Palm Springs International Film Festival

 The Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) has announced that the dates of next year’s festival will be January 1-11, 2016, for the 27th edition. 

The festival will host a New Year’s Eve celebration for all attending festival guests on Dec. 31 at the Palm Springs Convention Center.  The festival will begin on Friday, January 1 with all day screenings and the Opening Night screening followed by a reception at the Palm Springs Art Museum.  The festival’s Awards Gala will be held on Saturday, January 2 at the Palm Springs Convention Center. This year’s star-studded event, hosted by Mary Hart, honored Robert Duvall, the cast of The Imitation Game, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Richard Linklater, Julianne Moore, David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Eddie Redmayne, J.K. Simmons and Reese Witherspoon. Closing Night will take place on Sunday, January 10 with the Best of the Fest screening on Monday, January 11.

“The Palm Springs International Film Festival has always been the first major event of the calendar year and we plan on continuing that tradition,” said Festival Chairman Harold Matzner. “Our festival has become an important stop on the awards season trail for both actors and filmmakers as well as our strong showcase of foreign language cinema.”

The 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival runs until January 12, 2015. 

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The 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) reveals its complete line-up including Premieres, New Voices/New Visions and Modern Masters.

192 films from 65 countries, including 65 premieres will unspool at the Festival, running from January 2-12, 2015 in Palm Springs, California.  World premieres include Don Quixote: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha (USA) starring James Franco, Horatio Sanz, Luis Guzman and Lin Shaye, Packed In A Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson (USA), Some Kind of Love (Canada), Spirit / Will / Loss (USA), Twenty-Five Palms (Luxembourg) a documentary on the 25th anniversary of the Palm Springs International Film Festival directed by Fabrizio Maltese, and Walter (USA) starring Justin Kirk, Virginia Madsen, William H. Macy, Neve Campbell and Peter Facinelli.

The New Voices/New Visions Award will honor one of 10 films from top emerging international directors marking their feature film debut at the Festival, with the additional criteria that the films selected are currently without US distribution.  The winner is selected by a jury of US distributors and will receive a glass sculpture designed for the Festival by renowned artist Dale Chihuly.  Films selected for this year include:

Afterlife (Hungary), Director Virág Zomborácz

Chubby (Belgium), Director Bruno Deville

Fidelio, Alice’s Journey (France), Director Lucie Borleteau

Grand Street (USA), Director Lex Sidon

Henri Henri (Canada), Director Martin Talbot

Manpower (Israel), Director Noam Kaplan

A Moonless Night (Uruguay), Director Germán Tejeira

No One’s Child (Serbia), Director Vuk Ršumovic

Theeb (Jordan), Director Naji Abu Nowar

What’s Between Us (Switzerland), Director Claudia Lorenz

The Modern Masters section features 12 films from international directors who set the standards for contemporary cinema. Films selected for this year include:

Chagall – Malevich (Russia), Director Alexander Mitta

Clouds of Sils Maria (France), Director Olivier Assayas, Cast: Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, Chloë Grace Moretz

Dancing Arabs (Israel), Director Eran Riklis

An Eye for Beauty (Canada), Director Denys Arcand

Gemma Bovery (France), Director Anne Fontaine

The Humbling (USA), Director Barry  Levinson, Cast: Al Pacino, Greta Gerwig, Charles Grodin, Mary Louise Parker, Dan Hedaya and Dianne Wiest

In Order Of Disappearance (Norway/Sweden), Director Hans Petter Moland

Iris (USA), Director Albert Maysles

Li’l Quinquin (France), Director Bruno Dumont

The Perfect Dictatorship (Mexico), Director Louis Estrada

Queen and Country (United Kingdom), Director John Boorman

Red Amnesia (China), Director Wang Xiaoshuai

Other Festival films with notable talent and directors include: 5 To 7 (USA), directed by Victor Levin and starring Anton Yelchin, Olivia Thirlby, Lambert Wilson, Glenn Close and Frank Langella, ’71 (UK) starring Jack O’Connell, Back on Board: Greg Louganis (USA), the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour (Germany) directed by Laura Poitras, Effie Gray (UK), starring Dakota Fanning, Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Julie Walters, Helicopter Mom (USA) starring Nia Vardalos, Kate Flannery and Lisa Loeb, the documentary Holbrook/Twain: An American Odyssey (USA) featuring Hal Holbrook, Sean Penn, Martin Sheen, Emile Hirsch, Cherry Jones, Robert Patrick and Annie Potts, In Order of Disappearance (Norway) starring Stellan Skarsgård, Keep On Keepin’ On (USA) directed by Alan Hicks and featuring Clark Terry, Justin Kauflin, Gwen Terry and Quincy Jones, Learning to Drive (USA) starring Patricia Clarkson and Ben Kingsley, Match (USA) starring Matthew Lillard, Carla Gugino and Patrick Stewart, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker (USA) featuring Barbara Walters, Tony Bennett, Carol Channing, Michael Feinstein, Shecky Greene, Bruce Vilanch and David Hyde Pierce, Song One (USA) starring Anne Hathaway and Mary Steenburgen, Trespassing Bergman (Sweden) directed by Jane  Magnusson and Hynek Pallas featuring Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, Francis Ford Coppola, Clare Denis, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Michael Haneke, Ang Lee, Alexander Payne, Ridley Scott and Lars von Trier, Two Days, One Night(Belgium) starring Marion Cotillard.

