AWARDS: ‘Frozen River’ and ‘Burma VJ’ Snag Best Pic

Stockholm International Film Festival:

• U.S. drama Frozen River, won the top film kudo at the Stockholm Intl. Film Festival, which specializes in pics by up-and-coming directors such as Courtney Hunt.
• Steve McQueen took home the best directing debut prize and Michael Fassbender nabbed the actor award for UK film Hunger, about a hunger strike in Northern Ireland.
• Best Screenplay and The Audience Award went to Swedish pic Involuntary, written by Erik Hemmendorff and Ostlund.
• Best Actress went to Zuzana Bydzovska for her role in Bohdan Slama’s Czech-German-French co-production Country Teacher, which also won Divis Marek the award for cinematography.
• The prize of the Fipresci jury was won by U.K.-German pic Better Things, helmed by Duane Hopkins.
• This year’s Lifetime Achievement award went to Charlotte Rampling and the Visionary Award to helmer Wong Kar Wai.

International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam:

• Anders Ostergaard’s Burma VJ — Reporting from a Closed Country took top prize at the world’s top event for documentary features.
• A special jury award went to German team Rick Minnich and Matthew Sweetwood for Forgetting Dad, about the sudden memory loss suffered by Minnich’s father.
• Kudos for medium-length docu went to Dutch helmer Aliona van der Horst, whose Boris Ryzhy explores the life of a little-known Russian poet.
• A special jury award in this category went to Ibtisam Mara’ana for Lady Kul el Arab, about a beauty pageant for Arab women in Israel.
• Canada’s RiP — A Remix Manifesto by Brett Gaylor won the audience award with its argument against penalizing people who cross copyright boundaries to make music.

Source: Variety