Rome festival awards of the fifth edition

AWARDS CONFERRED BY THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
An international jury presided by Sergio Castellitto, and composed of journalist and writer Natalia Aspesi, director Ulu Grosbard, writer Patrick McGrath, director Edgar Reitz, and the director of the Multimedial Arts Museum in Moscow, Olga Sviblova, judged the films in Competition within the Official Selection.
The international jury conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Film: Kill Me Please by Olias Barco
- Marc’Aurelio Grand Jury Award: Hævnen – In a Better World by Susanne Bier
- Marc’Aurelio Special Jury Award: Poll by Chris Kraus
- Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actor: Toni Servillo for Una Vita Tranquilla
- Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actress: the entire female cast of Las Buenas hierbas
- Special Plaque of the President of the Italian Republic for the film which best emphasizes human and social values: Dog Sweat by Hossein Keshavarz

AUDIENCE AWARD
By means of an electronic system, the Festival provided for the participation of the audiences to the conferring of the Marc’Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film – BNL in Competition within the Official Selection.
The audiences conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film – BNL: Hævnen – In a Better World by Susanne Bier

MARC'AURELIO AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY IN THE EXTRA SECTION
An international jury composed of documentary film makers, presided by da Folco Quilici, and composed of Anna Glogowski, Villi Herman, Alexandre O. Philippe and Kayo Yoshida, conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Documentary in the Extra section: De Regenmakers by Floris-Jan Van Luyn

MARC'AURELIO AWARD FOR EMERGING NEW TALENTS
As of this 2010 edition, the Festival also conferred the Marc'Aurelio Award for Emerging New Talents, in collaboration with the Youth Department of the Presidency of the Council of Ministries. The new acknowledgement is meant so as to award the best director or best actor/actress at his/her first film.
The jury composed of Andrea Piersanti (chairman), Valentina Carnelutti, Claudio Giovannesi, Uliana Kovaleva and Giampaolo Rossi, conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Award for Emerging New Talents: Kaspar Munk for Hold Om Mig

KIDS AWARDS
The films in competition within the Alice nella città section received two Marc'Aurelio Alice nella città Awards. The winners were chosen by two juries: one composed of children from eight to thirteen years of age, and the other by teenagers from fourteen to seventeen years of age, both specially selected between audiences and schools.
The two kids juries conferred the:
- Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Under 12 Award: I Want To Be a Soldier by Christian Molina
- Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Over 12 Award: Adem by Hans Van Nuffel

MARC’AURELIO AWARD IN MEMORY OF SUSO CECCHI D’AMICO
The fifth edition of the Festival conferred the Marc'Aurelio Award in memory of the Italian screenwriter who passed away on 31st July of this year.

MARC'AURELIO ACTING AWARD
The Festival conferred the Marc’Aurelio Acting Award on Julianne Moore.


Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Film
Kill Me Please
by Olias Barco, Belgio, 2010, 96’
Cast: Virgile Bramly, Aurelien Recoing, Benoit Poelvoorde
An irresistible, grotesque black comedy, shot in black and white, and very politically incorrect. Medical pioneer Dr. Kruger (Aurélien Recoing) wants to rectify suicide. His dream is to create a therapeutic framework where suicide is no longer a tragedy but a simple, medically assisted act. But in the isolated mountains where the good doctor Kruger realizes his dream of the perfect suicide, Death strikes only when IT decides the time has come.

Marc’Aurelio Grand Jury Award
Hævnen – In a Better World
by Susanne Bier, Denmark, 2010 - 113’
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen
Doctor Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) returns home to a quiet and dreary small Danish town from Sudan, where he works in a refugee camp. The story revolves around the lives of two families who cross and the extraordinary and risky friendship which blossoms between Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen). A powerful reflection on the strength of peace activism and the overriding dominance of violence. Bier's film has been accused by the Sudan government of being anti-Islamic and its narration of the Darfur trauma has been denied.

Marc’Aurelio Special Jury Award
Poll
by Chris Kraus, Germany, Austria, Estonia, 2010 - 129’
Cast: Paula Beer, Edgar Selge, Tambet Tuisk
On the eve of World War I, 14-year-old Oda von Siering (Paula Beer) returns to her home, on the Baltic coast, a place uneasily shared by Germans, Russians and Estonians, at the border between Germany and the Russian empire during its dark decline. Oda's father, Ebbo (Edgar Selge), is a morbid scientist who has an obscure liking for experiments on racial breeding and controls the family with a cruel hand. The inquisitive and rebellious Oda nurses a wounded Estonian anarchist (Tambet Tuisk) back to health and what starts off as romantic child's play turns into an act of defiance able to trigger off an uncontrollable chain reaction.

Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actor
Toni Servillo
Una Vita Tranquilla
by Claudio Cupellini, Italy, Germany, France, 2010 - 105’
Cast: Toni Servillo, Marco D’Amore, Francesco Di Leva
Rosario Russo (Toni Servillo) hails from southern Italy, has a young family and is perfectly integrated in his new home near Frankfurt where he runs a restaurant and hotel business. He keeps a low profile, has changed identities, speaks an impeccable German - finally, his past is behind him. Until one day, his son Diego (Marco D'Amore), shows up at his doorstep, and his past suddenly comes back to haunt him.

