Can you tell us how the World Cinema Series came about?

The World Cinema Series was conceived as a regular monthly programme on the occasion of the initiation of the Cinematheque. This series aims to chart both the significant and less discovered territories of cinema – silent era epics, lost Hollywood classics, gems from the Czech New Wave, French New Wave, German New Wave, Japanese New Wave, Indian New Wave, Polish New Wave, Hong Kong New Wave, Taiwanese New Wave, Brazilian Tropicalism, Italian Giallo, Chinese Giallo, Spaghetti Westerns, Curry Westerns, Kitchen Sink films, sword fighting spectaculars, kung fu epics, mockumentaries, essay films, Yakuza sagas, etc. you catch the drift.

Having a century of cinema means that present day audiences are privileged to a vast history of the medium. This is where the Cinematheque comes in with the World Cinema Series. In that, a wide spectrum of films are curated and presented to the people with hope that it will inspire, educate and quench any thirst for discovery.

Why did you pick the following two unique directors: Joaquim Pedro de Andrade and Agnes Varda?

Macunaima and Le Bonheur are not programmed with the filmmakers in mind. They are picked on the basis of the films themselves; or rather they are selected for eclecticism. What count most in programming the series aren’t a film’s flaws. It is the qualities that should stick with you after the screening.

Macunaima is the fruit of a personal journey through the Brazilian Tropicalism movement undertaken late last year. It is not necessarily the best film out of that period of filmmaking in Brazil but it will serve as an eye-opener to a radically different kind of cinema. Besides, the film’s outrageously riotous vibe was optioned to kick start another year of screenings.

Le Bonheur was originally slated for a February screening. Valentine’s Day date movie perhaps; or rather, Anti-Valentine’s Day movie. Unfortunately the Gallery Theatre was unavailable for almost the entirety of the month, so it was bumped up to March. But all is not lost. Le Bonheur’s pastoral quality does conjures up feelings of spring-time, as such screening the film in March will do nicely. In case you think that there is too much frivolity in our programming criteria, Le Bonheur was also chosen on account of it being left out of a series of Varda films screened in the SIFF a few years back. The Cinematheque programming looks to complement other film programmes taking place in Singapore. No point screening the same films twice when we should be offering diversity and variety.

What can you tell us about the theme ‘Persistence of Memory’ that runs along with the four Terrence Davies films that were screened recently?

Births, funerals, weddings, christenings, birthdays, Mass, Christmas — these familial realities are reiterated throughout the four films in variation. Memories are the tools by which Davies crafts stories and situations which are foreign and yet oddly familiar. In film after film, Davies offered his remembrances (or imagination) of things past for our substantiation, and sometimes, entertainment. Taken together, the four films formed a portrait of a dedicated artist committed in the art of cinema.

Are there more films to follow through the rest of the year? Give us a sneak peak of what’s in store for cinephiles in the region.

Indeed. I hope the names Visconti and Leone (within the same programme) are a cause of celebration in some quarters.

Will NMS’s Cinematheque be an active part of the upcoming Singapore International Film Festival (SIFF)?

NMS’s Cinematheque is an active supporter of the SIFF. This year we are collaborating on a programme called “25 Years of the National Film Archive of Thailand”, in which gems from the esteemed archive in Thailand are specially curated for the festival.

Watch this space for announcements on upcoming features at the National Museum’s Cinematheque.

Quentin Tarantino’s 7th feature-length film, and 2009’s biggest, meanest, bloodiest, nazi-obliterating epic of a film, Inglorious Basterds, is scheduled for an August 2009 release. It is currently in post-production, and Tarantino has said that it will be ready in time for an opening at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival in May.

• For the record, while the film’s title is inspired by Enzo Castellari’s 1978 film Inglorious Bastards, it is NOT a re-make of it. And the ‘Basterds’ (with the ‘e’) is how Tarantino titled the film.
• The film’s plot is a convergence of two story lines. One follows a group of American prisoners-turned-soldiers under Lt. Aldo Raine aka “Aldo the Apache” (Brad Pitt) who go on a Nazi killing spree. The other plot revolves around a young Jewish girl who seeks to avenge the death of her parents by a Nazi group.
• As you can see in the trailer, Splat Pack member Eli Roth, and B. J. Novak (Ryan from TV’s The Office) are two of the eight Basterds. We were excited about this ever since the cast was announced last year, and it’s tremendously gratifying to watch this trailer and see the two of them in action, bashing the Third Reich.
• Reports say the film is divided into the following five chapters:

  Chapter One: Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France
  Chapter Two: Inglourious Basterds
  Chapter Three: German Night in Paris
  Chapter Four: Operation Kino
  Chapter Five: Revenge of the Giant Face

More on Inglorious Basterds as it comes in. Now, watch the trailer again.

