2009 Montreal World Film Festival Awards
2009 Montreal World Film Festival (Montreal Festival des Films du Monde): Aug. 27-Sept. 7, 2009
Set in occupied France during World War II, Freedom follows a Gypsy family as they travel throughout the French countryside until legal maneuvers prevent them from continuing with their nomadic ways. Not long thereafter, they are arrested and placed in an internment camp. "I have been thinking about shooting a film on the Roma Holocaust since I began making films…," Algerian-born filmmaker Tony Gatlif says on the Montreal World Film Festival Website. "It is important that those who don't know, learn that the Roman [sic] were deported in France and in the whole of Europe. That they learn of the evil laws of 1912 (anthropometric identity cards) against the Gypsies, and the Vichy laws which forbade nomadism on French territory: those laws which led to the Nazi extermination camps." In the Freedom cast: Marc Lavoie, Marie-Josée Croze, James Thiérrée, Rufus.
FEATURE FILMS
Grand prix des Americas:
KORKORO (FREEDOM) by Tony Gatlif (France)
Special Grand Prix of the jury:
WEAVING GIRL by Wang Quan'an (China)
Best Director:
VILLON'S WIFE (VIYON NO TSUMA) by Kichitaro Negishi (Japan)
Best Actress:
MARIE LEUENBERGER for WILL YOU MARRY US? (DIE STANDESBEAMTIN) by Micha Lewinsky (Switzerland)
Best Actor:
CYRON MELVILLE for LOVE AND RAGE (VANVITTIG FORELSKET) by Morten Giese (Denmark)
Best Screenplay:
I'M GLAD THAT MY MOTHER IS ALIVE (JE SUIS HEUREUX QUE MA MÈRE SOIT VIVANTE) by Claude Miller and Nathan Miller, screenplay by Alain Le Henry (France)
Best Artistic Contribution:
SAINT GEORGE SHOOTS THE DRAGON by Srdjan Dragojevic (Serbia-Bosnia-Bulgaria)
Innovation Award:
ATASHKAR (FIRE KEEPER) by Mohsen Amiryoussefi (Iran)
SHORT FILMS
1st prize:
PIGEON IMPOSSIBLE by Lucas Martell (U.S.A.)
Jury Award:
ATTACHED TO YOU (FÄST VID DIG) de Carin Bräck, Cecilia Actis, Mia Hulterstam (Sweden)
ZENITHS FOR THE BEST FIRST FICTION FEATURE FILMS 2009
Golden Zenith for the Best First Fiction Feature films:
JE TE MANGERAI (YOU WILL BE MINE) by Sophie Laloy (France)
Silver Zenith for the First Fiction Feature Film:
WHEN THE LEMONS TURNED YELLOW by Mohammadreza Vatandoost (Iran)
Bronze Zenith for the Fisrt Fiction Feature Film:
LOS CANALLAS (RIFF RAFF) by Cristina Franco, Jorge Alejandro Fegan; Diego Coral López, Nataly Valencia (Ecuador)
AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award for the most popular film of the Festival:
KORKORO (FREEDOM) by Tony Gatlif (France)
Audience Award for the most popular Canadian Feature Film:
A CARGO TO AFRICA by Roger Cantin (Canada)
Glauber Rocha Award for the Best Latin American Film:
ANDRÉS NOS QUIERE DORMIR LA SIESTA (ANDRÉS DOESN'T WANT TO TAKE A SIESTA by Daniel Bustamante (Argentina)
Award for Best documentary:
THE MAIN THING IS TO STAY ALIVE (L'IMPORANT C'EST DE RESTER VIVANT) de Roshane Saidnattar (France-Cambodia)
Award for Best Canadian Short Film:
SURMENAGE by Alexandre Leblanc, Benoît Bourbonnais (Canada)
FIPRESCI PRIZE (INTERNATIONAL FILM CRITICS)
WEAVING GIRL by Wang Quan'an (China)
ECUMENICAL PRIZES
CEASEFIRE (WAFFENSTILLSTAND) by Lancelot von Naso (Germany)
Special mention of the Ecumenical jury:
KORKORO (FREEDOM) by Tony Gatlif (France)
OTHER AWARDS
Special Awards for their exceptional contribution to the cinematographic art:
PIERRE LEBEAU (Canada)
GU JUN (China)
Official Competition Jury:
President: JAFAR PANAHI, director (Iran)
EIJI OKUDA, actor and director (Japan)
DIANE DEMERS, representing the general public (Canada)
DAVID LAHAYE, actor (Canada)
FERNANDO MENDEZ-LEITE SERRANO, author and critic (Spain)
PASCAL THOMAS, director (France)
REINHARD WAGNER, composer (France)
Members of the jury of the First Fiction Films:
Georges Jeter (Belgium)
Alissa Simon (U.S.A.)
Kevin Tierney (Canada)
Montreal World Film Festival Site