The Writers' Resource

Festival Films win top honours at French Oscars as
Paris 36 star, Gérard Jugnot,
arrives in Oz to launch Festival

 
The 20th annual Alliance Française French Film Festival, which commences its national season in Sydney this Wednesday, is off to a great start with several of its films scoring top honours at the 34th César Awards.
 
The Césars, which are France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, were held in Paris last Friday.  Séraphine, the Martin Provost biopic about Gallic painter Séraphine de Senlis, which was nominated in nine categories, won six major awards covering Best Film, Best Actress (for leading lady Yolande Provost), Best Original Screenplay, Best Costume Design, Best Original Score, Best Production Design and Best Cinematography. Séraphine, which will be released theatrically through Rialto Distribution later this year, promises to be one of the highlights of the 2009 Festival programme.  “It’s a small film,” said Kelly Rogers, CEO of Rialto, “but with a heart of gold. It really reminds me of the golden age of art-house, when films such as Like Water for Chocolate and My Mother’s Castle, meant sunshine and roses with a good tug at the heartstrings.  We’re extremely happy to provide the very first screenings of Séraphine in Australia at the prestigious Alliance Française French Film Festival.”
 
Other Festival films to win on the night included director Jean-François Richet’s powerful Public Enemy No. 1 which was nominated in ten categories.  This compelling dramatization of the life of career criminal Jacques Mesrine, which will screen at the Festival in two parts, won Best Actor for leading man Vincent Cassel, as well as Best Director and Best Sound and will be seen on Australian screens later this year, courtesy of distributor Madman Entertainment.  Other winners included Jean-Paul Roussillon who won Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Christmas Tale, another highlight of this year’s Festival.
 
The Festival is also delighted to confirm that Gérard Jugnot, one of France’s most beloved actors, famed for his performances in films such as Monsieur Batignole and Les Choristes, will be this year’s special guest.  M. Jugnot who stars in the Festival’s opening night film, Paris 36, screening courtesy of Sony Pictures, will be the guest-of-honour at the Festival launch in both Sydney and Melbourne this week and will also visit Brisbane before returning to Paris to commence filming his next project.  A brief biography on Gérard Jugnot accompanies this release.
 
National Dates for the 2009 Alliance Française French Film Festival are:
 
Sydney : 4th - 19th March                   Palace Academy, Palace Verona & Palace Norton Street        
Melbourne : 5th - 20th March              Palace Como, Palace Balwyn, Palace Westgarth & Kino Cinemas
Canberra : 18th - 29th March               Greater Union Manuka
Brisbane : 19th - 29th March               Palace Centro & Palace Barracks Cinema
Adelaide : 26th March - 5th April          Palace Nova Eastend   
Perth : 25th March - 5th April               Cinema Paradiso & Luna on SX

Visit the official 2009 Festival website at:
http://www.frenchfilmfestival.org/

 Coming up ...the German film festival in Melbourne!

 
Presented by the Goethe-Institut in conjunction with German Films, the Audi Festival of German Films 2009 will screen throughout Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane from mid-April onwards.
 
For its 8th annual outing, the Festival, which is again proudly sponsored by Audi, Europe’s leading manufacturer of exquisite cars, has assembled a fascinating line-up of more than 20 films, which illustrate the rich diversity of contemporary German cinema, along with an amazing retrospective of seldom seen features from the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
 
The Festival is also delighted to announce that THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX, directed by Uli Edel and nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars®, has been selected as the opening night film in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX will screen courtesy of Icon Film Distribution.
 
Since commencing in 2002, the Festival has emerged as a key event on Australia’s cultural calendar, attracting 19,000 viewers in 2008; a testimony to the burgeoning international popularity of German cinema. The 2009 event promises to draw an even wider audience, with a planned 150 screenings comprising current productions such as TRADE, KRABAT, NOVEMBER CHILD, PEACEFUL TIMES, JERICHOW and BERLIN CALLING. Also featured is legendary director Billy Wilder’s 1961 comedy ONE, TWO, THREE starring the immortal James Cagney as a West-Berlin based Coca-Cola executive, frantically trying to stop the daughter of his American boss from marrying a Communist.
 