Macunaima marks a watershed in Brazilian filmmaking. It is grotesque, utterly hilarious and mind-numbingly surrealistic, but also undoubtedly political.

To someone unfamiliar with Brazil in that era (1945-1970) this film is nothing but a vacuous comedy with superior performances that causes the stomach to strain with laughter. But the outrageous storyline is actually an allegory. If that sort of stuff interests you, read on.

Directed by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, the film opens in the Brazilian jungle, where an old white woman gives birth to a fully-grown black baby. Seconds after his birth he’s christened Macunaima by his mother who believes a name starting with ‘MA’ brings misfortune.

For the first six years, Macunaima never wants to speak. When he finally begins, he never wants to stop. After his mother’s death, Macunaima and his brothers Jigue (a negro) and Manape (a whiteman) leave the jungle to move to the city. En route they discover a natural spring that turns our protagonist into a handsome, young Caucasian male with blonde hair. Unfortunately for his black brother Jigue the spring goes dry just before he could bathe in it, shattering his hopes of turning white.

In the city, the brothers run into Ci, a solo guerrilla who is introduced fighting Brazil’s then military regime. Macunaima and Ci develop a sexual relationship, which later turns conjugal. He moves in with Ci deserting his two brothers. Soon Ci gives birth to a son - a fully-grown black baby (again played by the original black Macunaima). In the very next scene, a time bomb that Ci wants to plant in the heart of the city misfires killing both Ci and Macunaima Jr.

Depressed over the loss of his only true love, Macunaima reunites with his brothers. Together they device a plan to recover a certain lucky stone (the muraquita) that once belonged to Ci. The stone now hangs around the neck of Pietro Pietra, an industrialist who publicly boasts of the muraquita’s power and the fortune it brought him since its discovery. Every time they come close to the muraquita, their amusing plans are botched, leaving Macunaima in misfortune, just like his mother wanted him to be.

In the end, he manages to retrieve the lucky stone, but chooses to move back into the jungle, far away from the machines and the men of the city, but taking with him certain luxuries - a television, an electric guitar, an air conditioner and other material comforts.

True, it sounds farcical and plays out surrealistically on the screen like a sequence of dreams. But Joaquim Pedro de Andrade strives here - employing allegories - to tell a political story; one that brings to light the plight of the common man in Brazil during the late-60s. Here’s brushing you up on some political history: 1964 was the year of the Brazilian coup d’état - the year the nation went into a military period. In 1968, with the Institutional Act No. 5, Brazil bombarded its own people, taking away much of citizens’ common rights and dissolving the Congress. The Act also increased the dictatorial power of the President tremendously.

In the cinematic history of Brazil, this was the period of Cinema Novo (1950s and 1960s). Capturing the Cinema Novo movement in a single phrase was “Uma câmera na mão e uma idéia na cabeça“, which translates to “a camera in the hand and an idea in the head“. Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, together with other Brazilian filmmakers such as Carlos Diegues and Glauber Rocha were popular names of the Cinema Novo. From 1960-1964, filmmakers sought to expose the reality of life in the country’s Northeast touching on poverty and social inequities. But post-1964, these filmmakers took it on themselves to bring to light the political situation in Brazil, heavily commenting on corruption and capitalism. Macunaima, one of the most important such films hid the message so cleverly while still providing comic relief to the nation’s audience.

The play on racism is obvious. Macunaima is born black to a Caucasian mother, who had also mothered two other sons - one black and one white - previously. To keep the young Macunaima busy, Soffara, Jigue’s first wife, takes him to play and gives him a ‘magic cigarette’. The drug mysteriously turns him white and boosts his sex appeal, but only as long as the effect lasts. When he turns white during the hallucination period, Soffara can’t hold herself back and the two begin a secret affair. Soffara is the first of the three wives of Jigue’s who’re caught copulating with the ‘white Macunaima’ throughout the film. On their way to the city, a magic fountain again turns Macunaima white, this time permanently. As for the unfortunate Jigue, the fountain dries up before he can reach it, only turning his palms white, playing on an old, popular legend in Brazil about the coloring of the black man.