For a complete list of films including those selected in the World Cinema Now and True Stories program visit www.psfilmfest.org.

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Selma

The 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) will open on Friday, January 2 with the Golden Globe nominated Selma directed by Ava Duvernay. The Festival will wrap on Sunday, January 11 with the US premiere of Boychoir directed by François Girard. New this year, the festival will focus on 20 films from Eastern Europe in a program titled Eastern Promises. The festival runs January 2-12, 2015.

Directed by Ava DuVernay, Selma chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.  The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.  The film stars David Oyelowo, Tom Wilkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alessandro Nivola, Giovanni Ribisi, Common, Carmen Ejogo, Lorraine Toussaint, with Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey, who also serves as a producer. Oyelowo (who will receive the Festival’s Breakthrough Performance Award, Actor) and director DuVernay are expected to attend the film screening. The film has also received four Golden Globe nominations including Best Picture, Drama, Best Actor, Drama and Best Director. The film will open nationwide on January 16 over Martin Luther King, Jr. Day weekend and timed to the upcoming 50-year anniversary of the historical voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery.

http://youtu.be/x6t7vVTxaic

Boychoir

The Festival will close with Boychoir, directed by François Girard.  The film is about a troubled 12-year-old from a disadvantaged background who gets accepted at an elite music school, The National Boychoir Academy.  He engages in a battle of wills with a tough taskmaster, the school’s Choirmaster, Carvelle.  The film stars Dustin Hoffman, Garrett Wareing, Kathy Bates, Eddie Izzard, Kevin McHale, Josh Lucas and Debra Winger.

 The festival will spotlight Central and Eastern European filmmaking in a special focus titled Eastern Promises. This year, the region boasts some of the strongest-ever candidates for the upcoming Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®, a mature generation of auteurs who are assuming the mantle of masters, and a new generation who created some of the most stirring, controversial and acclaimed films of 2014. The 20 films selected in the program include:

Afterlife (Hungary) – Tender, funny and surprising, Afterlife is a sweetly absurdist coming-of-age tale that explores the relationship between an anxious twenty-something and his controlling father, a village Pastor — not only while the older man is alive, but also after his death. Director: Virág Zomborácz                          

Corn Island (Georgia) – A fable-like drama capturing the cycle of life along the border between Georgia and Abkhazia. An old farmer sows corn on one of the tiny islands that form in the Inguri River each spring, but cultivating no-man’s land is dangerous business. Director: George Ovashvili                   

Cowboys (Croatia) – A nifty blend of social drama and absurdist comedy, about a bunch of small town no-hopers who stage an American Western as a musical. Director: Tomislav Mršic

Fair Play (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Germany) – In Czechoslovakia circa 1983, a talented young sprinter risks her career by resisting the “special care” program designed to boost her competition times in this involving drama. Director: Andrea Sedlácková

Ida

Ida (Poland) – A moving and intimate drama set in 1960s Poland, about a young novitiate on the verge of taking her vows who discovers a dark family secret dating from the Nazi occupation. The film received Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress at the Polish Film Awards. Director: Pawel  Pawlikowski

In the Crosswind (Estonia) – An art film in every sense of the word, this black-and-white slice of history mixes live-action with tableaux vivants to provide a requiem for inhabitants of the Baltics deported to Siberia or killed on Stalin’s orders. Director: Martti Helde

The Guide (Ukraine) – A boy on the run is rescued by a blind folk minstrel in this tale of love, loyalty, betrayal and infamy, set during the suppression of rural “kulaks” — wealthy farmers — and the Soviet-engineered Ukraine famine that left as many as 10 million peasants dead from starvation. Director: Oles Sanin

The Japanese Dog (Romania) – This moving tale centers on a bereaved 80-year-old reconnecting with his estranged son, who returns to Romania with a Japanese wife and child. Director: Tudor Christian Jurgiu      

