AFI FEST 2009 Awards

AFI FEST 2009 Awards
AFI FEST 2009: Hollywood/Santa Monica, Oct. 30-Nov. 7, 2009
 

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank focuses on a working-class teenager (Katie Jarvis) frustrated that her mother has found a new beau (Michael Fassbender); Javier Rebollo’s Woman Without Piano is a dramatic portrait of 24 hours in the life of a Madrid housewife (Carmen Machi); and Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani’s Ajami (above) chronicles the day-to-day, anything-but-routine lives of several denizens of a tough neighborhood in Jaffa, where Muslims, Jews, and Christians are sworn to live in bloody disharmony.
 
NEW LIGHTS COMPETITION AWARD WINNER

FISH TANK DIR: Andrea Arnold UK

WOMAN WITHOUT PIANO (LA MUJER SIN PIANO) DIR: Javier Rebollo Spain/France

SPECIAL JURY MENTION
AJAMI DIR: Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani Israel/Germany

AFI FEST 2009 NEW LIGHTS [...]

Jodie Whittaker, Yaron Shani, Nick Broomfield: London 2009

Actress and award presenter Jodie Whittaker arrives at the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival Awards Ceremony. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Director Yaron Shani, whose Ajami (co-directed with Scandar Copti) won the Israeli Academy Award earlier this year, arrives for the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival Awards Ceremony at Inner Temple on October 28. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Filmmaker and award presenter Nick Broomfield arrives at the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival Awards Ceremony. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Charlotte Rampling, Anjelica Huston, John Hurt: London 2009

Veteran actresses Charlotte Rampling and Anjelica Huston attend a cocktail reception at the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival Awards Ceremony. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Getty Images)

Filmmaker Yaron Shani poses with the Sutherland award for the film Ajami, voted the most original and imaginative first feature. Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón is standing next to him at the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival Awards Ceremony. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

John Hurt poses with his BFI Fellowship. Next to him are Jeremy Thomas (on his left) and Michael Caton-Jones (on his right) at the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival Awards Ceremony. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)