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Disability Awareness Month is recognized across the U.S. in October, prompting Indiewire's latest curated selections for Hulu's Documentaries page - a diverse selection of films highlighting engaging subjects living with a wide spectrum of disabilities, both physical and developmental. Watch these and other docs now for free!Jason McAfee's "Charlie Don't Surf" follows three men in wheelchairs to Costa Rica to learn to surf.Neither physical nor emotional limitations are enough to stop the wounded veterans, or their blind guide, Erik Weihenmayer, from attempting to climb a Himalayan mountain in Michael Brown's "High Ground."Weihenmayer also leads a group of six blind Tibetan teenagers up a Mount Everest peak in Lucy Walker's acclaimed "Blindsight."Ami, a man immobilized by Muscular Dystrophy, takes a road trip to find the doctor who told his parents he'd die as a child in Dani Menkin's "39 Pounds of Love.""Up Syndrome...

Oscar-nominated documentary-maker Lucy Walker has made films about nuclear weapons, the Japanese tsunami – and now, a snowboarder horrifically injured in a half-pipe. She tells Emine Saner why non-fiction is winning the day

• The Crash Reel: first-look review

• Lucy Walker - Sheffield Doc/fest interview

There comes a dawning dread, part way through The Crash Reel, where you wonder if you are watching one long suicide. Lucy Walker, who filmed the pro-snowboarder Kevin Pearce's recovery from a head injury as he became determined to get back on a snowboard – something his doctors tell him would kill him were he to fall again – says she felt the same way as she was making it. "It was horrifying because he was so determined," she says.

After practising a cab double cork – a double backflip with a twist – at a 22ft halfpipe in Utah in December 2009, the American landed on his head...

Chicago – Oscar-nominated this year for best documentary short subject, “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” shows how nature can be a rejuvenating and destructive force when it debuts on July 16, 2012 at 9 p.m. Cst exclusively on HBO.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Japan America Society of Chicago hosted a special premiere of the film on Wednesday in Chicago. HollywoodChicago.com attended the packed theatre where these short 39 minutes from filmmaker Lucy Walker left the crowd mostly silent.

A somber but informative panel with Lyric Hughes Hale (the founder of China Online), Robert Karr (executive vice president of the Japan America Society of Chicago) and Hironori Sawada (deputy consul general at the Consulate General of Japan at Chicago) followed the screening.

Lucy Walker (“Countdown to Zero,” “Waste Land,” “Blindsight” and “Devil’s Playground”) intended to film Japan’s passionate connection to its cherry blossom trees, but was derailed by Mother Nature.

If women have struggled to regularly breakthrough with the big narrative films that dominate the box office and turn directors into stars, the low-budget/small-crew environment of documentary filmmaking is one area where female directors have excelled. One of the most promising documentarians of the past decade, having been nominated for an Oscar the past two years, is British filmmaker Lucy Walker.

After some work in television, Walker made her entrance on the scene in 2002 with the documentary Devil’s Playground, a gritty and fascinating look at the Amish practice of rumspringa, where teenagers are given a chance to live outside the strict Amish rules in order to decide whether to commit themselves to the community. Equal parts shocking and predictable, the reaction to freedom from these strict constraints can be quite extreme.

Her second effort, 2006′s Blindsight, examines the work of the organization Braille Without Borders mentoring blind teenagers in Tibet.

The Tribeca Film Festival kicks off for the eleventh time starting Wednesday when "The Five-Year Engagement" premieres, and festival organizers have just announced the star-studded jury for this year's edition.

Thirty-nine celebrities -- of various levels of fame and awards kudos -- make up the six juries, with producer Irwin Winkler ("Goodfellas") serving a jury president.

Among those selected by Tribeca this year: Patricia Clarkson, Hugh Dancy, Rosario Dawson, Dakota Fanning, Kellan Lutz, Michael Moore and Olivia Wilde. Also on the list: Brett Ratner. The controversial big-budget director will serve on the Documentary and Student Short Film Competition jury along with Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun, Susan Sarandon and Shailene Woodley, among others.

“We are honored to have this accomplished group dedicate the time and care it takes to view and discuss the films in competition this year,” Tribeca Film Festival co-founder Jane Rosenthal said in a statement.

For...

It’s a star-studded list that includes some interesting, and surprising, names, which is just what you’d expect from the Tribeca Film Festival. The juries have been announced, and you could hardly got a more varied mix.

