IFFR 2009: Awards! Awards!

Good grief, I've never hit the International Film Festival Rotterdam as hard as I did this year. Peter and I have seen so many movies and talked to so many people that, as you may have noticed, we have had barely any time to actually WRITE anything! You can expect many reviews and interviews from us in the coming week(s).

But Saturday evening the 31st marked the official end of the festival and all the awards have now been given. A full list can be found after the break, but here are the three winners of the much-coveted Tiger Awards:

"BREATHLESS", Yang Ik-June (South Korea)
"WRONG ROSARY", Mahmut Fazil Coskun (Turkey)
"BE CALM AND COUNT TO SEVEN", Ramtin Lavafipour (Iran)

Who said Asian cinema is dead, aye?

Tiger Award winners each get a cool 15,000 Euro to play with, and as only first-time and second-time directors can enter the competition this money is guaranteed to fall into the right hands: fledgling moviemakers who are desperately scraping together money for their next production.

As for the picture on the upper-left: this is what Yang Ik-June looks like after you give him two beers, 15,000 Euro and a cool trophy!
You can expect an interview with him and a full review for "Breathless" in the next few days.

More awards after the break...

The Awards list:


Tiger awards for short films:
"A NECESSARY MUSIC", Beatrice Gibson (UK)
"DESPAIR", Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov (Russia)
"BERNADETTE", Duncan Campbell (UK)


KPN audience award, 7,500 Euro:
"SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE", Danny Boyle (UK)


Dioraphte audience award for best Festival-funded production (Hubert Bals-foundation), 10,000 Euro:
"TEZA", Haile Gerima (Ethiopia)


FIPRESCI award (International Federation of Film Critics):
"BLIND PIG WHO WANTS TO FLY", Edwin (Indonesia)


NETPAC award for best Asian film:
"THE LAND", He Jia (China)


KNF award (Circle of Dutch Moviereporters):
"TONY MANERO", Pablo Larraín (Chile / Brazil)


Arte France Cinéma Award:
"HIM", Lance Weiler (US)