Ci, who Macunaima encounters in the city represents the uprise of the many revolting guerrillas in Brazil in the sixties. Though solo, Ci was ruthless and obliterated anything that came her way. She was always preoccupied with rebellion.

And Pietro Pietra, the fat and greedy industrialist who comes into possession of the muraquita is clearly a figure of capitalism. Pietro, who speaks with an Italian accent represents the many industrials who profited from the developing Brazil that was abundant with resources. The muraquita itself was a symbol of Brazil, its people and everything they stood for. Again allegorically representing the fight put up by the Brazilian man, Macunaima tries very hard to steal the stone back from him, but the obstacles in his way are too many.

When he finally does get hold of the muraquita, Macunaima dwells in luxury and material comfort but soon grows tired of the the urban city life. He returns to the jungle, but this time, having had enough of his lies and selfishness his brothers and his new lady love Princess desert him, leaving him to fend for himself. He finds comfort in a talking parrot to whom he recites the story of his life. Then, calling an end to his adventures is a sequence where Macunaima comes across a lovely nymph in the water and goes diving behind her. But this is no ordinary seductress. After Macunaima takes the dive, he is sucked into the water and his bloody shirt rises to the surface, taking us back to the narration that the film began with - a story of a Brazilian consumed by Brazil.

How’s that for a political statement?

NEXT ON CINEMATHEQUE’S WORLD CINEMA SERIES:

The next four films at the National Museum of Singapore is a presentation of four important works from British director Terrence Davies. If you live around the area or know someone who might be interested, do spread the word. For tickets and venue click here.

27 February 2009
The Terence Davies Trilogy

28 February 2009
Distant Voices, Still Lives
The Long Day Closes

1 March 2009
Of Time and the City

The Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars is unique, controversial, and all on its own. It has a ’special’ nomination committee (Academy members can vote for nominees in all categories except Foreign Film - this one has it’s own committee led by producer and committee chairman Mark Johnson). Every entry is scrutinized to the bone, and nine films are shortlisted. Then a 20-member panel consisting of blue-ribbon Academy members will pick five nominees, and consequently a winner. Quite a process. Yet, they never get it right.

Last year they failed to shortlist the Cannes Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, which left many cinephiles disgusted. This year, Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra, winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes and major awards at the European Film Awards, is missing from the Foreign Film shortlist that was announced today. Which brings us to our conclusion — these things are political.

The nine shortlisted film contending for nominations and a win under the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars:

Revanche - Gotz Spielmann
Austria

The Necessities of Life - Benoit Pilon
Canada

The Class - Laurent Cantet
France

The Baader Meinhof Complex - Uli Edel
Germany

Waltz with Bashir - Ari Folman
Israel

Departures - Yojiro Takita
Japan

Tear This Heart Out - Roberto Sneider
Mexico

Everlasting Moments - Jan Troell
Sweden

3 Monkeys - Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Turkey

Along with other nominations, the five nominees for the Foreign Film category will be announced on January 22nd. The winner will be announced at the ceremony on February 22nd.

UPDATE: The five nominees as announced on the 22nd are:
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz with Bashir

PREDICTION: Our heart says The Class, but popular vote says Waltz with Bashir.

So, hurray for that.

And hurray for Danny Boyle. He took home the Globe for Best Director and was back on stage for the second time to collect Best Picture for Slumdog Millionaire. We’ve been rooting for him, and will go on until he wins his first Oscar. Also deserving highlighted mention is A. R. Rahman who won Best Original Score, and Simon Beaufoy who won Best Screenplay, both for Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman is the first Indian to ever win a Golden Globe. He will take home the Globe to Bollywood, the world’s largest film industry. Now it’s evidently clear - backed by popular vote, critic vote and the Golden Globes - that Slumdog Millionaire was last year’s best film. If you ask us, we were all for Slumdog winning under Direction, Screenplay and Score, but we’re not too sure if it is best-picture material.

Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona won the Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and rightly so.

Mickey Rourke is back they said, and HFPA agreed. Mickey took the Best Actor (Drama) Globe for his comeback and mighty performance in The Wrestler. Welcome back Mickey.