Juries Announced For 2012 Tribeca Film Festival And Tribeca Film Institute Programs

Academy Award-Winning Producer/Director Irwin Winkler To Serve as Jury President

Patricia Clarkson, Hugh Dancy, Rosario Dawson, Dakota Fanning, Whoopi Goldberg, Susannah Grant, Kellan Lutz, Michael Moore, Mike Newell, Brett Ratner, Susan Sarandon, Olivia Wilde, and Shailene Woodley are among the Jurors

The Tribeca Film Festival (Tff), presented by founding partner American Express, today announced its jurors – a diverse group of 39 individuals, including award-winning filmmakers, writers and producers, acclaimed actors, respected critics and global business leaders. Irwin Winkler has been named President of the Jury. The Jury will be divided among the six competitive Festival categories and will announce the winning films,...

A new documentary, Countdown to Zero, highlights the many reasons why nuclear annihilation remains our biggest threat

We never loved the bomb, but we did at least learn to stop worrying about it. According to new documentary Countdown to Zero, though, we shouldn't have. As Lucy Walker's film details, there's even more to worry about today: terrorists seeking to acquire nuclear materials, former Soviet countries trying to sell them, nuclear stockpiles, the club of nuclear-capable countries expanding to include states such as North Korea, Iran and Pakistan. Countdown to Zero has been described as the Inconvenient Truth of nukes, though judging by its terrifying revelations, our species is destined to destroy itself by nuclear means long before climate change gets a chance.

"Unfortunately, there's nothing I learned making this film that made me less worried," says Walker. Like most British children of the 1980s, she remembers what it was...

Lucy Walker, director of the Oscar-nominated film Waste Land, kept a diary of the year leading up to the awards

January 2010

Sundance Film Festival

The true world premiere of Waste Land is a screening for the festival's volunteers, who are the lifeblood of Sundance. At the last minute we had to re-edit the film to take out shots of the young daughter of Vik Muniz, the artist at the centre of the film, because he is in the middle of a divorce. I'm so tired that as I sit in the back row I can't even tell if the image and sound are in sync. When the first end credit pops on to the screen, the people in the audience leap to their feet, and I moan to myself that they could at least sit through some credits before they run off. But then I realise that they're just applauding.

(February 2011)

The Nominees

Oscar “Speech”: Tom Hooper Film Tops with 12 Noms

Coen brothers’ “True Grit” places second with 10 nominations, including best picture and acting citations for Jeff Bridges and 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld

Features

50 Must-See Films of 2010: An Awards Season Primer

Moving Pictures breaks down the features that drew the most attention for honors last year

Jesse Eisenberg Attracts “Likes” for “Network” Star Turn

Moving Pictures talks to the Academy Award-nominated star of David Fincher’s exposé on the founding of Facebook

Jennifer Lawrence and Debra Granik Give Color on Making of Black “Bone”

The actress and director discuss working with the people of the Ozarks before setting out to shoot their Academy Award-nominated film

Steady, Powerful Work Has Melissa Leo at Top of Game

The Oscar-nominated “Fighter” actress discusses finding success later in life, what she learned from soap operas and the one role she’s yet to...

(February 2011)

The Nominees

Oscar “Speech”: Tom Hooper Film Tops with 12 Noms

Coen brothers’ “True Grit” places second with 10 nominations, including best picture and acting citations for Jeff Bridges and 14-year-old Hailee Steinfeld

Features

50 Must-See Films of 2010: An Awards Season Primer

Moving Pictures breaks down the features that drew the most attention for honors last year

Jesse Eisenberg Attracts “Likes” for “Network” Star Turn

Moving Pictures talks to the Academy Award-nominated star of David Fincher’s exposé on the founding of Facebook

Jennifer Lawrence and Debra Granik Give Color on Making of Black “Bone”

The actress and director discuss working with the people of the Ozarks before setting out to shoot their Academy Award-nominated film

Steady, Powerful Work Has Melissa Leo at Top of Game

The Oscar-nominated “Fighter” actress discusses finding success later in life, what she learned from soap operas and the one role she’s yet to...

Actor Tim Blake Nelson will host the awards ceremony at the Sundance Film Festival, which also announced Tuesday the members of the five juries that will determine the winners. The festival runs from Jan. 20-30; the awards will be handed out the evening of Jan. 29. (The Short Film Awards will be named earlier at a ceremony on Tuesday, Jan. 25, at Park City’s Jupiter Bowl.)

