In Between Days
By Robert Koehler
Good, smart festivals–and BAFICI is one of them–can dole out terrible awards. The Saturday awards capping the final days (which I’ll be reflecting upon in postings to come) were no exception. I’ll be breaking down some of the results later, but the happiest result was unquestionably my international jury’s wise selection of So Yong Kim’s In Between Days for best film (with the nifty bonus of an acting award for the film’s beautifully instinctive lead actor, Jiseon Kim). Despite being a popular title on the festival circuit since Sundance ’06, Days had yet to win any festival’s top prize; so, to say the least, it was overdue, and in this particular field, clearly deserving. (BAFICI had attempted, as it had with Old Joy, to program the film last year, but scheduling and print difficulties forced a cancellation.)
The worst? The Argentine Authors Association making the titanically stupid decision to award a best screenplay prize to Federico Leon’s and Marcos Martinez’ wafer-thin documentary, Estrellas, which contains not a jot of anything that could be remotely termed a “screenplay.” Indeed, four total prizes to Estrellas (including a special prize from my jury) were four too many, a near-scandalously excessive celebration for a minor work of dubious worth and with an even more dubious agenda. Estrellas‘ ego-maniacal estrella (star), Julio Arrieta, strutted around the stage like he was some incarnation of Juan Peron. I do hope, in retrospect, that this isn’t the lasting, embarrassing memory from a festival with several visionary films. Sometimes, though, it happens that way.
Here are the results:
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION:
Film:In Between Days (So Yong Kim, US/Canada/South Korea)
Director:Hugo Vieira da Silva, Body Rice (Portugal)
Actor: Arturo Goetz El asaltante (Argentina)
Actress: Jiseon Kim, In Between Days
Jury Special Prize: Estrellas (Federico Leon and Marcos Martinez, Argentina)
ARGENTINA COMPETITION:
Film: UPA! Una pelicula Argentina (Santiago Giralt/Camila Toker/Tamae Garateguy)
Director: (tie) Rafael Filippelli, M˙sica nocturna ; Raul Perrone, Canada
Special Mention: La Leon (Santiago Otheguy)
AUDIENCE AWARD:
Foreign: 12:08 East of Bucharest (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania)
Argentina: Filmatron (Pablo Pares)
ARGENTINA SHORT:
Short: ABC, etc. (Sergio Subero)
Special Mentions: Simpatia (Galel Maidana); Ana (Gabriela Trettel)
CINEMA OF THE FUTURE AWARD:
Film: El tiempo que queda (Jose Luis Torres Leiva, Chile)
Mention: Street Thief (Malik Bader, US)
HUMAN RIGHTS AWARD:
Film: 9 Star Hotel (Ido Haar, Israel)
FIPRESCI:The Sugar Curtain (Camila Guzman Urzua, Cuba/France)
SIGNIS AWARD FOR FEATURE:
Film: The Unpolished (Pia Marais, Germany)
Special Mention: Estrellas
FEISAL (IBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN IMAGE AND SOUND FEDERATION) AWARD:
Film: Estrellas
Special Mention: La Leon
ARGENTINA AUTHORS ASSN. AWARD:
Screenplay: Estrellas
ARGENTINE FILM JOURNALISTS’ AWARD FOR BEST ARGENTINE FEATURE:
UPA! Una pelicula Argentina
ARGENTINE CINEMATOGRAPHERS AWARD:
Jorge Crespo, El desierto negro (Argentina)
For those readers who have already snooped around on the web to check the awards results and tracked them down at variety.com, please note that this site incorrectly reports the audience awards. The Cannes Camera d’Or-winning 12:08 East of Bucharest and the world-premiering Argentine comic-book styled Filmatron snatched the top vote totals on the final day of audience voting.
(Day 11 entry.)