2010.06.16 01:58:43

Linda

The 36th Seattle International Film Festival concluded a record-breaking year on Sunday June 13th, in spite of the downturn in summer movie-going nationwide, with the announcement of juried SIFF 2010 Competition Awards and Golden Space Needle Audience Awards, bringing to a close the largest and most highly attended film festival in the United States. SIFF 2010 broke box office records with a nearly 20% increase in box office, making it SIFF's most triumphant year to date. The Golden Space Needle Award winners were announced at a ceremony on Sunday. More than 83,000 ballots were cast by SIFF audiences to determine the winner in six categories: Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Short Film. So, without further ado...

SIFF 2010 Golden Space Needle Audience Awards

Best Film Golden Space Needle Award

The Hedgehog

The Hedgehog, directed by Mona Achache (France, 2009)

First runner up: Mao's Last Dancer, directed by Bruce Beresford (Australia, 2009)
Second runner up: Micmacs, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France, 2009)
Third runner up: Cell 211, directed by Daniel Monzón (Spain, 2009)
Fourth runner up: Hipsters, directed by Valery Todorovsky (Russia, 2009)

Best Documentary Golden Space Needle Award

Waste Land

Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life, directed by Karen Stanton (USA 2010)
Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker (United Kingdom, 2010)

First runner up: The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, directed by Leanne Pooley (New Zealand, 2009)
Second runner up: Wheedle's Groove, directed by Jennifer Maas (USA, 2009)
Third runner up: Brownstones to Red Dirt, directed by Dave LaMattina and Chad N. Walker (Sierra Leone, 2010)
Fourth runner up: Restrepo, directed by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington (USA, 2010)

Best Director Golden Space Needle Award

Debra Granik for Winter's Bone (USA, 2010)

First runner up: Mona Achache for The Hedgehog (France, 2009)
Second runner up: Ana Kokkinos for Blessed (Australia, 2009)
Third runner up: Valery Todorovsky for Hipsters (Russia, 2009)
Fourth runner up: Daniel Monzón for Cell 211 (Spain, 2009)

Best Actor Golden Space Needle Award

Luis Tosar for Cell 211 (Spain, 2009)

First runner up: Jim Broadbent for Perrier's Bounty (Ireland, 2009)
Second runner up: Aaron Johnson for Nowhere Boy (UK, 2009)
Third runner up: Martin Nissen for Angel at Sea (Belgium/Canada, 2009)
Fourth runner up: Edward Norton for Leaves of Grass (USA, 2009)

Best Actress Golden Space Needle Award

Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone (USA, 2010)

First runner up: Josiane Balasko for The Hedgehog (France, 2009)
Second runner up: Patricia Clarkson for Cairo Time (Canada, 2009)
Third runner up: Sibel Kekilli for When We Leave (Germany/Turkey, 2009)
Fourth runner up: Tilda Swinton for I Am Love (Italy, 2009)

Best Short Film Golden Space Needle Award

Ormie, directed by Rob Silvestri (Canada, 2009)

First runner up: Bedfellows, directed by Pierre Stefanos (USA, 2010)
Second runner up: The Little Dragon, directed by Bruno Collet (France, 2009)
Third runner up: The Crush, directed by Michael Creagh (Ireland, 2009)
Fourth runner up: Whistleless, directed by Siri Melchior (Denmark, 2009)

Lena Sharpe Award for Persistence of Vision, Presented by Women in Film/Seattle

The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, directed by Leanne Pooley (New Zealand, 2009)

2010 Fool Serious Awards

The always-fun second-opinion Fool Serious Awards are voted on by a dedicated group of full passholders, who see a LOT of movies, therefore have a LOT of opinions on said movies. Here's what they thought...

Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone

Most Liked

1. Winter's Bone
2. The Hedgehog
3. Cell 211
4. Hipsters
5. Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil
6. Castaway on the Moon
7. City of Life and Death
8. The Concert
9. The Trotsky
10. The Reverse

Top Archival

1. On The Waterfront
2. West Side Story
3. Night Train
4. Fight Club

Top Documentaries

1. The Untitled Ginny Ruffner Project
2. Waste Land
3. The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls
4. Waiting for Superman

The Special Category Award Winners

Best Director - Debra Granik for Winter's Bone
Best Script - Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano, Luca Guadagnino for I Am Love
Best Cinematographer - Michael McDonough for Winter's Bone
Best Music - Konstantin Meladze for Hipsters
Best Actor - Luis Tosar for Cell 211
Best Actress - Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone
Best Guilty Pleasure - Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil

SIFF 2010

2010.06.16 00:48:21

Linda

When the last day of SIFF arrives, it is a cross between a mad scramble to use up vouchers and see as many films as possible (in the past, I've seen up to four movies on the last day), or relaxing, calling it good, enjoying the weather, then topping off the day with a couple of flicks. This year I chose the latter.

