Gomorra sweeps European Film Awards

In a not totally unexpected move, the Italian Mafia drama "Gomorra" has won numerous prizes at the 21st European Film Awards. As this was very much a collaborative piece with intertwining tales, no less than six writers picked up the Best Screenwriter award for it, Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso and Roberto Savian."Gomorra" also picked up Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Cinematography.

Other notable wins include "Hunger" (European Discovery) and "La graine et le mulet" (European Film Academy Critics Award). For the full list of winners, visit the European Film Academy.

British Independent Film Award winners

The much anticipated 11th BIFA awards ceremony took place on Sunday 30 November in London, hosted by James Nesbitt. The tone was upbeat, which is hardly suprising as it has been great year for British film. Elliot Grove, founder of Raindance and the BIFA's says "The nominated films and film-makers and winners prove that filmmaking is alive and well in the U.K." Johanna von Fischer and Tessa Collinson, BIFA co-directors said: “It’s been another stellar year for independent film in Britain. The diverse range of films nominated showcases an astounding lineup of talent both new and established that demands to be celebrated.”

John Woodward, Chief Executive Officer of the UK Film Council, the major funding partner of the BIFAs says: "This year's BIFA nominations and award winners really highlight the range of talent working in the UK with powerful, ground-breaking and imaginative films coming from filmmakers with diverse voices."

All this would be irritating if there weren't some truth to it. The range and quality of the films is impressive this year. Here are the 2008 winners.

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
Slumdog Millionaire


BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire


BEST SCREENPLAY
Martin McDonagh – In Bruges (personal favourite!)

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]
Steve McQueen – Hunger


BEST ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas


BEST ACTOR
++Michael Fassbender – Hunger


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Alexis Zegerman – Happy-Go-Lucky

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Eddie Marsan – Happy-Go-Lucky


MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Dev Patel – Slumdog Millionaire


BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
The Escapist


RAINDANCE AWARD
Zebra Crossings

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Cinematography – Sean Bobbitt – Hunger

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Man on Wire


BEST BRITISH SHORT
Soft

BEST FOREIGN FILM
Waltz with Bashir

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution to British Film)
David Thewlis

THE VARIETY AWARD
Michael Sheen

THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Joe Dunton

For further details, visit Raindance.

European Film Awards 2008: the nominees

Two major Italian films are in the running to pick up a European Film Award, whose fifth ceremony will be held on December 6 in Copenhagen. And on a personal note, I'd say that one of them, "Gomorrah", stands a pretty good chance of walking away with it. Roberto Saviano is also nominated as scriptwriter of the year.

EUROPEAN FILM 2008

Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino)
The Class (Laurent Cantet)
Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone)
Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
The Orphanage (Juan Antonio Bayona)
Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman)

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2008

Laurent Cantet (The Class)
Andreas Dresen (Cloud 9)
Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir)
Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah)
Steve McQueen (Hunger)
Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo)

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2008

Michael Fassbender (Hunger)
Thure Lindhardt & Mads Mikkelsen (Flame & Citron)
James McAvoy (Atonement)
Toni Servillo (Gomorrah and Il Divo)
Jürgen Vogel (The Wave)
Elmar Wepper (Cherry Blossoms)

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2008

Hiam Abbass (Lemon Tree)
Arta Dobroshi (Lorna's Silence)
Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)
Belen Rueda (The Orphanage)
Kristin Scott Thomas (I've Loved You So Long)
Ursula Werner (Cloud 9)

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2008

Suha Arraf & Eran Riklis (Lemon Tree)
Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Roberto Saviano (Gomorrah)
Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir)
Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo)

CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2008

Luca Bigazzi (Il Divo)
Oscar Faura (The Orphanage)
Marco Onorato (Gomorrah)
Sergey Trofimov & Rogier Stoffers (Mongol)

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY PRIX D’EXCELLENCE 2008

Marton Agh for production design (Delta)
Magdalena Biedrzycka for costume design (Katyn)
Laurence Briaud for editing (Un Conte De Noel)
Petter Fladeby for sound design (O' Horten)

EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2008

Tuur Florizoone (Moscow, Belgium)
Dario Marianelli (Atonement)
Max Richter (Waltz With Bashir)
Fernando Velázquez (The Orphanage)

Mamma Mia now biggest ever UK movie at UK box-office

With box-office reaching £66,995,244 (€84,758,880 or $104,590,000), "Mamma Mia!" is the second highest-grossing film of all time in the UK behind Titanic and the biggest ever UK movie at the UK box office. The celebration of Abba was directed by Phylida Lloyd on a script by Catherine Johnson.

Quoted by Screen International, David Kosse, president of Universal Pictures International said, "We think it still has some life in it. The sing-along version has been a great success and will continue to give it a bump, and we now have Christmas party bookings coming in from across the UK. One driver is the multiple viewings with people going back to see it again and again. It really is happening on a scale that we haven't seen before."

It's easy to knock this film, but both it and the underlying stage play touch a very deep chord in audiences worldwide. The inherent silliness is not a problem, as from having seen it, one can only salute the power of Abba's songs. Like the music it is based on, "Mamma Mia!" will not win any creative awards. It doesn't have to; it connects with the audience in a way most other films can only vaguely dream of.