Best Actor (Musical or Comedy) took a surprise turn when Colin Farrell was announced as the winner for his role in In Bruges. Yeah, we were taken aback too. But he gave one hell of an acceptance speech.

The talented starlet Kate Winslet was weighed down by one in each hand. She was awarded the Best Actress (Drama) for her role in Revolutionary Road, and Best Supporting Actress for her performance in The Reader.

Best Actress (Musical or Comedy) went to Sally Hawkins for her role in Happy-Go-Lucky.

And this we all knew was coming - a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Globe to Heath Ledger for his performance in The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan, the film’s director accepted the award on behalf of Heath, proving wrong the rumors that Heath’s dad would be accepting his award if he was to win.

Wall-E won the Best Animated Film.

Israel’s entry, Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir (Vals Im Bashir) - again an animated film - was awarded the Globe for Best Foreign Film. Gomorra was the front-runner in this category, but Waltz with Bashir was equally fantastic.

We don’t usually talk much about television series and made-for-television films, but deserving special mention are the two big telly award winners. 30 Rock won Best Television Series (Musical or Comedy) and the brilliantly entertaining show Mad Men won Best Television Series (Drama).

Lastly, we salute the Cecil B. DeMille Award winner Steven Spielberg. Thanks for everything you’ve done for the great world of film Steve, and the little anecdote you shared on stage was inspiring.

And the winners are:

Cecil B. DeMille Award
Steven Spielberg

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Slumdog Millionaire

Best Director - Motion Picture
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
Mickey Rourke for The Wrestler

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Colin Farrell for In Bruges

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Kate Winslet for The Reader

Best Original Score - Motion Picture
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman

Best Original Song - Motion Picture
The Wrestler - The Wrestler

Best Animated Film
Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film
Vals Im Bashir

Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
John Adams

Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Paul Giamatti for John Adams

Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Laura Linney for John Adams

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Tom Wilkinson for John Adams

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Laura Dern for Recount

Best Television Series - Drama
Mad Men

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Drama
Gabriel Byrne for In Treatment

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Drama
Anna Paquin for True Blood

Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy
30 Rock

Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Alec Baldwin for 30 Rock

Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy
Tina Fey for 30 Rock

Aside from theatrical and cinematic achievements, Bergman was a notable commentator on human nature. As famed Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski once said: “This man is one of the few film directors—perhaps the only one in the world—to have said as much about human nature as Dostoevsky or Camus.” And one of his popular subjects, whom he studied, interpreted and beautifully captured were the womenfolk.

Bergman and the Women, presented by the Swedish embassy together with the Swedish Institute explored seven very important films, wherein the director delves into and unravels the intricacies of the fairer sex. The screenings were held at The Arts House in Singapore, one of island’s very few venues that support and screen arthouse, independent and world cinema.

Bergman knew his women all too well. He had a very close relationship with his mother who he affectionately recalls in the documentary Bergman Island. His relationships with his leading actresses Harriet Anderson, Bibi Anderson and Liv Ullmann were a hot topic for the press in Sweden back in the day. He even fathered an illegitimate daughter - the famed writer Linn Ullmann - with Liv. Apart from his starlets, he fell blindly in love with four other women, whom he married and divorced one after another, until he finally met Ingrid von Rosen. His marriage with Ingrid lasted twenty-four years until her demise in 1995 after a long struggle with stomach cancer.

In his prime, Bergman was a flamboyant and talented young man. And he wasn’t simply a womanizer; he had a profound understanding of these women. That should explain his inspirations for his female characters and the films about them, most of which he wrote himself. Of the eight films screened as part of Bergman and the Women, the only odd one out (as not being directed by Ingmar Bergman) was a documentary - Bergman Island.

Bergman Island, directed by Marie Nyreröd - who formed a close bond with Bergman - takes place almost entirely on Faro, a little island in the Baltic Sea which Bergman calls home. In it he describes, with the aid of visuals, his first trip to the island in 1960. He shot many of his films in Faro, and cultivated a binding relationship with the island and its residents, who he says are very understanding of his need to be left alone. This is the first time that anyone had open access to Bergman’s private life - his home, his screening room, his Russian-style fireplace, his first cinematograph, and in his own words he describes the inspiration for his films, his childhood, his parents, his love life, views on religion and his worst-feared natural demons. The film portrays Bergman as a funny, jovial man - with mighty experiences and a sea of wisdom - who also believes his departed wife Ingrid is waiting for him at the pearly gates. The film was released in 2004.

