Forbidden love movies among Outfest Awards’ favorites
Among the winners of the 2006 Outfest – the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival – were:
Ned Farr’s The Gymnast, the story of a former gymnast who falls in love with a younger woman, was chosen as the Outstanding American Narrative Feature. (It also won the Audience Award for Best First Narrative Film.)
The Outstanding International Narrative Feature Award was given to Amnon Buchbinder’s Canadian dramatic comedy Whole New Thing, about an androgynous thirteen-year-old (Aaron Webber) who develops a crush on his English teacher (Daniel MacIvor).
The Outstanding Documentary Feature Award went to Malcolm Ingram’s Small Town Gay Bar, which depicts small-town prejudice against gays who congregate at their local bar.
The Audience Award for Best Narrative Film was shared by two films dealing with forbidden love: Katherine Brooks’ Loving Annabelle, inspired by Leontine Sagan’s 1931 drama Mädchen in Uniform, and starring Diane Gaidry as a Catholic school teacher who falls in love with her student (Erin Kelly), and Christian Faure’s A Love to Hide / Un amour à taire (left), which has Jérémie Renier and Bruno Todeschini hiding their feelings in Nazi-occupied Paris.
In the acting categories, Michael Carbonaro was Best Actor for in Another Gay Movie, and Diane Gaidry was Best Actress in Loving Annabelle.
Grand Jury Awards:
Outstanding American Narrative Feature: THE GYMNAST directed by Ned Farr
Outstanding International Narrative Feature: WHOLE NEW THING directed by Amnon Buchbinder
Outstanding Documentary Feature: SMALL TOWN GAY BAR directed by Malcolm Ingram
Outstanding Actor in a Feature Film: Michael Carbonaro in ANOTHER GAY MOVIE
Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film: Diane Gaidry in LOVING ANNABELLE
Outstanding Screenwriting: Q. Allan Brocka and Philip Pierce for BOY CULTURE
Audience Awards:
Outstanding First Narrative Feature: THE GYMNAST directed by Ned Farr
Outstanding Narrative Feature (tie): LOVING ANNABELLE directed by Katherine Brooks and UN AMOUR A TAIRE / A LOVE TO HIDE directed Christian Faure
Outstanding Documentary Feature: CAMP OUT directed by Kirk Marcolina and Larry Grimaldi
Outstanding Narrative Short: AVAILABLE MEN directed by David Dean Bottrell
Outstanding Documentary Short: MY CRAZY LIFE directed by Carlos Arguello and Enzo Ybarra
Outstanding Soundtrack: PIC UP THE MIC directed by Alex Hinton
Special Programming Awards:
Freedom Award:
Dan Hunt, Janet Baus and Reid Williams, Directors, CRUEL AND UNUSUAL
Outstanding Emerging Talent: Ash Christian, Director, FAT GIRLS
Outstanding Artistic Achievement: Ho Tam, Director, BOOKS OF JAMES
U.S. Dramatic Features Competition Jury: Craig Chester, Mia Riverton, Ernest Hardy
International Dramatic Features Competition Jury: Matthew Fox, Robert Hawk, Doris Yeung
Documentary Features Competition Jury: Shannon Kelley, Jennifer Morris, J. Karen Thomas
More Outfest
The 24th edition of Outfest (website), the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, kicked off this past Thursday.
Among the highlights of the festival are Ahmed Imamovic’s Go West (Bosnia-Herzegovina, Tue 7/11, 9:30pm Laemmle Monica, Thu 7/13, 5:00pm Village), which caused quite a stir among Bosnia’s reactionary crowd because Go West screenwriters Imamovic and Enver Puska dared to equate anti-gay prejudice with ethnic hatred; François Ozon’s Le Temps qui reste / Time to Leave (France, Thu 7/13, 7:15pm Village), about a young man (Melvil Poupaud) who tries to come to terms with his imminent demise (brain cancer, not AIDS); and Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. (Canada, Thu 7/13, 8:30pm The Ford Amphitheatre), the story of an adolescent (Marc-André Grondin) coming to terms with his homosexuality in the Quebec of the 1960s and 1970s. C.R.A.Z.Y. won a total of 10 Genie Awards (that’s the Canadian Oscar) and no less than 13 Jutra Awards (Quebec’s Oscar).
