The Film Festival season is firmly upon us. Beginning in November and ramping up to The Oscars at the end of February, the festival season is where the film industry takes stock of itself. It’s a frenetic feeding tank of retrospectives, critical assessment, glitz, glamour, and prestigious awards.
Given the explosion of independent cinema in the 21st Century, it’s no surprise there’s a vibrant independent film festival scene going on. British film researcher Stephen Follows postulates there have been nearly 10,000 film festivals throughout the world over the span of the 14 year range of his investigations. Of that number, there are nearly 3,000 that are currently operational.
With so many festivals happening all over the world, it might lead one to wonder how important movie festivals are, exactly? The answer is – very, which you likely know if you have any experience in the film industry, even just as an audience member.
Film festival accolades can be an important segue towards more mainstream appeal. Rapturous reception of Napoleon Dynamite at the Sundance Film Festival helped that film go on to earn an impressive $45 million – not too shabby for a film made for a modest $400,000. It also helped to secure the legacy of The Blair Witch Project as a legitimate indie horror, and helped kickstart the Found Horror genre in the process.
For the last two weeks, the cinematic universe has had their eyes and ears trained on Palm Springs, in the radioactive depths of the Mojave Desert, as the 30th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival entranced viewers with independent cinema from all over the globe.
This weekend, the PSIFF have announced the festival winners as the fest winds to a close. As one of the largest independent film festivals in North America, these films are sure to shed some light on the current state of global independent cinema.
Here’s all of the winners of the 30th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival for those not lucky enough to have been in attendance. These films are sure to keep you in cinematic ecstasy throughout 2019 (and likely beyond).
2019 Palm Spring International Film Festival Award Winners
The judges didn’t have an easy task in front of them, weighing in on 78 films from 226 different countries which played over the span of 11 days. The awards come in the form of 5 different juried categories. These include the New Voices New Visions Award for unique cinematic perspectives as well as the GoE Bridging the Borders Award, which honors a film that brings the global film community closer together.
Here’s a list of the 2019 Palm Springs International Film Festival winners.
FIPRESCI Prize for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Shoplifters (Japan)
One of the biggest joys of independent cinema is the window it offers into disparate lives, and the empathy it brings. Japanese film-maker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s tender tale of a struggling Japanese working class family, in the wake of an unexpected addition.
Shoplifters follows two thieves, Osamu and his son, on one of their shoplifting expeditions. They stumble upon a little girl, near-frozen in the cold and take her in. The family’s already having a hard time making ends meet, and Shoplifters delves into the nature of family, finally erupting in an explosive, unexpected third act.
Shoplifters has been lapping up critical praise all over, so far this Awards Season. Cinephiles recommend catching it on the big screen for an immersive, emotional experience, so get on that if it’s playing in a theater near you.
FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actor in a Foreign Language Film: Marcello Fonte in Dogman (Italy)
Marcello Fonte was honored with the Best Actor in a Foreign Language Film award for his depiction of Marcello in Matteo Garrone’s Dogman. Marcello is a mild-mannered dog groomer who gets mixed up in some nasty business with a local thug.
All of the characters in Garrone’s seedy, seamy underworld seem deep, real, and fully fleshed-out. Marcello Fonte’s performance still steals the show, as a Human who simply prefers the company of dogs to people. It’s another worthy exploration of the darker side of Italian life from director Matteo Garrone along the lines of 2008’s Gomorroah. Don’t let the calm demeanor of this one fool you – Dogman has bite.
FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actress in a Foreign Language Film: Joanna Kulig in “Cold War” (Poland)
It’s nice to see a stark, crisp black-and-white film about a pair of star-crossed lovers in post-War Poland getting lots of love. Director Paweł Pawlikowski transports the audience, casting an immersive spell with period-specific lighting, film quality, and, above all, music. Joanna Kulig plays Zuzanna “Zula” Lichon, a sultry jazz singer who falls in love with Wiktor Warski, played by Tomasz Kot. The pair can barely stand one another, yet they can’t stand one another.
