AFI Fest coverage presented by AFI DALLAS International Film Festival
Presented by Target, Founding Sponsor Victory Park
by Eugene Hernandez (November 12, 2006)
One week after announcing its U.S. distribution deal at the American Film
Market, Jasmila Zbanic’s "Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams" won the narrative
grand jury prize at AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival. Winner of
the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in February, the film is Bosnia and
Herzegovina’s official entry for the 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Academy
Award and Strand Releasing is planning a 2007 release of the acclaimed
feature film. Set in a contemporary Sarajevo still reeling from the
aftermath of war, the film is the story of a single mother who lives with
her rebellious twelve-year-old daughter in the Grbavica district of
Sarajevo, a neighborhood used as an internment camp during the conflict in
the nineties. Unable to survive on government aid and hoping to provide for
her daughter, she takes a day job in a shoe factory and a night job as a
waitress in order to pay for her daughter’s school trip, and along the way,
her daughter discovers a dark secret. The jury singled out Peter Schonau
Fog’s "The Art of Crying" with a special mention at the festival.

International films and international stories were honored with all of the
feature prizes at a festival that has distinguished itself as a key showcase
for new international work. And on Sunday night in Hollywood the world
premiere of Zhang Yimou’s anticipated "Curse of the Golden Flower" closed
the festival one month prior to its domestic release from Sony Pictures
Classics.
"Foreign language feaures are hard [to bring] to the United States," said
"Grbavica" director Jasmila Zbanic, thanking the festival for its focus on
foreign language films Sunday, while accepting her prize, "AFI is giving a
chance for people to see foreign language feature films [and] doing a very
great job bringing us together."
Mark Verkerk’s "Buddha’s Lost Children" was awarded the documentary grand
jury prize. It is the story of a Thai boxing champion’s journey to save
childen from the impoverished Golden Triangle region of the country. The
jury presented a special mention to J.B. Rutagarama’s "Back Home."
The audience award for best documentary was shared by Carla Garapedian’s
"Screamers" and Lucy Walker’s "Blindsight" (tie, documentary). "Screamers"
looks at rock band System of a Down’s battle to preserve the memory of the
Armenian genocide, while "Blindsight" offers a moving chronicle of a group
of Tibetan blind children’s quest to climb Mt. Everest. The prize will boost
the coming release of "Screamers," which will be distributed by Maya
Releasing, while Walker’s well-received "Blindsight" is still seeking a U.S.
deal as it lines up other key festival dates for early next year. Among
narrative films, Switzerland’s Oscar foreign language entry "Vitus," by
Fredi M. Murer, won the audience award.
Short fim award winners included Stephanie Burke’s "Disappearing" winning
the grand jury prize, with a special mention to Chris Shepherd for "Silence
Is Golden" and Michael Dreher’s "Fair Trade" winning the short film audience
award.
Chatting casually with indieWIRE Sunday afternoon shortly after the awards
brunch, Variety correspondent Robert Koehler found it noteworthy that the
American Film Institute’s festival has developed such a distinct focus on
world cinema, given that AFI was founded in 1967, in the words of the
organization, "to train the next generation of filmmakers and to preserve
America’s fast-disappearing film heritage." In other words, U.S. president
Lyndon Johnson and AFI founders (George Stevens, Jr., Gregory Peck, Francis
Ford Coppola, Jack Valenti and others) sought to counter the rise of cinema
from overseas.
AFI Fest certainly offered an eclectic mix of films, but the sixteen best
foreign langauge Oscar submissions and a handful of documentaries seemed to
be the best received movies on the nearly 150 film roster. The event drew
good-sized crowds to its Hollywood screenings, despite the constant
challenges of making a film event stand out in this busy movie town.
Industry response to the festival, however, was muted at best, with insiders
only appearing for showcase screeings of previously acquired films they were
launching at the fest.
Despite a continually hyped partnership between AFI Fest and the American
Film Market in Santa Monica, industry attendees seemed to stay out west near
Santa Monica, skipping AFI Fest screenings, but catching some of its films
at AFM showings. Finding a way to lure more insiders to events in Hollywood
would seem to be a key challenge for festival organizers, and a number of
observers noted that adding a third screening of competition films or repeat
showings of higher profile new work for the second half of the festival
might lure some industry types once AFM wraps up at AFI Fest’s midpint. This
would offer attendees a chance to catch the films that generated the most
buzz.