Asian Film Awards 2009

2009 Asian Film Awards
2009 Asian Film Award nominations: Jan. 21, 2009
2009 Asian Film Award winners: March 23, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

In Kyoshi Kurosawa’s best Asian Film Award winner Tokyo Sonata, a middle-class worker (Teruyuki Kagawa) loses his job (it’s outsourced to China), but can’t get himself to tell his family about his predicament. Slowly, however, both his ruse and the family itself begin to disintegrate.
 

Best Film
Forever Enthralled, China
The Good, the Bad, the Weird, South Korea
Ponyo on the Cliff, Japan
The Rainbow Troops, Indonesia
Red Cliff, China
* Tokyo Sonata, The Netherlands / Japan / Hong Kong
Best Director
FENG Xiao-gang, If You Are the One, China
KIM Jee-woon, The Good, the Bad, the Weird, South Korea
* KOREEDA Hirokazu, Still Walking, Japan
Brillante MENDOZA, Service, [...]

by Deborah Arthur | March 23, 2009   
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Palm Springs Film Festival Awards 2009

2009 Palm Springs Film Festival Awards
2009 Palm Springs Film Festival: January 6-19, 2008
 

Departures by Yojiro Takita
 

AUDIENCE AWARDS
Best Narrative Feature: Departures (Japan) directed by Yojiro Takita
Best Documentary Feature: Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman (USA) directed by Eric Bricker
 
CRITICS AWARDS (foreign-language films submitted for the 2009 Academy Awards)
FIPRESCI Prize: Revanche, directed by Götz Spielmann
FIPRESCI Award for Best Actor: Natar Ungalaaq, The Necessities of Life (Canada) directed by Benoît Pilon
FIPRESCI Award for Best Actress: Martina Gusman, Lion’s Den (Argentina) directed by Pablo Trapero
 
New Voices / New Visions Award: Hooked (Romania/France) directed by Adrian Sitaru
Special Jury Mention: Rain (Bahamas), directed by Maria Govan
John Schlesinger Award for Outstanding First Feature (Narrative or Documentary): Amin Matalqa for Captain Abu Raed (Jordan/USA)
Bridging [...]

by Deborah Arthur | January 18, 2009   
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Oscar 2009: Best Foreign-Language Film Semi-Finalists

Wide acclaim and a handful of top European Film Awards didn’t help Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah land a spot in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ list of best foreign-language film semi-finalists.
And in case you’re looking for Let the Right One In among the nine films still in the running, you won’t find it there. Although the Swedish vampire drama was chosen the best foreign-language film of the year by numerous US-based critics’ groups, it was ineligible for the Oscars simply because each country can submit only one film per year: Sweden’s choice for 2008 was Jan Troell’s Everlasting Moments.
The nine semi-finalists — out of 65 (accepted) foreign-language film submissions — are (listed in [...]

by Andre Soares | January 13, 2009   
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Montreal World Film Festival Awards 2008

2008 Montreal World Film Festival Awards
2008 Montreal World Film Festival (Montreal Festival des Films du Monde): Aug. 21-Sept. 1, 2008
 

In Yojiro Takita’s Departures — which beat well-received Canadian entry The Necessities of Life — a young (and indebted) Japanese cellist (Masahiro Motoki) returns to his family home to look for some real work. While there, he inadvertently — and more than a little reluctantly — becomes a well-paid "corpse beautician," preparing the remains of the departed before they’re put in caskets.

 

FEATURE FILMS
Grand prix of the Americas:
OKURIBITO (DEPARTURES) by Yojiro Takita (Japan)
Special Grand Prix of the jury :
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE (CE QU’IL FAUT POUR VIVRE) by Benoît Pilon (Canada)
Best Director :
THE TOUR (TURNEJA) by Goran Markovic [...]

by Andre Soares | September 6, 2008   
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