Cold War has been called “The Love Story Of The Year“, yet it could’ve been filmed in any year. Cold War‘s been tearing up the festival circuit this year, as well, winning awards and receiving rave reviews at Cannes and The Golden Globes. It’s a contender for an Oscar this year, as well, so big things are in store for Joanna Kulig and Cold War.
New Voices/New Visions Award: Sofia (France/Qatar); Meryem Benm’Barek
Apparently it’s illegal to have sex out of wedlock in Morocco. This archaic law lays the dramatic groundwork for Sofia, the directorial debut from Meryem Behm’Barek. Sofia tells the heartbreaking story of a young mother who breaks the law by having a baby out of wedlock. The hospital authorities give her 24 hours to provide the name of the father before alerting the authorities.
Sofia‘s a slight 80 minutes, leaving the audience hungry for more. That’s no easy feat, considering such somber subject matter. It’s one of the virtues of global cinema – it opens our eyes to things happening around the world of which we might not otherwise be aware. It gives them a Human face and voice at the same time.
Turkey’s Saf, directed by Ali Vatansever, also received an honorable mention.
The John Schlesinger Award: Ghost Fleet (USA); Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron
The John Schlesinger Award is given for outstanding first feature. Ghost Fleet, from American film directors Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron, is given the distinction, for its unflinching investigation into human trafficking, modern day slavery to feed the global fishing industry.
Bathtubs Over Broadway (USA), directed by Dava Whisenant, also received an honorable mention.
CV Cine Award: Carmen & Lola (Spain); Arantxa Echevarria
The CV Cine Award is given for the best Ibero-American film, which are films coming from territories formerly colonized by the Spanish. Carmen and Lola received the award for its love story between two gypsy girls. It’s been compared to a mash-up between The Florida Project and Call Me By Your Name. It sounds lovely.
The Chambermaid (Mexico/USA), directed by Lila Avilés, also received an honorable mention.
Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award: Dead Pigs (China); Cathy Yan
The Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award is a new honor these year, being dedicated to films that further storytelling and the magic of cinema. It couldn’t go to a more worthy recipient than Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs, a magical realist film set against the gruesome backdrop of a river full of dead pigs.
Dead Pigsis one part surreal modern fairy tale and one part Robert Altman family drama. It veers and twists and turns into moments of neon chaos, as plot twists twine out of nowhere, so don’t expect some tame pastoral slow burner here. It evens turns into a karaoke video, towards the end.
Cathy Yan is directing an upcoming Harley Quinn movie, Birds Of Prey, so it should be cool to see what this madcap imagination comes up with, and what she can do with a budget!
GoE Bridging the Borders Award: Eldorado (Switzerland); Markus Imhoof
Another humanitarian piece, Markus Imhoof’s Eldorada is spared from being “just another refugee documentary” by looking at the current European refugee crisis through the lens of the memories of Giovanna, an Italian boy who was 8 during World War II.
The Bridging the Borders Award is given to works of great humanitarian significance. Eldorado pulls this off with aplomb, giving real Humanity and dignity to refugees from all over the world.
Youth Jury Award: <em<What Will People Say (Norway/Germany/Sweden)l Iram Haq
Immigrants, and the child of immigrants, often face a kind of divided personality in their daily lives. This schism forms the tension points of Iram Haw’s What Will People Think, a film following Nisha, a sixteen-year old Pakistani girl living in Norway. Nisha’s just your normal Norwegian teenager when she’s out, but she’s forced to play the perfect Pakistani daughter when she’s home with her parents. She gets caught in bed with her boyfriend and her parents decide to take drastic measures, kidnapping her and taking her to Pakistan to live with relatives.
Nisha’s never even been to Pakistan, yet she has to learn to fend for herself while navigating her heritage. It offers an empathetic glimpse into the struggles of multi-cultural families and the pressures to both fit in as well as remain separate from the culture where you live.
The Awards Season is really picking up, at this point. We’ll be doing what we can to follow along and keep tabs on all of the movie festival news to pass along to you. Your watchlist will be overflowing in no time, so be careful!
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