Yamagata: Awards

[Abe' Mark Nornes]

Just back from Yamagata with a terrible cold, thanks to many an
alchohol-sodden, all-night, high-volume discussion session drifting from bar
to bar. A great time, even though I'm now paying for it. However, this also
means that I'm going nowhere and have nothing better to do than let you know
what happened up in the mountains.

[For those of you who don't know Yamagata International Documentary Film
Festival, it was founded in 1989 partly through the energy of director Ogawa
Shinsuke. He died shortly thereafter, but the festival had it's 6th outing
last week. It was the first international documentary film festival in Asia,
and has consistently been The Place for independent producers from this part
of the world to meet and see each other's work. It also has a small
competition, small because they subtitle all prints, with considerable prize
money....always welcome for impoverished film directors. Aside from this,
they always have sidebars of one sort or another, and these are often quite
ambitious, always well-programmed. (I have to admit that I'm partial, as I
worked on the festival for quite a few years)]

This year, the prizes went to:

Competition Section
Jury: Jean-Louis Comolli, Amos Gitai, Haneda Sumiko, Stanley Kwan, Nelson
Pereira dos Santos

Grand Prize---the Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize
Images of the Absence by German Kral

Prize of Excellence (The Mayor's Prize)
Belfast, Maine
(This one weighed in at over 5 hours; Yamagata is one of those festivals
that is not afraid of the long form, and a surprising number of spectators
hang in there for the long haul.   I have to admit I think Wiseman gets
enough of these tips of the hat, and would like to see them go elsewhere,
tho)

Special Prize of the Jury
The Underground Orchestra by Heddy Honigman

Runner-up Prize
Sweep it Up, Swig it Down by Gerd Kroske

Runner-up Prize
Happy Birthday, Mr. Mograbi by Avi mograbi

____________________________________

New Asian Currents Awards
Jury: Nakano Rie, Lin Zu-dong

Ogawa Shinsuke Prize
Swimming on the Highway by Wu Yao-tung

Awards of Excllence
Beijing Cotton-Fluffer by Zhu Chuan-ming
Old Men by Lina Yang Tian-yi

Special mentions
Made in the Philippines...to Fukuoka with Love
Annyong -Kimchi by Matsue Tetsuaki

______________________________________

FIPRESCI Prize
(Jurors included Marcel Martin and ?)

Divorce Iranian Style by Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir-Hosseini

Special Mention
The New God by Tsuchiya Yutaka

_______________________________________

NETPAC Award
(Netpac is an organization of Asian critics and film people. This year's
jurors included Nick Deocampo and one or two others I can't remember.)

White by Hirano Katsuyuki

Special Mentions
Annyong-Kimchi

I Love (080) by Yang Li-zhou

________________________________________

Citizen's Prize
(Chosen by ballots handed out at all competition screenings)

Living Amongst Lions by Sigve Enresen

________________________________________

I'll write a few things about events in films in separate posts, which are
easier to read.

Markus