The complete list of jurors follows, with bios provided by the festival.

U.S. Documentary Jury

Jeffrey Blitz

Jeffrey’s film career started in 2002 with the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning documentary “Spellbound.” His fiction feature debut, “Rocket Science,” became his first to play the festival (Sundance, 2007; Dramatic Directing Award). He has also directed the documentary “Lucky,” (Sundance, 2010) and multiple episodes of NBC’s “The Office.” In 2009, he won the Emmy for comedy directing.

Matt Groening

Matt Groening created the longest-running comedy in television history, “The Simpsons.” As a cartoonist,...

Where others see trash, the catadores of Rio de Janeiro’s Jardim Gramacho landfill see a means to make a living, and Vik Muniz sees art. After scaling Mt. Everest for her award-winning movie “Blindsight,” documentarian Lucy Walker travels from the geographically highest point on Earth to the sociologically lowest on the other side of the globe: the world’s largest dump.

There we meet the pickers who support themselves and their families by scavenging the 7,000 tons of garbage that arrive each day for recyclable materials: Tião, the young, charismatic founder of a pickers association; Zumbi, an association board member who has established a lending library from the books he’s found among the waste; Suelem, who sees her two children only every couple of weeks; and Irma, who cooks meals for the workers from the fresh produce and meat thrown away in Jardim Gramacho — among others. They are smart,...

Lucy Walker's moving documentary about the massive Jardim Gramacho dump in Brazil and the people who make their living picking through it, opens Friday in New York, Nov. 5 in L.A.

Waste Land, a new documentary about an art world superstar and garbage pickers in one of the largest dumps in the world, will change the way you think about chucking trash.

"It's the idea of the magic trick gone wrong," director Lucy Walker (below) tells Fast Company. "Everything you've ever thrown away, it doesn't vanish."

In Brazil, it goes to places like Jardim Gramacho, a 321-acre dump on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro that handles 70% of the metro's trash. But rather than preach inconvenient truths about recycling with an oozing, stinking, open-air landfill as a main character, Waste Land focuses on the dump's catadores--garbage pickers--who sift through some 7,000 tons of fresh waste daily to eke out their living.

"The moment when one thing turns into another is the most beautiful moment. A combination of sounds turns into music. And that applies to everything." Vik Muniz What kind of filmmaker has the guts to follow climbers up Mt. Everest (Blindsight), confront a bunch of nuclear arms specialists about nuclear war (Countdown to Zero), follow Amish teens as they go absolutely wild during their 16th year (Devil's Playground), and most recently, make a film in the largest and most dangerous landfill in the world? Her name is Lucy Walker, and she's won prizes and awards for taking such brave risks. Her latest film, Wasteland, executive produced by City of God's Fernando Meirelles and with a score by Moby, follows internationally renowned artist Vik Muniz as he embarks on his biggest work yet. Muniz sets out to go to Rio de Janeiro to make art with the people working in...

Chicago – We’ve been working our way through the schedule for the upcoming 46th Annual Chicago International Film Festival, kicking off tonight with the premiere of “Stone,” starring Edward Norton, Robert De Niro, and Milla Jovovich. While this year’s festival includes a few high-profile films with A-list stars, we’ve dipped below the line, watching screeners of films that might slide below your radar. Here are the highlights of the opening weekend and into the beginning of next week covering October 7th to October 12th, 2010 (and come back next week for the rest).

The best films of the opening act include an amazing Chicago-set documentary about poetry, a small drama starring two potential future stars, a Russian existential piece, an Australian thriller, and two more documentaries about the transformative sociological power of art. The lineup for this year doesn’t immediately pop like last year’s, which unspooled “An Education,...

The 46th Chicago International Film Festival is coming, and The Scorecard Review will be there will exclusive interviews, movie reviews and red carpet events beginning October 7, 2010.

Here is the news release on the documentaries at this year’s festival.

Chicago, September 7, 2010 – As documentary films gain ever-increasing recognition in theaters around the world, the 46th Chicago International Film Festival announces the 2010 lineup of its Docufest documentary program and new series for true movie buffs, “Film on Film.” Sponsored by DePaul University, Docufest and the Film on Film program feature four world premieres, one international premiere, two North American premieres and two USA premieres.

