HOLLYWOOD - NOVEMBER 18, 2002

JURY AVARDS

International Feature Competition
Grand Jury Prize: Shoujyo
Special Mention Actor: Shawn Ku, Samsara
Special Mention Actress: Paprika Steen, Okay

International Documentary Competition
Grand Jury Prize: A Wedding In Ramallah
Special Mention: Family

International Shorts Competition
Grand Jury Prize: Dr. Cuddle
Special Mention: The Box Man

AUDIENCE AVARDS

Best International Feature Film: City of God
Best International Documentary: The Smith Family
Best International Short Film: The Box Man

The best entries (in alphabetical order) have been: Angela Christlieb & Stephen Kijak's Cinemania, Alexander Rogozhkin's The Cuckoo, John Malkovich's The Dancer Upstairs, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's Intacto, Emanuelle Crialese's Respiro, Eiji Okuda's Shoujyo, and David Cronenberg's Spider. The British film This Is Not A Love Song, a cross between Trainspotting and Deliverance, was the most painful moment of the festival.

And the other films?

Argentine director Sandra Gugliotta's first film, the low budget A Lucky Day takes a long look at the economic collapse and gloom of Buenos Aires through the eyes of Elsa (Valentina Bassi), a twenty-something of Italian descent working awful jobs and scamming wherever possible to save enough money to go to Italy. While Bassi's performance gives hope to a depressing situation, Gugliotti relies too heavily on long shots of poverty stricken Buenos Aires, but much more effective is Bassi in the middle of the city, trying to conquer it.
Review coming soon.

About The Living In About the Living the web of grief and denial is eloquently explored after the death of the young daughter of a wealthy family. Mexican director Jorge Aguilera creates a hypnotic mood, where the colors are cool and distant to better focus on the intense suffering of each character.

Ararat For quite some time Atom Egoyan has wanted to direct a film about the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Turks. After postponing it a few times, he finally takes on this delicate subject.

Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie adapted his own novel with the assistance of his usual screenwriter Nadine Perront. The result is unfortunately a bit long with an overly composite story.

Chaos and Desire In Chaos and Desire director Manon Briand plays with the laws of nature as well as cinematic clichés for a film that is both poetic and lighthearted.

Cinemania Anyone who's held on to some movie ticket stubs or secretly plots to kill the person who takes 3 minutes to unwrap a candy bar during a crucial moment in a film will relate to this brilliant documentary film about the psychological compulsions of 5 obsessive cinephiles in New York City.

The Cuckoo A work of a bare beauty, The Cuckoo offers a subtle combination of humanity and humor set against the most absurd background, war.

The Dancer Upstairs With The Dancer Upstairs, John Malkovich has created a taut political thriller and a complex character study of a man who must choose between his heart and his country's future.

Dark Water A new evil child from the duo that transformed our television sets into sudden objects of terrors—writer Koji Suzuki and director Nakata Hideo, to whom we owe Ring 1 & 2—Dark Water tries once again to scare us with a young ghost, trading a video cassette in for a downpour.

Divine intervention Suleiman makes a militant film that, as often the case, is a vehicle for excesses and sometimes extremism, provoking uneasiness.

Hypnotized and Hysterical (Hair Dresser Wanted) Yet another portrayal of three confused young women is the first full-length film from director Claude Duty. Not exactly a film to linger on the spectators' mind, it still is great entertainment.

Intacto A fascinating incursion into a troubling world where luck is courted like an unforeseeable and capricious mistress, Intacto bathes the audience in an atmosphere that is both strange and poetic.

Love Liza In Love Liza, a film infused with the intense darkness of an espresso shot, Philip Seymour Hoffman pulsates in the role of Wilson Joel, a Web designer who can't get over the death of his wife and read her suicide note. The film follows his journey into self-destruction, softened with welcome touches of humor

The Man on the Train In Patrice Leconte's The Man on the Train, a heavy handed and sometimes lazy work about the unlikely meeting of two very opposite men, French rock icon Johnny Halliday and Jean Rochefort breathe life into their characters and the movie as soon as they share the screen.

Max Documenting Adolph Hitler's early days as an artist doesn't look like an exciting concept at first. While the idea might seem somewhat provocative and traumatic, the film isn't. Writer/Director Menno Meyjes has created an unlikely piece in light tones with unexpected humorous touches.

Respiro In Respiro, a stunning Valeria Golino hangs on to her dreams on an impoverished Sicilian island. Director Emanuele Crialese has created a beautiful fable about jealousy, cruelty, sexual tension and tolerance among the rough and jagged rocks.

Shoujyo For his first time behind the camera, Eiji Okuda, chooses a difficult and embarrassing subject which he treats—and this is the strength of his film—with reserve and elegance.

Snakeskin A homage to the American road movie set in New Zealand, Gillian Ashurst's debut Snakeskin is a colorful and fun ride that sometimes bites its own tale.

Spider In Spider, Cronenberg forsakes his organic universes for very cerebral fiction.

Sweet Sixteen After the railroad war in The navigators, Ken Loach returns with Sweet Sixteen, a film about the war on drugs with some of his favorite themes in the background: the share of humanity that fights in a world filled with difficulties.

Tattoo For his directional debut, German TV author Robert Schwentke transposes the sub-genres of serial-killer and femme fatale in a gloomy underground world where tattoos are considered as pieces of art and coveted by unscrupulous collectors.

This Is Not A Love Song Rarely has a title been so appropriate. The British film This Is Not A Love Song proves to be such an excruciating experience.

AFI 2002 has a new home at the Arclight Cinemas on Sunset in Hollywood. Next door to Amoeba Records, LA's best record store, the venue is perfect for a festival. Cool and spacious, featuring a bar, goofy film lover gift shop and the Cinerama Dome, Arclight allows for interesting people watching and browsing in between screenings. The festival is fairly well organized, except for a few glitches. While the screenings run smoothly, unfortunately getting to the scheduled screenings on time means missing the Q&A's with directors.