David di Donatello 2009

2009 David di Donatello Awards
2009 David di Donatello Award nominations: April 9, 2009
2009 David di Donatello Award winners: May 8, 2009
("*" denotes the winner in each category)
 

Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah (top photo); Toni Servillo in Il Divo (lower photo)
 

Best Film / miglior film
Il divo
produced by Andrea Occhipinti, Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima, Maurizio Coppolecchia
directed by Paolo Sorrentino
Ex
produced by Fulvio Lucisano, Federica Lucisano
directed by Fausto Brizzi
* Gomorra
produced by Domenico Procacci
directed by Matteo Garrone
Si può fare
produced by Angelo Rizzoli
directed by Giulio Manfredonia
Tutta la vita davanti
produced by Motorino Amaranto – Medusa
directed by Paolo Virzì
Best Film from the European Union / miglior film dell’Unione Europea
Entre les murs, by Laurent [...]

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis

Based on actual events, Eran Riklis‘ Lemon Tree (no connection to Sandy Tolan’s novel The Lemon Tree), which opens today in the Los Angeles area, chronicles a Palestinian widow’s fight to prevent the Israeli army from razing her lemon grove. The problem is that all those lemon trees are located right next door to the brand new house — actually, "fortress" would be a better description — of the Israeli minister of defense. Security agents have deemed the grove a potential hide-out for terrorists, who could then fire rockets right onto the minister’s dining table.
Sounds like a political film? Well, sure. Lemon Tree is definitely political. (The real-life case was that of defense minister Shaul Mofaz and his [...]

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis Part II

LEMON TREE: Q&A with Eran Riklis Part I
Along those lines, the men in charge in Lemon Tree don’t come across in a very positive light. A bossy male security agent demands the destruction of the lemon grove. A bossy Palestinian man threatens Salma because of her relationship with her lawyer. The defense minister is obsessed with his career and may be having an affair with an assistant. The Palestinian lawyer himself seems to be as interested in advancing his career as in helping Salma, even though he actually cares for her.
The two women, however, are both admirable characters. Was that a conscious decision, to make the women “stronger” — in their [...]

Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival 2009

The 4th Los Angeles Jewish Film Festival, which runs April 23-30, will kick off with a screening of Joshua Sinclair’s Jump, starring Ben Silverstone (of the coming-of-age gay drama Get Real) and Patrick Swayze.
Jump will screen on Thursday, April 23, at 8:00 pm at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills. Based on a real story, the film (co-written by Sinclair and Ryan James) follows the biased murder trial of the young Jew and future celebrity portrait photographer Philippe Halsman (Silverstone), who was accused of murdering his father in late 1920s Austria. Swayze plays the young man’s Jewish attorney.
Also in the Jump cast: Martine McCutcheon, and veterans Stefanie Powers, Richard Johnson, and Sybil [...]