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 [...]

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 [...]