LAFF ‘09: The Awards
Sean Bones in the LAFF award-winning Wah Do Dem
The 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival wrapped up this evening with a screening of Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo, but not before the awards were handed out.
The $50,000 narrative jury prize (aka The Target Filmmaker Narrative Award) went to Sam Fleischner and Ben Chace’s Wah Do Dem (What They Do). You can read the LiC review here. The Audience Award for Narrative feature went to Cyrus Nowrasteh’s The Stoning of Soraya M which opened in theaters this weekend. There’s no official LiC review but you can read some of my thoughts on the film here.
Meanwhile, the Audience Award for Best International Feature went to Eva Norvind’s Born Without, a documentary about José Flores, a man born without arms and stunted legs known for his appearances in Mexican art cinema including a couple of films by Alejandro Jodorowsky. I was told it was one of the best films at the festival, which explains why I missed it. I have a curious knack for that being across the street diagonally from wherever the buzz is.
On the non-fiction front, the Target Documentary Award was given to Those Who Remain (Los Que se Quedan), Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman’s look at the Mexican families left behind when loved ones immigrate north to find work in the United States. The Audience Documentary Award went to Jeffrey Levy-Hinte’s Soul Power, the story of the musical festival tied in with the 1974 Muhammad Ali/George Forman boxing match in Zaire known as the Rumble in the Jungle.
Variety has a complete list of winners including the minor categories.
Filed under: Awards, Film Festivals
Tags: Born Without, LAFF, Los Angeles Film Festival, Soul Power, The Stoning of Soraya M., Those Who Remain, Wah Do Dem
I could be wrong, but it does appear that these awards are not as impressive as last year’s roundup. The Iranaian film (I have not seen it, but have seen the trailer numerous times) has received very mediocre to poor reviews, and the film that won the Target Filmaker Award does not seem to be anything special as even your own respectable assessment suggests. Is it me, or is this year’s LAFF a bit sub-par?
No Sam, I think it’s about par for the course. The Iranian film is not perfect, but it’s fine. Wah Do Dem was very enjoyable if imperfect. Soraya was a runner up for the audience award at Toronto.
LAFF is simply not a major festival where big films are going to break. The premieres it gets are generally smaller profile and the rest of the films are culled from other festivals like Sundance.
Glad to see some love for Soul Power.
As I’ve been saying since BAFICI, it’s really, really great.
It was on my list of things I’d like to see, but logistically it didn’t work out. It was playing at an out of the way outdoor theater, which would’ve been cool, but it would’ve blown my whole day on one movie.
I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for it when it hits theaters.