Amazingly, it is now 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down, reuniting East and West Germany.  The Festival’s GDRetro celebrates this anniversary with a retrospective of never or rarely seen films from the surprisingly prolific film industry of the former German Democratic Republic.  "In 2009 we are enriching the program through a section dedicated to the 'culture of remembrance'," explained Klaus Krischok, director of the Goethe-Institut Australia. "Many pivotal films from the GDR have never before been shown in this country.  We are therefore excited to screen milestones from and about the former GDR, such as director Frank Beyer’s JACOB THE LIAR, TRACES OF STONE and CARBIDE AND SOREL as well as THE LEGEND OF PAUL AND PAULA plus East Germany’s only explicitly gay film COMING OUT, both from director Heiner Carow, which ironically premiered on the night the Berlin Wall was dismantled.”
 
In keeping with tradition, the 2009 Festival will again welcome guests from Germany including acclaimed director Marco Kreuzpaintner (SUMMER STORM, TRADE, KRABAT) along with Der Spiegel journalist and author, Christian Buss.  Lively film debate will be encouraged via a serious of panel discussions and seminars focusing on director Michael Althen’s fascinating documentary on cinematic history EYE TO EYE – ALL ABOUT GERMAN FILM. Australian film critics will confer on the Festival’s blog, entitled Vote and Win, and for the second year running, the Festival will hold the Golden Gnome Audience Award.  Entrants will have the chance to win a ‘trip for two to Berlin’ plus other great prizes. There will also be a supporting program entitled Berlin Sessions, featuring DJs all the way from Berlin who will perform in the cities' clubs along with a special national program for young students of the German language.
 
Highlights of the Audi Festival of German Films 2009 include:
 
12 MEANS: I LOVE YOU (12 heißt: Ich liebe dich)
Director: Connie Walter
East Germany in the 70s. A prisoner falls in love with her Stasi officer. Their intense relationship takes a twist when they revisit the prison after the Berlin Wall has ceased to be.
 
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX (Der Baader Meinhof Komplex)
Director:  Uli Edel
Academy-Award nominated drama about Germany’s infamous RAF terrorist gang, with an all-star cast.
 
BERLIN CALLING   
Director: Hannes Stöhr
DJ Ickarus flies too high – on illegal substances and his own music. The big city forms the background to a highly emotional drama – and delivers the soundtrack of a lifetime.

CLARA (Geliebte Clara)
Director: Helma Sanders-Brahms
Clara Schumann, a brilliant concert pianist in her own right, was more than the woman behind composer Robert Schumann, as revealed in this intense drama, which takes the viewer on a journey of love, deceit, ambition and hope.
 
JERICHOW
Director: Oskar Roehler
A road movie and a journey to unexpected interiors – as Laura, Ali and ex-soldier Thomas, meet in this small town by the Baltic. Stunning performances by Nina Hoss and Benno Führmann
 
DR ALEMÁN
Director:  Tom Schreiber
A young German doctor wants to make a positive impact in Columbia’s drug infested cities.  However, his idealism is soon tested when he finds himself immersed in the dangerous currents of his new environment.
 
THE INVENTION OF THE CURRIED SAUSAGE (Die Entdeckung der Currywurst)
Director: Ulla Wagner
Hamburg 1945.  A middle-aged housewife hides a young German soldier in her apartment.  An unusual and dramatic love affair unfolds, as the lonely woman rediscovers passion, only to have it threatened by the onset of peace.
 
PEACEFUL TIMES  (Friedliche Zeiten)  
Director: Neele Leana Vollmar
Germany 1968 - beehives and cocktail dresses. In this compelling drama, the move from East to West is not the success that one family hopes for, as wife and mother, Irene Striesow, can’t shake off the demons of her past – a situation which forces her children to take matters into their own hands.
 
A YEAR AGO IN WINTER (Im Winter ein Jahr)  
Director:  Caroline Link
Academy-Award winner Caroline Link’s long awaited return. Eliane asks Max (to paint a portrait of her children. However, one of them is dead, and the other does not want to be in the picture…
 
KRABAT
Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
A colourful, adventure-fantasy.  14 year-old Krabat discovers a terrible secret in the old mill where he learns his trade alongside 11 companions. Based on an ancient legend and the international bestseller of the same name.
 
PALERMO SHOOTING
Director:  Wim Wenders
Wim Wenders’ latest film, starring rock-star Campino. When his life starts spinning out of control, renowned fashion photographer, Finn, abandons his career and leaves Duesseldorf for Palermo. Just as his new life takes shape, his peace is shattered when he finds himself the target of a mysterious shooter
 
TRADE – WELCOME TO AMERICA (Willkommen in Amerika)
Director:  Marco Kreuzpaintner
Terrible things happen on the US-Mexican border, as a young man who sets out to unveil the secrets of prostitution and child trade, soon discovers, in this thrilling German-Hollywood production.
 