Special guests attending this year range from award-winning filmmakers Alex Gibney and Lucy Walker to debuting directors making bold first impressions and even troupes of circus performers, slam poets, and a “minuteman” border guard. Twelve countries are represented across these 17 films. The Docufest competition jury includes the winner...

Chicago – In this edition of the HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: DVD, one lucky winner will clean up with three DVDs from Magnolia Pictures for the movies “Man on Wire,” “Food, Inc.” and “No End in Sight” plus a full-size poster for “Countdown to Zero” signed by director Lucy Walker, producer Lawrence Bender and narrator Valerie Plame Wilson!

“Countdown to Zero,” which opened in Chicago on July 30, 2010, is from Oscar winner and current nominee Lawrence Bender (the producer of “The Inconvenient Truth” and “Inglourious Basterds”) and acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (“The Devil’s Playground,” “Blindsight”). “Man on Wire” is from director James Marsh and writer Philippe Petit. “Food, Inc.” is from writer and director Robert Kenner. “No End in Sight” is from writer and director Charles Ferguson.

To win your free DVDs and poster courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, all you need to do is answer a question in this Web-based submission form.

A few years ago, Lawrence Bender and Jeffrey Skoll set out to make a new documentary about nuclear weapons, a film which would act as a wake up call to the imperative of nuclear abolition, just as their last project, An Inconvenient Truth, galvanized public discourse--and action--surrounding climate change. Teamed up with policy expert Bruce Blair and Writer-Director Lucy Walker (Devil's Playground, Blindsight) they created the newly released Countdown to Zero, which unequivocally argues that, whether by accident, malicious intent of "terrorists" or as a result of failed diplomacy, nuclear weapons pose an unacceptable risk and must be eliminated. While scores of arms control and disarmament civil society groups are deeply inspired by the mass consciousness-raising and mobilization opportunity the film presents, many disarmament activists are vocally disappointed with the film. They are concerned that the film overemphasizes the hazard...

When the relatively big-budget documentaries An Inconvenient Truth and Food, Inc. (see my review here) were released, they were able to capitalize on the fact that there were already discussions and growing concerns about both climate change and our nation's dysfunctional food systems. Countdown to Zero, the new documentary produced by Lawrence Bender (who also produced An Inconvenient Truth) and directed by Lucy Walker (the Devil's Playground, Blindsight), faces the challenge of starting a conversation the nation currently isn't (but should be) having: how to eliminate the worsening threat of nuclear catastrophe caused by rogue states, accidents or terrorism. Why are nuclear weapons so far off our collective radars when they retain the potential to extinguish millions of lives -- if not all life on the planet -- in mere minutes? Probably because many people think we have this nuclear problem...

HollywoodNews.com: Celebrities, musicians and artists everywhere are speaking out on the dangers of nuclear weapons. Our goal is simple: we demand zero.

Ok Go and Rise Against recently sat down at the Bonnaroo Music Festival to discuss why the world would be better without nuclear weapons. All of these issues will be highlighted in the documentary “Countdown to Zero,” which premieres this Friday in New York.

“Countdown to Zero” traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possess nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident. Written and directed by acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (Devil’s Playground, Blindsight), the film features an array of important international statesmen, including Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf and Tony Blair.

Since her widely acclaimed first feature Devil’s Playground debuted at Sundance in 2002, London native Lucy Walker (one of Filmmaker’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film that year) has distinguished herself as a resourceful documentarian with a discerning eye for character detail. A study of Amish adolescents sampling the forbidden fruits of the modern world during “rumspringa,” an elective time spent away from the strictures of their traditional religious community, Playground was an insightful, humanizing portrait of a little-seen, faintly understood social milieu. For her follow-up in 2006, Blindsight, Walker again took on an uncommon challenge, trailing a group of sightless Tibetan teens attempting to scale the treacherous Lhakpa Ri peak...

Chicago – In our latest documentary edition of HollywoodChicago.com Hookup: Film, we have 50 admit-two passes up for grabs to the advance Chicago screening of the new documentary “Countdown to Zero”!

The film comes from Oscar winner and current nominee Lawrence Bender (the producer of “The Inconvenient Truth” and “Inglourious Basterds”) and acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (“The Devil’s Playground,” “Blindsight”). “Countdown to Zero” opens in Chicago on July 30, 2010.