Marc’Aurelio Jury Award for Best Actress
The entire female cast
Las Buenas hierbas
by Maria Novaro, Mexico, 2010 - 120’
Cast: Ursula Pruneda, Ofelia Medina, Ana Ofelia Murguìa, Mìriam Balderas
Dhalia (Ursula Pruneda) is separated, lives with her small son Cosmo (Cosmo González Muñoz) and works for a radio station. Her mother, Lala (Ofelia Medina), is in charge of the Botanical Gardens at Mexico's University. Their lives march on slowly until Lala is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and asks her daughter to help her before she completely loses her mind. Lala gives Dhalia her lastest research on plants and herbal remedies that, according to Pre-Columbian, Mexican tradition, cure the human soul.


Special Plaque of the President of the Italian Republic for the film which best emphasizes human and social values
Dog Sweat
by Hossein Keshavarz, Iran, USA, 2010 - 90’
Cast: Sara Esfahani, Tahereh Azadi, Shahrokhi Taslimi
Using the subversive urgency of cinéma vérité, the lives of six young people unfold in present day Iran. Misunderstood by their families and oppressed by conservative Islamic society, they act out their personal desires behind closed doors. Shot clandestinely throughout Tehran before the elections of 2009, Hossein Keshavarz's provocative film challenges the status quo by providing the new generation of Iranians a fervent voice of rebellion.

Marc’Aurelio Audience Award for Best Film – BNL
Hævnen – In a Better World
by Susanne Bier, Denmark, 2010 - 113’
Cast: Mikael Persbrandt, Trine Dyrholm, Ulrich Thomsen
Doctor Anton (Mikael Persbrandt) returns home to a quiet and dreary small Danish town from Sudan, where he works in a refugee camp. The story revolves around the lives of two families who cross and the extraordinary and risky friendship which blossoms between Elias (Markus Rygaard) and Christian (William Jøhnk Nielsen). A powerful reflection on the strength of peace activism and the overriding dominance of violence. Bier's film has been accused by the Sudan government of being anti-Islamic and its narration of the Darfur trauma has been denied.

Marc’Aurelio Award for Best Documentary in the Extra section
De Regenmakers
by Floris-Jan Van Luyn Holland, 2010 - 70’
An unusual look at a vast, uncharted territory: the environment in China and its ecological condition. The viewers' guides on this journey are four Chinese activists who bravely engage in a daily struggle (mostly doomed to fail, as even these heroes seem to perceive) against the local authorities, lobbies large and small, outmoded mentalities and positions that won't budge.

Marc’Aurelio Award for Emerging New Talents
Kaspar Munk for Hold Om Mig
By Kaspar Munk, Denmark, 2010 - 76’
Cast: Julie Sandra Brochorst Andersen, Wili Julius Findsen, Sofia Mileva Cukic
Sara (Julie B. Andersen), Mikkel (Frederik Christian Johansen), Hassan (Hicham Najid) and Louise (Sofia Cukic) are four teenagers who are searching for their own identity and an anchor in their lives. One ill-fated day in the classroom a misunderstanding is thrown out of proportion and creates a wave of chaos. Suddenly they are the guilty ones and the victims of a game that has got out of hand.

Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Under 12 Award
I Want To Be a Soldier
by Christian Molina, Spain, Italy, 2010 - 88’
Cast: Danny Glover, Fergus Riordan, Jo Kelly, Valeria Marini
Alex (Fergus Riordan) is an average 8-year-old child and like many others his age he has an imaginary friend, Astronaut Captain Harry Ben Temple. When his mother (Jo Kelly) gives birth to twins, Alex starts to have communication problems and becomes withdrawn. Hurt and betrayed, he uses emotional blackmail to persuade his father (Andrew Tarbet) to grant him his dearest wish: a TV set for his bedroom. Through Television, Alex discovers an exciting new world and changes not only his way of seeing things but also his imaginary alter ego into that of Sergeant John Cluster. He is so fascinated by images of war and violence that he becomes obsessed.

Marc’Aurelio Alice nella città Over 12 Award
Adem
by Hans Van Nuffel, Belgium, 2010 - 98’
Cast: Stef Aerts, Wouter Hendrickx
Tom (Stef Aerts) and his brother Lucas (Maarten Mertens) suffer from cystic fybrosis, a genetic disease that slowly destroys their lungs. In the hospital, Tom meets Xavier (Wouter Hendrickx), who suffers from the same illness but behaving like a top athlete. Xavier is a confirmed optimist, even when he is dumped by his girlfriend Anneleen (Marie Vinck). Tom takes in Xavier's energy and joy of life. He roams the hospital grounds and falls for the charms of quirky Eline (Anemone Valcke), who has been quarantined for months due to an infection. They are not allowed to touch and can only talk to each other over the phone. Yet, they start a romance.