Among the TBA movies announced was my last screening, but I'll get to that in a second. The only movie I could really fit in before that evening show, my last hurrah if you will, was a documentary called Plug & Pray (6/8), a fascinating and a little bit quirky examination of the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence. Science geeks are almost too easy a target to make into humorous subjects, but director Jens Schanze has a hint of the style of Errol Morris in that he holds the image of an uncomfortable scientist in front of the camera a little bit too long, inevitably drawing giggles from the audience. Of course, such tricks aren't necessary when one inventor starts pinching and slapping the cheeks of his robot doppleganger in a serious demonstration to show how the robot is different from a person. (Seriously, this same guy suggested that his robot could be left at home to play with his kids and watch TV on the couch while he himself was on business trips. Ew.) But my big crush of the movie was Herr Joseph Weizenbaum, a muppet of an elder German gentleman, who was a professor of computer science at many esteemed universities including MIT. His critique of the movement towards artificial intelligence (and the elevation of it as the end-all, be-all) as a philosophical argument was absolutely fascinating, and I wished I could sit down with him for a cuppa. Alas, Weizenbaum died during the filming of the documentary. But his presence shakes up the idealization of a computer-automated world, and he really made me think.

My last film of SIFF did not make me think. It made me laugh, and that was the whole point. RoboGeisha (6/8) has one of the best movie trailers I have EVER seen, and the film did not disappoint. RoboGeisha will never win any critics awards, but it delivered exactly what it promised: a Giant Robot Castle (marching up Mt. Fuji), machine-gun boobs, armpit blades, revolving-saw jaws, breast milk from hell, and the "embarrassing" AssSwords. Throw in hilarious campy dialogue like, "I've been cut by a hand!" and "I did not expect to turn into a tank!" and you've got one of the most fun midnight movies (that I've seen at 8:30) in ages. Good, not so clean fun! Now, everyone, cup your hands around your mouth and say in your deepest, most ominous voice, "ROBOGEISHAAAAA".

SIFF 2010

2010.06.15 13:53:08

Linda

The marathon is coming to an end. When I call SIFF an endurance sport, I'm only half-kidding. Seriously. At three-and-a-half weeks long, the festival goes on forever... long enough for me to fall into the swoon of first love, then slowly get into a comfortable groove, then loose enthusiasm from hanging out too much ("I just want to see other people! Like, oh, I don't know... The Goonies!"), to panicking as the fest comes to a close, and running back into its embrace. Sigh.

So, as usual, the last weekend I get into panic mode. And too bad for SIFF, this last weekend was the first time during the fest (and all season, for that matter) that sun decided to show up. But lucky for SIFF, people bought their tickets in advance and crept into the dark theaters nonetheless, despite the first stupendously gorgeous weather in weeks.

I was curious about Cargo (5/8), partly because it was one of the few sci-fi films in this year's fest, and partly because it was, well, Swiss sci-fi. Have you ever seen a Swiss science-fiction film? Well, no, neither have I.

Cargo certainly looks great, as the cargo ship of the title leaves a rotating space port, replete with advertising. The Earth is wasted, and humans have fled to basically ghettos in space, with the promise of a new planet named Rhea. Unfortunately, to get the honor of moving to Rhea, you have to win a lottery. Rhea is where Laura's sister lives, and she dreams of visiting her. But in the meantime, Laura has taken a job on a cargo ship that is en route to the distant Station 42 to deliver its load. But during the long 4-year journey, the crew is awakened from cryogenic freeze because, well, things just ain't right on the ship. Cargo has a mix of Alien-like tension (and you are strung along by the fear of the unknown... is it a stowaway? An alien? Something worse?), and it certainly looks fantastic for a supposedly low budget. The mystery is intriguing, but the characters never sparked for me. Laura is kind of wishy washy, and a bit of a wimp, and the other characters aren't given much depth either. It was pretty, but kind of empty. Like space.

The sole screening of the Allen Ginsberg biopic was packed. Actually, calling Howl (6/8) a biopic is a bit of a stretch, as the film swirls more specifically around Ginsberg's most famous poem "Howl". Going from a re-enacted interview with the poet, to the obscenity trial, to a 1955 reading in front of a San Francisco beatnik audience, to animations of the poem, Howl is certainly engaging, but leaves you wanting to know more. James Franco, who sure seems to be coming into his own the last few years with wonderful performances in Milk and Pineapple Express is endearing as Ginsberg, but the film covers such a small slice of the whole story that I ended up wanting to know more. Still, it was enjoyable for what it was.

Finally, I spent a couple hours in Room in Rome (4/8), an intimate film of a one-night encounter between two women in, well, a room in Rome. Director Julio Medem's film Sex and Lucia won the Golden Space Needle for Best Director in 2002, so I knew to expect something erotic. And indeed, the two lovely actresses (Elena Anaya and Natasha Yarovenko) spent the majority of the film naked (I hope the room was heated). As they explore each other sexually and emotionally through the course of one night, there is sex, talking, crying, talking, sex again, talking, more crying, etc, etc. In fact, within their one night together, they seem to follow the course of a full lesbian relationship—which includes all the annoying parts of a lesbian relationship. Plus there was a weird tendency for the characters to run to a laptop and surf the Net to offer visualizations of what they were talking about. Talk about a huge product placement for Microsoft's Bing! Seriously. For all I know that movie was funded by Microsoft. Anyways, it's the type of movie where the same emotive pop song (something called "Random Strangers") is played over and over throughout the film, until you want to poke your eyes out. The sex scenes weren't hot enough, and the dialogue wasn't absorbing enough to keep me interested.

SIFF 2010