Ingmar Bergman passed away peacefully on 30th July 2007, aged 89. He was buried in Faro. At the request of his children, the Swedish authorities who very rarely facilitate such an arrangement agreed for Ingrid’s grave and her remains to be transported to Faro from its previous burial ground. The couple were reunited in death in May 2008.

Since his demise, there have been numerous tributes and festivals celebrating Bergman’s films and theater productions. Bergman and the Women brings to light his gorgeous, leading female stars, and his peculiar, inscrutable female characters through the magic of the lens and the silver screen.

Films screened as part of the festival include:
Summer with Monika (Sommaren med Monika) - 1952
Secrets of Women (Kvinnors vantan) - 1952
Dreams (Kvinnodrom) - 1955
Brink of Life (Nara livet) - 1958
To Say Nothing About These Women (For att inte tala om alla dessa kvinnor) - 1964
Cries And Whispers (Viskningar och rop) - 1973
Autumn Sonata (Hostsonaten) - 1978

The 2008’s Louis Delluc, watchdogs predicted, would go to that year’s Palme d’Or winner Entre les murs (The Class). We can see why everyone put their money on Laurent Cantet’s cavalry; it was the first native Palme d’Or winner in 21 years.

But as the Louis Delluc was announced last week it had everyone in disbelief. Even the winners.

The award was given to Filmmaker Raymond Depardon’s La Vie Moderne (Modern Life), a cinema verite (documentary) that discusses the plight of rural French farmers and their way of life which is fast changing, leaving behind traditions and age-old beliefs. The film is third in his series of films about rural dairy farmers in France.

The Delluc first feature was awarded to Samuel Colladey’s L’Apprenti (The Apprentice), again, a film on the farming community. It follows 15-year old Mathieu who learns the trade at Paul’s dairy farm, which leads to the formation of a strong bond as Mathieu finds a father figure that he never had all his life. How it won, we don’t know, as the film wasn’t even on the short-list that was released by the jury months before the ceremony.

The message here is not just about calling public attention to the importance of these rural farms, but as Gilles Jacob, the head of the Delluc jury says, it means they want to go “back to the roots of French artistic patrimony and celebrate intimate stories, like ‘La Vie moderne,’ that emanate a rare depth and sincerity.”

Neorealism is not entirely dead.

The award ceremony was held yesterday, December 6th, at Copenhagen, Denmark. The list of winners follows.

But before that, a little commentary: Matteo Garrone’s Gomorra (Gomorrah) swept the stage clean bagging five awards, all from the main categories. Laurent Cantet’s Entre les murs (The Class), the European favorite this year, failed to win even one. Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, the other Italian entry, scored a win for actor Toni Servillo, but again, he also stars in Gomorra. Seems like the EFA jury’s answer to the question ‘which performance was better?’ is unresolved, just like ours, as they made it a point to cite both films when showering the accolade on him. Steve McQueen’s Hunger was not completely empty-handed in the end as it won the European Discovery 2008 award. Two important women in film were greatly honored this year: firstly, Kristin Scott Thomas won the top prize for an actress for her role in Philippe Claudel’s Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long); the other was Dame Judi Dench, who was presented the European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award.

And here is the complete list of the European Film Awards 2008 winners:

EUROPEAN FILM 2008
GOMORRA (Gomorrah)
directed by Matteo Garrone
written by Maurizio Bracci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Roberto Saviano
produced by Fandango, RAI Cinema

EUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2008
Matteo Garrone for GOMORRA (Gomorrah)

EUROPEAN ACTOR 2008
Toni Servillo in GOMORRA (Gomorrah) and IL DIVO

EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2008
Kristin Scott Thomas in IL Y A LONGTEMPS QUE JE T’AIME (I’ve Loved You So Long)

EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2008
Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso & Roberto Saviano for GOMORRA (Gomorrah)

CARLO DI PALMA EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER AWARD 2008
Marco Onorato for GOMORRA (Gomorrah)

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY PRIX D’EXCELLENCE 2008
Magdalena Biedrzycka for costume design, KATYN

EUROPEAN COMPOSER 2008
Max Richter for WALTZ WITH BASHIR

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY 2008
HUNGER
directed by Steve McQueen
written by Enda Walsh & Steve McQueen