 
2009 FESTIVAL DATES & VENUES:

Sydney:             15 – 26 April     Chauvel Cinema / Palace Norton Street
Melbourne:        16 – 26 April     Palace Cinema Como / Kino Palace Cinemas
Perth:                16 – 20 April     Cinema Paradiso
Brisbane:           22 – 26 April     Palace Centro

Australian Film Critics’ Association (AFCA) is proud to announce the results of their 2008
Film Awards. Encompassing four categories comprising Best Australian Film, Best Overseas
Film, Best Documentary and Best Un-released Film, the winners were:
Best Australian Film: WINNER: The Black Balloon (Australia)
Commended: The Square (Australia)
Best Overseas Film: WINNER: There Will Be Blood (USA)
Commended: Dark Knight (USA)
Best Documentary: WINNER: Man On A Wire (UK/USA)
Commended: Not Quite Hollywood (Australia)
Best Un-released Film: WINNER: En La Ciudad De Sylvia
(In Sylvia’s City) (Spain)
Commended: Les Amours d’Astrée et de Céladon
(The Romance of Astree & Celadon)
(France/Italy/Spain)
In 2009 AFCA will launch its inaugural awards for film writing to be called the AFCA Ivan
Hutchinson Award for Excellence in Film Writing which will offer two cash prizes - one for
the Best Essay or Article on Australian film, the other for the Best Example of Film Criticism.
Entries will open May 1, 2009. Further details will be announced closer to the date.
AFCA started life as the Melbourne Film Critics’ Forum in 1996, expanding to a national
organization in 2004 and is a member of FIPRESCI, the revered International Federation of Film
Critics and Film Journalists. AFCA’s members, many of whom are globally acknowledged as
experts in their field, are comprised of professional film critics, film reviewers and film journalists
who provide informed discussion, analysis and comment on Australian and world cinema.
AFCA supports both mainstream and independent cinema and particularly aims to generate
appreciation for significant or challenging films that may, for whatever reason, have been
overlooked.
AFCA also enjoys an association with Australian Centre for Moving Image (ACMI) for which it
hosts regular screenings and panel discussions.

Just proving that a bit of time and effort backing a darn fine idea are all that count (oh, and appropriate bucks!) Adam Elliot’s long-awaited debut feature Mary and Max has been greeted with first reviews after its Sundance premiere, with critics describing it as a '...high-end claymation drama with strong doses of humor and quirkiness.'  Good on you Adam & Mel and your great team!  May it lead to bigger and better budgets.

Mary and Max, which uses the voices of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Toni Collette, Barry Humphries and Eric Bana to tell the story of a pen-pal relationship between a young girl in Australia and a fortysomething man in New York, opened the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Utah on Thursday night.

Elliot has worked tirelessly on the estimated $8m project with producer Melanie Coombs for the five years since the pair won an Oscar for the claymation short Harvie Krumpet. Prior to that Elliot won acclaim for his other claymation shorts Uncle, Cousin and Brother.

The Hollywood Reporter has called the film “a whimsical mediation on loneliness and friendship with strong doses of humor and quirkiness” while Comingsoon.net described it as “a joyfully entertaining experience from beginning to end”.

Jeffrey Wells, who runs respected US film blog Hollywood Elsewhere, and who had earlier expressed strong reservations about seeing the film, said Mary and Max “was a very high-end claymation drama in every respect -- adult yet sweet, tender but not twee, beautifully written, honest about handicaps and melancholia but full of warmth and caring and a general mood of oddball quirk”.

Cinematical said that although the film is “a tad sappy and heavy-handed at times [it] fidgets and wiggles its way into our good spirits by the time it reaches its endearing conclusion, as we're left to examine not just the relationships we have in our lives, but the ones we have with ourselves”.

Criticisms included the film’s bleak tone and run time, with Paste Magazine saying the film was: “occasionally witty and clever, but…might have been more enjoyable at 45 minutes instead of a long 97, thinning in spunk and ingenuity as it goes”.

Icon plans to release Mary and Max in Australian cinemas on April 9. For more on the film check out: http://www.maryandmax.com