 |
Sundance/NHK Award Winners Announced By Ann Lewinson On Thursday, January 27 at the Sundance Film Festival, Ken Brecher, Executive Director of the Sundance Institute, and Makoto Ueda of NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) announced the recipients of the 2005 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards: Catalin Mitulescu of Romania, Rodrigo Moreno of Argentina, Richard Press of the United States, and Mipo Oh of Japan. The award is presented annually to filmmakers who “show a tremendous gift for storytelling,” said Brecher. And Ueda spoke of the importance of encouraging filmmaking outside of Hollywood. “Films should be made by various countries by various people,” he said. Since 1996, the Sundance Institute, in partnership with NHK, Japan’s largest broadcaster, has given the Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award to four emerging filmmakers - one from the United States, one from Europe, one from Latin America and one from Japan - to support their next films. The award is given to a director who has not made more than two films. Selection is based on the applicant’s previous films and a finished screenplay for a film that has not yet begun principal photography. Although the award goes to a director, generally the recipients have written or co-written the submitted screenplay, as is the case with all of this year’s winners. Recipients receive $10,000, an acquisitions agreement with NHK for Japanese broadcast rights for 15,000,000 yen (US $125,000-$150,000), an invitation to attend this year’s Sundance Film Festival, meetings with key industry executives and publicity through the Sundance Film Festival and the Institute. This year’s recipients are all award-winning short filmmakers who have yet to make their first feature. Catalin Mitulescu’s film, How I Spent the End of the World, takes place in the last year of Ceausescu’s regime, when the filmmaker was 18. He said the award “will help me to make a film in the language of my country.” Rodrigo Moreno’s film, The Minder is based on his experience being the son of Argentina’s Public Health Minister. “My film is about a bodyguard that has to protect someone who no one wants to kill - it’s very peculiar.” Richard Press’s film, Virtual Love, is based on a New Yorker article he optioned about the writer Paul Monette’s friendship with a 15-year-old abuse survivor whose voice he had only heard over the phone - and may not even exist. He developed the screenplay in Sundance’s 2004 Filmmakers Lab. Mipo Oh’s film Yomoyama Blues, takes place in the countryside, where she grew up. Speaking through a translator, she said, “This is about a small country town but with this story I can warm people’s hearts all over the world.” This year’s recipients were selected by an international jury comprised of Walter Salles (President), Antonia Bird, Stephen Gyllenhaal, Carlos Cuaron, Peter Carlton, Toshio Endo, Yoshio Kakeo and Shun’ichi Nagasaki. The awards are part of the Sundance Institute’s Feature Film Program, directed by Michelle Satter. Alesia Weston, Senior Manager, Feature Film Program, International, finds candidates for the award and administers the selection of award recipients. Previous Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award recipients have included Walter Salles of Brazil with Central Station, winner of the 1999 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film; Chris Eyre of the United States with Smoke Signals, sinner of the of the Audience and Filmmaker Awards at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival; and Rodrigo Garcia of the United States with Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Past award recipients with films screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival are Miranda July of the United States for Me and You and Everyone We Know, which screened in the Dramatic Competition; Sebastian Cordero of Ecuador for Crónicas, which screened in the World Dramatic Competition; and Michael Kang of the United States for The Motel, which screened in American Spectrum. The awards were presented at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Saturday, January 29 at the Racquet Club Theatre in Park City.
|