To win your free pass to the advance Chicago screening of “Countdown to Zero” courtesy of HollywoodChicago.com, just answer our question below. That’s it! This screening is on Monday, July 26, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in Chicago. Directions to enter this HollywoodChicago.com Hookup and immediately win can be found beneath the graphic below.

The movie poster for “Countdown to Zero”.

Image credit: Magnolia Pictures

Here is the plot description for “Countdown to Zero”:

“Countdown to Zero” traces the history...

“There are three ways to acquire a nuclear weapon:

you can steal a bomb,

you can buy a bomb,

and you can build a bomb.”

Countdown To Zero traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident.

Written and directed by acclaimed documentarian Lucy Walker (The Devil’s Playground, Blindsight), the film features an array of important international statesmen, including President Jimmy Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev, Pervez Musharraf and Tony Blair. It makes a compelling case for worldwide nuclear disarmament, an issue more topical than ever with the Obama administration working to revive this goal today.

On the surface, this appears to be just another documentary about nuclear weapons.

Documentary director Lucy Walker has been announced as the final member of the Jury for the Sydney Film Festival official competition.

Walker (Devil’s Playground, Blindsight, Waste Land and Countdown to Zero) joins president Jan Chapman, the director of the Sundance Film Festival John Cooper and directors Shirley Barrett and Yonfan.

The five industry professionals will judge the 12 films in competition, and award the $60,000 prize for new directions in film.

Walker’s Waste Land – about Brazilian artist Vik Muniz and a lively group of catadores, or pickers of recyclable materials, who find a way from the world’s largest garbage dump in Rio to the most prestigious auction house in London via the surprising transformation of refuse into contemporary art – will have its Australian premiere at Sff on June 3.

"Smuggling highly enriched uranium into the United States is pretty straightforward. Lead pipe will shield the Heu. The detector would have to be within a few inches to pickup any radiation." - Valerie Plame Wilson

Photo: Magnolia Pictures Apple has debuted the trailer for Lucy Walker's nuclear arms documentary Countdown to Zero, which will have one screening at the Cannes Film Festival on the 17th and I know will also be screening at the Seattle International Film Festival before it hits limited theaters on July 9 and it looks like it is one not to be missed.

I'll let the supplied synopsis tell the story before introducing the trailer: Countdown to Zero traces the history of the atomic bomb from its origins to the present state of global affairs: nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities with others racing to join them, with the world held in a delicate balance that...

The 17-year-old heroine of the gothic Ozarks-set drama follows in the footsteps of Precious and Frozen River in taking the festival's grand jury prize

Sundance juries seem to have a penchant for indomitable female protagonists. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that everyone here spends 10 days battling the elements in order to watch movies; it reaches the point where "no pain, no gain" joins the criteria in the judging, as well as being a condition of the viewing.

Last year the grand jury prize (for Us films) was awarded to Precious, whose eponymous teen overcomes sexual abuse and poverty; the year before it was Frozen River, in which a mother risks imprisonment to keep a roof over her children's heads. The 2010 winner, announced on Saturday evening, is Winter's Bone, a film whose young heroine actually risks her life, also to protect her home. And she's only 17.

Ree Dolly...

While our Sundance home page is the place for all our coverage from Park City, here is a brief rundown of what's been going on during the last 24 hours, including Matt Singer's interview with "The Freebie" writer/director Katie Aselton and co-star Dax Shepard and reviews of the Chace Crawford drama "Twelve," the Banksy doc "Exit Through the Gift Shop," Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut "Jack Goes Boating" and the 3D Aussie doc "Cane Toads 2: The Conquest."

Some were puzzled when Sundance accepted "Batman and Robin" director Joel Schumacher's latest film "Twelve." James Rocchi writes that the concern was justified. Here's an excerpt from his review, which can be found in full here:

Directed by Joel Schumacher ("Batman and Robin," "The Lost Boys"), "Twelve" is unquestionably the funniest film at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival; if only it had been made with that intention. "Twelve"'s ham-handed ineptitude...

Berlin -- Richard Loncraine's "My One and Only," a '50s-era comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, was squeezed into the competition lineup for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, barely a week before the event kicks off.

Zellweger plays a glamorous single mom on the hunt for a rich man to foot the bill for her and her sons' lifestyle. Produced by Merv Griffith Entertainment and Ray Gun Prods., "My One and Only" will have its world premiere in Berlin. Essential Entertainment is handling international sales.

