‘POPULAR JURY’ TO ANNOUNCE WINNERS AT ROME FILM FESTIVAL
by Gina Doggett
Agence France Presse — English
October 21, 2006 Saturday 2:03 AM GMT
A "popular jury" of 50 moviegoers drawn from the public are to announce
the winning films Saturday at the first edition of the RomeFilmFest.
Sixteen feature-length films competed in the categories of Best Film,
Best Actor and Best Actress in what has been billed as a "democratic"
event, with 40,000 seats made available to the public.
Strong contenders for recognition were "This Is England" by Shane
Meadows and "After This Our Exile" by Hong Kong director Patrick Tam,
one of three Asian films in the running.
Meadows’ powerful film focuses on Thatcher-era skinheads through the
eyes of an impressionable boy, while Tam’s is a heartbreaking tale
of family disintegration set in a working-class Chinese community
in Malaysia.
Other candidates are French director Robert Guediguian’s "Armenia",
"Primo Levi’s Journey" by Italy’s Davide Ferrario, "A Casa Nostra"
(At Our House) by Francesca Comencini, also Italian, and Georgian
filmmaker Otar Iosseliani’s "Gardens in Autumn".
Out of competition, Indian director Mira Nair’s "The Namesake,"
another of her brilliant forays into the intersection of two cultures,
wowed audiences, as did the world premiere of Martin Scorsese’s
"The Departed".
On Friday the festival experienced Borat, the wacky fictional reporter
from Kazakhstan, offering his peculiar American road show.
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious
Nation of Kazakhstan," has been making the rounds of the world’s film
festivals, taking on the RomeFilmFest simultaneously with the Pusan
International Film Festival in South Korea, where a film by an actual
Kazakhstani director was in competition.
Offensive and hilarious at the same time, the film’s moustachioed,
mysogynist star accuses his compatriots of drinking horse urine,
beating their wives and hating Jews as he barrels across America in
an ice cream truck in pursuit of Baywatch star Pamela Anderson.
RomeFilmFest opened with a bang, premiering "Fur, An Imaginary Portrait
of Diane Arbus," starring Nicole Kidman.
Despite demure denials by the organizers, the event has been seen
as a potentially serious rival to the venerable Mostra of Venice,
which closed just a few weeks earlier in September.
The Rome event, with a privately sponsored budget of some 10 million
euros (12.5 million dollars), was held in 20 locations across the
city, from the new Auditorium Music Park to the city’s Piazza del
Popolo and even the Trevi Fountain, famously featured in Federico
Fellini’s 1960 film "La Dolce Vita".
The awards ceremony begins at 11:00 am (0900 GMT).
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
