Seattle International Film Festival 2007 Winners
by Andre Soares
The winners at the 33rd Seattle International Film Festival were announced this past June 17.
The Norwegian production Sønner / Sons (right), which sounds like a darker version of Todd Field’s Little Children, was given the New Director Award. The film follows a short-tempered man’s attempts to prevent an alleged sexual predator from targeting his neighborhood’s leisure center. Instead of accomplishing his objective, he ends up making things more dangerous for all involved.
As per the jury’s statement, "Sons completely meets its own objectives and manages to successfully navigate a morally difficult subject matter. Sons is a remarkable debut, combining consummate storytelling ability with a fully realized cinema aesthetic."
The film was directed by Eric Richter Strand, from a screenplay written by Strand and Thomas Seeberg Torjussen.
Harald Friedl’s documentary Aus der zeit / Out of Time, described as "a look at four old-world Austrian businesses that won’t survive gentrification," took the best documentary award.
The Seattle festival’s Golden Space Needle Award for best film, voted on by audience members, was given to John Jeffcoat’s American-made romantic comedy Outsourced, about a man (Josh Hamilton) whose job is outsourced to India, where he goes to train his replacement and to — unexpectedly — find romance. (Variety found the film charming; James Wegg found it much too conventional.)
Daniel Waters, who wrote the well-received 1989 comedy Heathers, was voted best director for Sex and Death 101. This U.S. production is described as a "mordant comedy about a successful executive and ladies man whose life is turned upside down by a mysterious email." Heathers alumna Winona Ryder plays "a femme fatale on a rampage of coma-inducing crimes against sexist men." Simon Baker co-stars.
The 2007 edition of the Seattle Film Festival screened 405 films (211 narrative feature films, a record 61 documentaries, 12 archival films, four "secret" features, and 117 short films) from 60 countries during the course of 25 days. The festival came to a close last Sunday with a gala presentation of the North American premiere of Laurent Tirard’s Molière, which will be distributed in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics. In the cast of this period comedy are Romain Duris (in the title role), Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante, Éduoard Baer, and Ludivine Sagnier.
2007 Seattle Film Festival winners
2006 Seattle Film Festival winners
2005 Seattle Film Festival winners
The Doris Day Collection DVD Set
Errol Flynn Signature Collection
Tribeca Film Festival 2007 winners
Cannes Film Festival 2007 winners
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Sons is a pretty great movie. Try and catch it if you can.