Foreign Works Honored at Palm Springs International Film Festival

By City News Service:

Five films and two actors were honored this weekend during an awards luncheon celebrating foreign language contributions at the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The Russian film “Leviathan” received the prize for best foreign language film of the year.

Haluk Bilginer won the prize for best actor of the year in a foreign language film, for his performance in the Turkish film “Winter Sleep.”

Anne Dorval received the award for best actress of the year in a foreign language film, for her role in the Canadian film “Mommy.”

All three prizes were awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics, also known as FIRESCI, an acronym for the group’s name in French.

The “New Voices/New Vision Award,” awarded to international talents making their feature film debuts and includes only films with no U.S. distribution, went to the Serbian film “No One’s Child.

The Cine Latino award, sponsored by the Guadalajara International Film Festival and the University of Guadalajara Foundation/USA, went to the Spanish film “Flowers.”

The Polish film “Walking Under Water” won the John Schlesinger Award, a category for first-time documentary filmmakers.

The HP Bridging the Borders Award, sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and Cinema Without Borders, went to the Georgian film “Corn Island.” That prize is presented to the movie that best promotes bringing the people of the world together.

Artists received their awards during a luncheon on Saturday at Spencer’s Restaurant in Palm Springs.

“This year’s festival has been a huge success on all fronts, with consistently packed theaters, terrific audience response to the lineup of films and special programs and record filmmaker and industry attendance,” festival director Darryl Macdonald said in a statement.

“I’m equally delighted with the juries’ award choices, though given the outstanding overall quality of the films on view at this year’s event,” he added. “I wish we could present awards to each and every one of them.”

The Palm Springs International Film Festival began Jan. 2 and wraps up on Monday.