL’S ACCORDION (El Acordeon del Diablo) (Switzerland); Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s KANDAHAR (Iran); Christoph Schaub’s SECRET LOVE (Stille Liebe) (Switzerland); F.A. Brabec’s WILD FLOWERS (Kytice) (Czech Republic); Kate Montgomery’s CHRISTMAS IN THE CLOUDS (USA); Knut Erik Jensen’s COOL AND CRAZY (Heftig Begistret) (Norway); Nils Tavernier’s ETOILES, THE PARIS OPERA BALLET COMPANY (Tout pres des etolies) (France); Chen Yi-Wen’s THE CABBIE (Yun Zhuanshou de Lian) (Taiwan); Bill Lichtenstein and June Peoples’ WEST 47TH STREET (USA); David Caffrey’s ON THE NOSE (Ireland/Canada); Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY (Zir-e Poust-e Shahr) (Iran); Jan Svankmajer’s LITTLE OTIK (Otésanek) (Czech Republic); Mostafa R. Karimi and Farhad Varahram’s YADO YADEGAR (Iran); Jacques Rivette’s VA SAVOIR (France); and Wilfried Huismann’s DEAR FIDEL – MARITA’S STORY (Lieber Fidel – Maritas Geschichte) (Germany)

THE NEW COUNTRY wins the Chief Dan George Humanitarian Award

Swedish director Geir Hansteen Jörgensen wins the Chief Dan George Humanitarian Award for THE NEW COUNTRY. The Award recognizes a feature film screened at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival that exemplifies values of human understanding and compassion, while providing the audience with a high degree of entertainment. The award commemorates Chief Dan George’s career as an actor, performer and orator who worked for the betterment of Native people and for greater understanding across cultures. This year the award was presented by Rae Hull, who called Jörgensen’s film "a wonderfully entertaining and deeply humane road movie from Sweden about the ever more universal experience of being a refugee." Sponsored by Characters Talent Agency, the award is a handcrafted native drum.

PROMISES wins the Diversity in Spirit Award

B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro and Carlos Bolado’s PROMISES also took home the second annual Diversity in Spirit Award. Presented by Hayne Wai, Manager for Policy Development in the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women’s Services, the award is given by a jury to the Festival film that best promotes the values of racial harmony.

Women in Film and Video Artistic Merit Award to Frida Betrani

Frida Betrani wins the Women in Film and Video Artistic Merit Award for her acting career to date, capped by her lead performance in Bruce Sweeney’s LAST WEDDING. The award is given to a B.C. woman filmmaker or performer and this year was presented by Jacqueline Samuda, President, Women in Film and Video Vancouver.

VIFF Web Site a Resounding Success

The VIFF’s official Web site, www.viff.org, has now wrapped up its 8th year and has been declared an overwhelming success. In spite of the serious connectivity problems plaguing the Internet during September and October due to various computer viruses, the site set a number of records.

The on-line Film Guide was visited by over 75,000 people from over 40 countries during the 30 days it was available and more than 280,000 individual film-note pages were viewed. Almost 10,000 tickets were purchased on-line and more than 1,500 individual ticket orders were taken. Arne Hermann, president of synercom/edi – the VIFF's ticketing system and Web hosting provider – said "This was a great year for us and the VIFF Web site; it was far busier than ever and I’m very happy that tix/SYS [the company’s ticketing system product] and the on-line ticketing system worked so well in spite of the Internet connectivity problems we all experienced." The VIFF site will now be available year round and will feature the complete film guides for the last several festivals."

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