News

"For our 28th symposium, Reverse Shot's American All-Stars, we asked our writers to pick a contemporary filmmaker from a Latin American country who they'd like to champion; this could trigger a longer discussion about an oeuvre or an idea on a national cinema — politically, economically, aesthetically — or it could remain a close reading of a film itself." Posted so far: Michael Koresky on Julián Hernández's Raging Sun, Raging Sky (image above), Genevieve Yue on Sandra Kogut's Mutum and Chris Wisniewski on Lucrecia Martel's La ciénaga.

• Brazil at Home:The story of a north-eastern man named Raimundo Nonato (actor João Miguel, from “Movies, Aspirin and Vultures” and “Mutum”) who tries a better life moving to the south of Brazil is touching a cord among local audiences. Arriving with almost nothing, the protagonsit starts to work at a small pub, where, even been explored by his boss, his gastronomic skills emerge. Increasing the number of costumers of the place, he immediately notices the power that his talent could provide to his life. Soon, he would change his workplace to a better one. In parallel, Raimundo is seen in a cell that he shares with numerous prisoners. Not knowing exactly what the protagonist had done to be there, the public is driven through a man’s journey to achieve better ways of life in these two situations: free, while he grows as a cook and in jail, while

...

BERLIN -- Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree has won the Audience Award for best film in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival.

Lemon Tree is the story of a Palestinian woman who inherits a lemon grove that borders on the land of the Israeli defense minister. More than 20,000 Berlin cinemagoers cast ballots for this year's Audience Award.

Second place went to Julian Shaw's documentary Darling! The Pieter-Dirk Uys Story about the famous South African satirist and AIDS activist Pieter-Dirk Uys. Another documentary, Samson Vicent's Erika Rabau -- Puck of Berlin, took third place. The film follows veteran Berlin Film Festival photographer Erika Rabau as she snaps her way through the 2007 event.

The Iranian-French co-production Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame by young Iranian director Hana Makmalbaf has won the Crystal Berlin Bear for best film running in Berlin's Generations sidebar. Set in Afghanistan, Buddha looks at the struggles of a young girl trying to raise the money to go to school. The Generations jury gave a special mention to the Norwegian film The Ten Lives of Titanic the Cat from Grethe Boe.

The Black Balloon from Australian director Elissa Down, a story of dealing with autism, took the best film prize in the Generations 14plus section. Nina Parley's animated feature Sita Sings the Blues, which is based on an Indian folk tale, received special mention from the jury.

The Grand Prize of children's charity association the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk, went to Oliver Jean-Marie's comic-book adaptation Go West! Lucky Luke Adventure. A special mention went to the coming-of-age story Mutum by Brazilian director Sandra Kogut.