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY CRITICS’ AWARD 2008 - Prix FIPRESCI
Abdellatif Kechiche
for LA GRAINE ET LE MULET (The Secret of the Grain / Couscous)

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY DOCUMENTARY 2008 - Pix ARTE
RENÉ by Helena Trestikova

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY SHORT FILM 2008 - Prix UIP
FRANKIE by Darren Thornton

EUROPEAN FILM ACADEMY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Dame Judi Dench

EUROPEAN ACHIEVEMENT IN WORLD CINEMA 2008
Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Kristian Levring, Lars von Trier, and Thomas Vinterberg

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD 2008
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
directed by David Yates
written by Michael Goldenberg

The big players this year are Courtney Hunt’s Frozen River with seven nods, and Lance Hammer’s Ballast and Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married with six nods each.

And like every year, the award show will be held in the ‘big tent on the beach’ in Santa Monica, a day before the Oscars on February 21st.

And the nominees are:

Best Feature
Ballast
Frozen River
Rachel Getting Married
Wendy and Lucy
The Wrestler

Best Director
Ramin Bahrani, Chop Shop
Jonathan Demme, Rachel Getting Married
Lance Hammer, Ballast
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Tom McCarthy, The Visitor

Best First Feature
Afterschool
Medicine for Melancholy
Sangre De Mi Sangre
Sleep Dealer
Synecdoche, New York

John Cassavetes Award
Prince of Broadway
Take Out
The Signal
Turn the River
In Search of a Midnight Kiss

Best Screenplay
Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, Sugar
Charlie Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York
Howard A. Rodman, Savage Grace
Christopher Zalla, Sangre De Mi Sangre

Best First Screenplay
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
Lance Hammer, Ballast
Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
Jonathan Levine, The Wackness
Jenny Lumet, Rachel Getting Married

Best Female Lead
Summer Bishil, Towelhead
Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
Melissa Leo, Frozen River
Tarra Riggs, Ballast
Michelle Williams, Wendy and Lucy

Best Male Lead
Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
Sean Penn, Milk
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Supporting Female
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rosemarie DeWitt, Rachel Getting Married
Rosie Perez, The Take
Misty Upham, Frozen River
Debra Winger, Rachel Getting Married

Best Supporting Male
James Franco, Milk
Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker
Charlie McDermott, Frozen River
Jim Myron Ross, Ballast
Haaz Sleiman, The Visitor

Best Foreign Film
The Class (France)
Gomorra (Italy)
Hunger (U.K./Ireland)
Secret of the Grain (France)
Silent Light (Mexico/France/Netherlands/Germany)

Best Documentary
The Betrayal
Encounters at the End of the World
Man on Wire
The Order of Myths
Up the Yangtze

Best Cinematography
Maryse Alberti, The Wrestler
Lol Crawley, Ballast
James Laxton, Medicine for Melancholy
Harris Savides, Milk
Michael Simmonds, Chop Shop

Robert Altman Award
Synecdoche, New York

Piaget Producers Award
Heather Rae
Frozen River, Ibid
Jason Orans
Goodbye Solo, Year of the Fish
Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy
Treeless Mountain, I’ll Come Running

Acura Someone to Watch Award
Lynn Shelton, My Effortless Brilliance
Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues
Barry Jenkins, Medicine for Melancholy

Lacoste Truer Than Fiction Award
Darius Marder, Loot
Sacha Gervasi, Anvil! The Story of Anvil
Margaret Brown, The Order of Myths

Sticking to its roots and projecting the festival as a committed supporter and door-opener for low-budgets films, documentaries, indies, arthouse, world cinema and first-time filmmakers, Sundance released the following statement: “For the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected including 87 world premieres, 19 North American premieres, and 4 U.S. premieres representing 21 countries with 42 first-time filmmakers, including 28 in competition. These films were selected from 3,661 feature- length film submissions composed of 1,905 U.S. and 1,756 international feature-length films.”

The Line-Up
Fanfared on their website are the press releases detailing the 118 feature-length films that will make Sundance 2009. Here you go:

Film In Competition: Documentary, U.S. Dramatic, World Cinema Documentary, and World Cinema Dramatic

Films in the out-of-competition sections of Premieres, Spectrum, New Frontier, and Park City at Midnight