"You, the Living" picks up Nordic Council Film prize

One of the most bizarre films in Europe has just picked up the Nordic Council Film Prize. "You, the Living", written and directed by Sweden's Ray Andersson ("Songs From the Second Floor") is a surreal but very touching exploration of man's best and worst sides. Shot entirely in studio, it breaks with what Andersson calls the "prevailng Anglo-Saxon film dramaturgy, but is still a story". Looking at extracts, I'm reminded of Tati at times due to the disconnected style of using bizarre vignettes. One of the most remarkable scenes features a tramp singing an ode to a motorcycle. Odd, but it works.

"You, the Living" was shown in the "Un certain regard" section of Cannes 2007, was Sweden’s Oscar entry and won Best Film, Director and Script at Sweden’s Guldbagge awards.

The official site is here. For a few extracts, visit Cineuropa's website.

German shorts go on the road

I just received an e-mail from German Film.de about German shorts that are going on the road (there's a pun there that I will resist!).

The 41st Sitges Film Festival (02.-12.10.2008) is showing FULL EMPLOYMENT (ARBEIT FUER ALLE) by Thomas Oberlies and Matthias Vogel and KINGZ by Benni Diez and Marinko Spahic in the Official Fantstic Shorts competition. A6/A9 by Johannes Schiehsl and FREQUENCY MORPHOGENESIS by Onni Pohl were invited to screen in the section entitled Animat Shorts.

THE GIRL WITH THE YELLOW STOCKINGS (DAS MAEDCHEN MIT DEN GELBEN STRUEMPFEN) by Grzegorz Muskala, SEA DOG'S DEVOTION (SEEMANNSTREUE) by Anna Kalus and A SUNDAY IN WINTER (EIN SONNTAG IM WINTER) by Hella Wenders are competing in the short films competition of the 37th Festival Nouveau Cinéma Montreal
(08.-19.10.2008). MY HAPPY END by Milen Vitanov, A SUNNY DAY (EIN SONNIGER
TAG) by Gil Alkabetz and VIDEO 3000 by Joerg Edelmann, Joern Grohans, Jochen Haussecker and Marc Schleiss can be seen in the childrens programmes. EXIT by Jochen Kuhn is screening in Prsentation Spcial, the programme Temps/Nouvelles Images will be showing DESCENDANTS
(NACHKOMMEN) by Heiko van der Scherm.

BROTHER, BROTHER (BRUDER, BRUDER) by Lars Kreyig and ILLUSION by Burhan Qurbani were invited to the student films competition of the 2nd Middle East International Film Festival Abu Dhabi (10.-19.10.2008).

The 53rd Cork Film Festival (12.-19.10.2008) will be showing ON THE LINE (AUF DER STRECKE) by Reto Caffi (DE/CH), JOURNEY TO THE FOREST (REISE ZUM WALD) by Joern Staeger and SUNRISE DA CAPO by Nina Poppe in the International Shorts competition. MY HAPPY END by Milen Vitanov can be seen in the section for Family Screenings.

The 52nd London Film Festival (15.-30.10.2008) has selected five German shorts. 7 MORE MINUTES by Izabela Plucinska (DE/PL), ON THE LINE (AUF DER STRECKE) by Reto Caffi (DE/CH) and W. by The Vikings will screen in Short Cuts & Animation. REMOTE INTIMACY (FERNE INTIMITT) by Sylvia Schedelbauer and PNEUMA MONOXYD by Thomas Koener (DE/RS) will be shown in the Experimenta sidebar.

The 46th Viennale (17.-29.10.2008) has invited 2 ODER 3 VERSUCHE, EINE IDEE UMZUSETZEN by Jan Peters and Marie-Catherine Theiler (DE/CH), MONA by Agnes Rossa (EG/DE), PIANOFORTE by Christoph Girardet and SCOPE and TEACHING THE ALPHABET by Volker Schreiner to its short film sections.

ON THE LINE (AUF DER STRECKE) by Reto Caffi (DE/CH), TOMORROW-YEAH! by Daniela Abke and WHEN WE ARE IN HEAVEN (UND WENN WIR DANN IM HIMMEL SIND) by Daniela Risch will be running In Competition at the 27th International Short Film Festival Uppsala (20.-26.10.2008). A SUNNY DAY (EIN SONNIGER TAG) by Gil Alkabetz and WHITE (WEISS) by Florian Grolig can be seen as Childrens Films.

HASTINGS by Nikolas Jger will be shown in the sidebar Brick Film Fest, while 40 SQUARE METERS (40 QUADRATMETER LEBEN) by Eva Thron is being shown in the programme of Gay/Lesbian: At Home and Out and About. AMIN by David Dusa (FR/DE/NL) is part of Short Matters.

ENERGY! (ENERGIE!) by Thorsten Fleisch and SUPER SMILE by Effi Wu are invited to the Shorts Competition of the 22nd AFI Fest Los Angeles (30.10.-09.11.2008).

Stranger than fiction: Italian actor arrested in mob swoop

Italy has decided to get heavy on the Mafia, sending 3,000 military in to the worst areas to support police activities. But in a bizarre twist, two actors who played the role of gangsters in the award-winning film "Gomorra" by Matteo Garrone have been arrested as part of a group of people associated with a Mafia gang in Naples. The arrests follow the murdering of six Africans suspected of dealing in drugs and who were killed as a way of warning others to back off the lucrative trade. Following rioting, thousands of people took to the streets to denounce the killings and organised crime, with a similar demonstration in Rome drawing a very large crowd.

The semi-professional actor Giovanni Venosa was known to the police as a petty criminal and was fingered by a prison inmate as a possible drugs pusher. He plays a local boss in the movie.

UK review on Time Out
Trailer in English on Optimum releasing.