Queens / Reinas (Spain, Fri, Jul 14, 8:30 pm Ford Amphitheatre) is worth a look mostly because of its stellar female cast that includes Carmen Maura and Marisa Paredes.
Note: Jeanne Moreau can be seen in both Go West and Le Temps qui reste, but she’s nowhere to be found in either C.R.A.Z.Y. or Reinas.
L.A.’s Gay & Lesbian Film Festival runs until July 17. The Outfest schedule can be found here.
As an aside, Outfest organizers have also begun a drive to support film preservation. According to the Outfest website, the Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation “is the only film preservation program in the world devoted to addressing the crisis in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) film preservation. In partnership with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, Outfest’s Legacy Project for LGBT Film Preservation has established the largest publicly accessible collection of LGBT films in the world. In addition, Outfest and UCLA are collecting film prints and other material for permanent preservation, and will strike new prints for widespread public exhibition, restore damaged films to their initial release forms and educate filmmakers and the general public about LGBT film and video preservation.”
Jerusalem Film Festival Awards
While bombs were being dropped and rockets were being fired in Lebanon and Israel, the Jerusalem Film Festival (website) came to a close, with most of the festival’s top awards going to films that celebrate tolerance and compassion.
The Wolgin Award for Best Israeli Narrative Feature went to Dror Sabo’s Dead End, a critical look at TV exploitation and sensationalism. The Drama Award was shared by Jony Arbid for directing Ringo & Taher, the tale of an Arab boy who develops a strong emotional bond with a puppy he raises in the streets of his poor Haifa neighborhood, and Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit for their direction of Mortgage, a comedy-drama about a young couple who resort to extreme measures in order to keep their house from being confiscated.
Jasmila Zbanic’s Berlin Film Festival winner Grbavica, the story of a Bosnian girl who discovers that her father was not a “martyr” of Bosnia’s civil war, won the In the Spirit of Freedom Award for best narrative film. (That award is given to “feature and documentary films from all over the world, dealing with human rights, civil rights, social awareness, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.”)
In the Documentary category, the In the Spirit of Freedom Award went to Helene Klodawsky for No More Tears Sister, the story of Dr. Rajani Thiranagama, a Tamil-Sri Lankan feminist and “freedom fighter” who was murdered in 1989 at the age of 35.
Additionally, veteran actress Gila Almagor won a special prize for her performances in Tied Hands, as a mother desperately looking for marijuana in the streets of Tel Aviv so as to ease her ailing son’s pain, and Three Mothers, the story of three Egyptian sisters whose promising lives have turned out to be tragically unfulfilling.
Jerusalem Film Festival Awards
2006 Jerusalem Film Festival: July 6–15
WOLGIN AWARD – NARRATIVE FEATURE
Dead End, directed by Dror Sabo, produced by Ori Dickshtein and Michal Dvash
DRAMA AWARD IN MEMORY OF ANAT PIRCHI
Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit for their direction of Mortgage (upper photo), and Jony Arbid for directing Ringo & Taher (lower photo)
WOLGIN AWARD – DOCUMENTARY FEATURE (tie)
9 Star Hotel, directed by Ido Haar, and Bil`in Habibti, directed by Shai Carmeli Pollack
WOLGIN AWARD – SHORT FILM
Road Marks, directed by Shimon Shai
ACTING AWARD IN A FULL-LENGTH FEATURE FILM
Actress (tie)
Yevgenia Dudina for Dear Mr. Waldman and Assi Levy for Aviva My Love
Actor (tie)
Assi Dayan for Things Behind the Sun and Gal Zayid for Dead End (above)
SCREENWRITING AWARD
Shemi Zarhin for Aviva My Love
CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD IN MEMORY OF JERZY LIPMAN
Shai Goldman for Three Mothers
SPECIAL PRIZE
Actress Gila Almagor for Tied Hands (above) and Three Mothers
WIM VAN LEER IN THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM AWARD
(“Awarded to feature and documentary films from all over the world, dealing with human rights, civil rights, social awareness, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression.”)