Berlin also added Lone Scherfig's Sundance favorite "An Education" with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson and Davis Guggenheim's music documentary "It Might Get Loud" for its Berlinale Special Galas, ensuring the films will get the red carpet treatment without any of the pressure of competition.

All three films should give an added boost of star power to...

Robson Entertainment

NEW YORK -- At first glance, this documentary by filmmaker Lucy Walker ("Devil's Playground") would seem to be a typical feel-good adventure yarn about lovable young people conquering their disabilities and fears to accomplish something truly notable.

But Blindsight, about a group of six blind Tibetan children undertaking a potentially treacherous mountain-climbing expedition, proves rather more complex in its themes.

The youngsters are students at a Tibetan school run by German-born Sabriye Tenberken, herself blind since childhood. Not only must they struggle with their visual impairment but also with a culture that considers their disability to be a punishment for sins committed in a past life.

A visit to the school by Ed Weihenmayer, the first blind man to climb Mount Everest, becomes the impetus for a plan for him and his cohorts to lead six teen students on a climb to the top of Lhakpa Ri, a 23,000-foot-high peak not far from Everest.

Dramatic conflict is sparked by the conflicting goals of the adults during the three-week adventure. Tenberken is mainly interested in providing a positive self-image and feelings of mutual support among the young climbers, while Weihenmayer and his fellow leaders are intent on leading their charges to the top of the mountain despite the daunting challenges.

While the gorgeously shot mountain-climbing segments are certainly engrossing, the film's true interest comes from the portraits of its young subjects and their families, and the Tibetan society that seeks to repress them.

Complex and nonjudgmental, Blindsight ultimately emerges as much a fascinating sociological study as adventure story. It seems a natural for feature film treatment.

 The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has winnowed the list of feature length documentaries competing in the 79th Annual Academy Awards down to a short list of fifteen films. The titles range from Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil, a portrait of a pedophile priest to Davis Guggenheim's warning about global warming An Inconvenient Truth to the Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing, directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck.

 The complete list of films includes: Blindsight, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, Deliver Us From Evil, The Ground Truth, An Inconvenient Truth, Iraq in Fragments, Jesus Camp, Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple, My Country, My Country, Shut Up & Sing, Sisters in Law, Storm of Emotions, The Trials of Darryl Hunt, An Unreasonable Man, and The War Tapes.

As the 11-day film festival drew to a close, the AFI Fest 2006 juries awarded prizes Sunday to a wide range of international contenders. Taking home the international feature competition's narrative grand jury prize was rookie filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams, Bosnia and Herzegovina's official entry for the 2006 best foreign language Oscar, starring Mirjana Karanovic (When Father Was Away on Business) as a mother dealing with the Third Balkan War. Strand Releasing is distributing the film in the U.S.

The international documentary grand jury prize went to Mark Verkerk's Dutch-French co-production Buddha's Lost Children, about a Thai Buddhist monk who fights for orphans. Verkerk also received a $10,000 grant from Aquafina.

Winning feature audience awards in a tie were Carla Garapedian's rock activist docu Screamers and Lucy Walker's Tibetan climbing docu Blindsight, plus Swiss filmmaker Fredi M. Murer's narrative film Vitus, about a gifted boy who rebels against his doting parents.

Receiving special mention was the Danish feature from Peter Schonau Fog, The Art of Crying, starring Jannik Lorenzen.

The international shorts competition jury awarded the grand jury prize to Disappearing, directed by American Stefanie Berk, who took home a $10,000 camera package from Dalsa Digital Cinema.

As the 11-day film festival drew to a close, the AFI Fest 2006 juries awarded prizes Sunday to a wide range of international contenders. Taking home the international feature competition's narrative grand jury prize was rookie filmmaker Jasmila Zbanic's Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams, Bosnia and Herzegovina's official entry for the 2006 best foreign language Oscar, starring Mirjana Karanovic (When Father Was Away on Business) as a mother dealing with the Third Balkan War. Strand Releasing is distributing the film in the U.S.

The international documentary grand jury prize went to Mark Verkerk's Dutch-French co-production Buddha's Lost Children, about a Thai Buddhist monk who fights for orphans. Verkerk also received a $10,000 grant from Aquafina.

Winning feature audience awards in a tie were Carla Garapedian's rock activist docu Screamers and Lucy Walker's Tibetan climbing docu Blindsight, plus Swiss filmmaker Fredi M.