Stockholm
International Film Festival

November 9 - 19 (Sweden)



The highlight of the 11th Stockholm
International Film Festival was the Lifetime Achievement award given
to Lauren Bacall: "for her memorable portrayal of timeless female
beauty and refinedelegance." Six films she selected were shown in
a Bacall retrospective, and her film noir stills were the festival
icons.



Notable to the Stockholm event was the I- festival, an Internet
festival of ten films. If you look carefully at the festival poster,
one of Bacall's eyes is illuminated, signifying the I- (eye) event.
A short warm animation called Cloud Cover by Swedish director
Lisbeth Svärling won Best I-film in an event watched by over 500,000
viewers during the festival. Svärling called the event 'democratic'
and a good way of getting work out.



The Bronze Horse for Best Film 2000 was awarded to Moroccan
Nabil Ayouch for Ali Zaoua, a drama on street slums in Casablanca,
his second film. Nabil Ayouch was born in 1969 of a Moroccan father
and a French mother, and raised in Paris. He has directed more than
50 commercials. His first short film Les Pierres Bleues du Désert
(1992) with Jamel Debbouze. Two other shorts Hertzienne Connexion
and Vendeur de Silence. Ayouch has received many awards at
international festivals. 1997 Moroccan box office success Mektoub,
his first feature film, was nominated for the 1999 Oscars. The jury's
praised Ali Zaoua as "a movie that will not leave you and
that you will not want to leave."



Billy
Elliot by British theatre director Stephen Daldry won the
Best First Feature Film award. The film about 11-year old Billy
who decides to learn ballet, meeting resistance from both father
and brother, walked away with two other awards. The E! Audience
Award , and the international critic jury FIPRESCI award for Best
Film. The jury wrote that "Billy Elliot dances his way right to
the stars."



Best Script went to Ronan Girre for Virilité et autres
sentiments modernes , which according to the jury "makes our old
neuroses look pretty modern." The French romance comedy explores
masculinity in a 'surrealistic' world.



The Best actor award went to Eric Bana as Mark Chopper
Reads in Chopper (Australia). According to the jury his portrayal
of the Australian serial murderer Eric Bana "manages to win our
sympathy."



Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem
For a Dream by Darren Aronofsky (USA) won the Best actress
award. Burstyn plays an ordinary housewife that becomes an amphetamine
addict while trying to lose weight for a television show. Aronofsky's
film on drug addiction is a riveting, shocking testimony of the
process of deterioration that besets healthy lives.



Tim Orr won Best Cinematography for David Gordon Green's
George Washington about a young African-American boy in the
south-- a "visual poem," wrote the jury. Back Room by Guillem
Morales (Spain) won Best Short Film, a chronicle of the behind the
scenes rooms of gay nightclubs. "Back Room makes us feel lonely
and miserable -- and yet we still laugh!" said the jury.



Special Mention went to The Low Down by Jamie Thraves
(Great Britain) and Krampáck
(Dani and Nico) by Cesc Gay (Spain). 1 kilometre of film,
a scholarship to young independent Swedish filmmakers was awarded
to a " romantic comedy with a touch of Woody Allen" -- Hundtricket
by Christian Eklöw and Christopher Panov: " Special Mention--and
1 kilometre film -went to Moa & Malte by Jonas Embring (Sweden).
Eight weeks at the New York Academy are included in the prize.



The international critics jury FIPRESCI also gave out awards.
Of over 1,500 film festivals in the world, only 30 are awarded by
FIPRESCI. The FIPRESCI jury was made up of Philip Cheah, Singapore
(head), Natalia Bassina, Russia, Heike Hurst, France, Bo Ludvigsson,
Sweden, and Tarmo Pousso, Finland.



In addition to Best film Billy Elliot, honorable mention
went to Eating Air by Jasmine Ng och Kelvin Tong (Singapore).
Lukas Moodyson (Sweden) shared the award for best film for Tillsammans
(Together)
in the Northern Lights section with Erik Clausen's Slip hesterne
løs (Denmark). The Stockholm International Film Festival is
a space for new and inventive filmmaking by young directors. The
12th festival will be held November 8-18 2001.

Moira
Sullivan