NARRATIVE FILM
Jasmila Zbanic for directing Grbavica
HONORABLE MENTION
Café Transit, directed by Kambozi Partovi
DOCUMENTARY FILM
Helene Klodawsky for directing No More Tears Sister
HONORABLE MENTION
October`s Cry, directed by Julie Gal
THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE LIA AWARD
El Cantor, directed by Joseph Morder
HONORABLE MENTION
Nadia`s Friends, Chanoch Zeevi
THE JEWISH EXPERIENCE YAD VASHEM AWARD
(“for artistic achievement in Holocaust related films”)
Nina`s Journey, directed by Lena Einhorn
HONORABLE MENTION
Nina`s House, directed by Richard Dembo
IN THE SPIRIT OF FREEDOM PRODUCTION GRANT
“Shahidot,” a film to be directed by Natalie Assoulin-chwartz and produced by Ayelet Efrati and Talia Kleinhandler
SHAVIM PRODUCTION GRANT
“Awarded to a documentary film dealing with social justice”
“Avdei Kablan,” directed by David Ofek and produced by Edna and Elinor Kowarsky
THE FORUM FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AUDIO-VISUAL MEMORY AWARD
Sergei Loznitsa doe his direction of Blockade
Wolgin Award Jury: Debra Winger, Vidi Bilu, Gadi Taub, Sharon Harel, and Sayed Kashua
In the Spirit of Freedom Jury: Carmit Gait-Shaltiel, Anat Hoffman, and David Benchetrit
Jewish Experience Jury: Stuart Schoffman, Aharon Fueurstein, and Levi Weiman Kalman
Osian-Cinefan Festival Awards: Illegal Game Debt Collecting Movie Wins
2006 OSIAN-CINEFAN Festival of Asian Cinema Awards: Delhi on July 23.
Jeffrey Jeturian’s Kubrador / The Bet Collector is the story of a woman who makes a living collecting bets for an illegal game until her life takes a dramatic turn following the death of a neighbor. Kubrador also won the International Federation of Film Critics’ Best Film Award, and a Best Asian Actress nod for Gina Pareno. Also in the cast: Soliman Cruz and Nanding Josef.
ASIAN COMPETITION AWARDS
Best Film:
KUBRADOR / THE BET COLLECTOR by Jeffrey Jeturian (The Philippines)
Special Jury Prize:
TWO GIRLS by Kutlug Ataman (Turkey)
Special Mentions:
ONTARJATRA / HOMELAND by Tareque and Catherine Masud (Bangladesh)
GU LIAN HUA / LOVE’S LONE FLOWER by Tsao Jui-Yuan (Taiwan)
Best Actress:
GINA PARENO in KUBRADOR / THE BET COLLECTOR by Jeffrey Jeturian (The Philippines)
INDIAN COMPETITION AWARDS
Best Film:
SUDDHA / THE CLEANSING RITES by Ramachandra PN
Special Jury Prize:
NAYI NERALU / IN THE SHADOW OF THE DOG by Girish Kasaravalli
Best Actor:
SUBRAT DUTTA in BIBAR / CALCUTTA, UNABASHED by Subrato Sen
Best Actress:
TANNISHTHA CHATTERJEE in BIBAR / CALCUTTA, UNABASHED by Subrato Sen
FIPRESCI AWARD (International Federation of Film Critics):
KUBRADOR / THE BET COLLECTOR by Jeffrey Jeturian (The Philippines)
NETPAC AWARD (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema):
MIDNIGHT MY LOVE by Khongdej Jaturanrassamee (Thailand)
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Author, critic and producer Peggy Chiao Hsiung-ping
Asian Competition Jury: Ryuichi Hiroki, Stanley Kwan, Xie Fei, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Jajang C Noer
Indian Competition Jury: Italo Spinelli, Christian Jeune, Pan Nalin, Khairy Beshara, Niki Karimi
Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Jury: Jeannette Paulson Hereniko, Ron Holloway, Ngo Phuong Lan
FIPRESCI Award Jury: Max Tessier, Rwita Dutta, Lucy Virgen
Academy Invites 120 to Membership
Among the Academy’s interesting choices for new members are former child star Hayley Mills, who won a special Oscar in 1961 for playing Pollyanna the year before; child star Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds), who won’t have to wait decades to become an Academy member; screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, who has been around for decades – he was a Luis Buñuel collaborator – but only now gets an invitation; director Werner Herzog, another veteran with more than fifty films to his credit; and animator Hayao Miyazaki.
The most glaring omission – that I could tell – was Michelle Williams. Fellow Brokeback Mountain Oscar nominees Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger were invited. She is not in the list.
Press Release: Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has extended membership invitations to 120 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves in the field of theatrical motion pictures. The group will be the only new voting members invited to join the organization in 2006.
“Two years ago the Academy decided to slow membership growth, and to become even more selective in choosing members,” said Academy President Sid Ganis. “Instead of inviting every proposed person who has achieved the minimum qualifications for his or her branch, the membership committees are selecting the most exceptionally qualified names from those lists.”
Procedures instituted two years ago allow the organization to fill vacancies resulting from death and transitions to retired (non-voting) status and grow by a maximum of 30 new members annually.
Candidates for Academy membership are considered by committees made up of prominent representatives of each of the organization’s 14 branches – art directors, executives, film editors, etc. Candidates can either be proposed by the committees or by two current members of their branch. In addition, individuals nominated for Academy Awards®, if not already members of the organization, are considered by the appropriate committees, though not necessarily invited to membership. This year, 39 of the invitees were 2005 nominees and eight won Oscars®.
Though the great majority of AMPAS members are based in the U.S., membership is open to qualified filmmakers around the world. The Academy roster currently includes theatrical motion picture makers from 36 countries.
New members will be welcomed into the organization at an invitation-only reception on Wednesday, September 20, at the Academy’s Fairbanks Center for Motion Picture Study in Beverly Hills.
ACTORS
Amy Adams
Eric Bana
Maria Bello
Dakota Fanning
Jake Gyllenhaal
Terrence Howard
Felicity Huffman
Keira Knightley
Heath Ledger
Hayley Mills
Barry Pepper
Joaquin Phoenix
Jon Polito
Ving Rhames
Liev Schreiber
David Strathairn
Rachel Weisz
AT-LARGE
Grover Crisp
Louis D’Esposito
Daniel Glickman
Steve Papazian
David Young
ANIMATORS
Wayne Allwine
Mark Andrews
Steve Box
John Canemaker
Will Finn
Rex Grignon
Andrew Jimenez
Tim Johnson
Hayao Miyazaki
CASTING DIRECTORS
Sarah Halley Finn
Randi Hiller
CINEMATOGRAPHERS
Lance Acord
Paul Cameron
Cesar Charlone
Denis Lenoir
Wally Pfister
Roberto Schaefer
Sandi Sissel
Tom Stern
Salvatore Totino
COSTUME DESIGNERS
Jacqueline Durran
Janty Yates
DIRECTORS
Werner Herzog
Nicole Holofcener
Gavin Hood
Bennett Miller
Mark Waters
DOCUMENTARY
Paola di Florio
Alex Gibney
Hubert Sauper
EXECUTIVES
Gail Berman
Jeff Bewkes
Colin Callender
Andrew E. Cripps
Hal Gaba
Elizabeth Gabler
Douglas Mankoff
Michael Paseornek
Paul Schaeffer
Jonathan Sehring
Michael J. Werner
FILM EDITORS
Tom Finan
Wayne Wahrman
Hughes Winborne
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILMS
Pia Clemente
Martin McDonagh
Rob Pearlstein
MAKE-UP/HAIRSTYLISTS
Lance Anderson
Nick Dudman
MUSIC
Harry Gregson-Williams
Alberto Iglesias
Dario Marianelli
Dolly Parton
PRODUCERS
Albert Berger
Bill Kong
Tom Luddy
Gail Mutrux
Diane Nabatoff
Cathy Schulman
Jennifer Todd
Robert K. Weiss
Ron Yerxa
PRODUCTION DESIGNERS/ ART DIRECTORS
Mark Friedberg
Sarah Greenwood
Tom Reta
Melissa Stewart
Tom Wilkins
SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL
James Beshears
Lanny Raimondo
Kenneth S. Williams
SET DECORATORS
Trisha Edwards
Victor Zolfo
SOUND
Ulrika Akander
Anthony (Chic) Ciccolini III
Eugene Gearty
Michael Semanick
Renée Tondelli
VISUAL EFFECTS
Jim Berney
Pablo Helman
Jeffrey M. Kleiser
Michael Meinardus
William F. “Bill” Shourt
Dan Taylor
Bill Tondreau
Bill Westenhofer
WRITERS
Noah Baumbach
Jeffrey Caine
Jean-Claude Carrière
Dan Futterman
Tony Kushner
Bobby Moresco
Josh Olson