Kebab & Horoscope (Poland) – A former kebab-shop employee and an out-of-work horoscope writer declare themselves marketing experts and are hired to help a struggling carpet emporium in this droll shaggy-dog story. Director: Grzegorz Jaroszuk

The Lesson (Bulgaria/Greece) – An honest, hard-working schoolteacher in a small Bulgarian town is driven to desperate measures to avoid financial ruin and must grapple with the moral consequences of her actions. Directors: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

Mirage (Hungary/Slovakia) – An African footballer on the lam (Isaach de Bankolé) in the desolate and lawless plains of Hungary becomes an avenging angel in Szabolcs Hajdu’s Eastern European western. A beautiful, mysterious work, it’s graced with fantastic camerawork and a superb soundtrack. Director: Szabolcs Hajdu                                                                                                                    

No One’s Child (Serbia/Croatia) – In the spring of 1988, hunters capture a wild boy among the wolves deep in the Bosnian mountains and send him to a Belgrade orphanage. But his “education” is interrupted by war. Director: Vuk Ršumovic

The Reaper (Croatia/Slovenia) – With a superb, seasoned cast and stellar camerawork, three intertwined stories unfold over a single night in an isolated Croatian village. This tense, nuanced drama makes for grim but compelling viewing. Director: Zvonimir Juric

Rocks in My Pockets

Rocks in My Pockets (Latvia) – A modern milestone in animated storytelling, stuffed with irony, humor and tales within tales, this imaginative memoir merges director Signe Baumane’s own story with a mini-history of 20th century Latvia. Director: Signe  Baumane                                                             

See you in Montevideo (Serbia) – This exciting sequel to Montevideo, Taste of a Dream (PSIFF, 2013) continues the tale of how the Yugoslav football team took part in the first official World Cup in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1930 and made sports history. Director: Dragan Bjelogrlic       

Tangerines (Estonia) – 1992. An Estonian village in Abkhazia. The approaching war scares off all but two villagers who remain to harvest the tangerines. This deeply pacifist chamber drama is as tense as a thriller. Director: Zaza Urushadze

These Are the Rules (Croatia/France/Serbia) – Based on a true story, this is a painstaking and painful account of the official indifference and injustice that confronts the law-abiding parents of a teenage boy badly beaten up by a high school bully. Director: Ognjen  Svilicic

Three Windows and a Hanging (Kosovo) – When a woman from a traditional Kosovar village anonymously reveals to an international journalist that she and others were raped during the war with Serbia, the fallout from this once-repressed secret threatens to tear apart the fabric of village life. Director: Isa Qosja

The Tribe (Ukraine) – One of the most original, audacious and talked about films of 2014, The Tribetakes place in a boarding school for the deaf where the students participate in an underground criminal network. Performed entirely in sign language without subtitles. DirectorL Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy

White God (Hungary) – A new city law taxing mixed breed mutts leads many owners to dump their dogs on the streets – including 13-year-old Lili’s beloved pet Hagen. While she tries to find him, Hagen fights for survival. But every dog has his day. Director: Kornél Mundruczó    

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The 26th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) which runs January 2 to 12, 2015, will present awards to David Oyelowo, Richard Linklater, Julianne Moore, Rosamund Pike, Eddie Redmayne, J.K. Simmons, Reese Witherspoon and the cast of The Imitation Game. Hosted by Mary Hart, the Awards Gala will be held Saturday, January 3, 2015, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. 

David Oyelowo

David Oyelowo will be presented with the Breakthrough Performance Award, for his critically acclaimed performance as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Ava DuVernay’s Selma.   Selma is described as the story of a movement. The film chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition.  The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson (Tom Wilkinson) signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement.  Director Ava DuVernay’s Selma tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.  The Paramount Pictures film is directed by Ava DuVernay and stars Oyelowo, Wilkinson, Cuba Gooding Jr., Alessandro Nivola, Giovanni Ribisi, Common, Carmen Ejogo, Lorraine Toussaint, with Tim Roth and Oprah Winfrey, who also serves as a producer.

In addition to Selma, David Oyelowo appeared in several other films this year including A Most Violent Year, Interstellar, and Default.  His other credits include Lee Daniel’s The Butler, Lincoln, The Middle of Nowhere, Jack Reacher, The Paperboy, Complicit, Red Tails, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, The Help, 96 Minutes, The Last King of Scotland, among many others. His upcoming film projects are Captive, Nightingale, Nina and Five Nights in Maine.

The Imitation Game

The Festival will present its Ensemble Performance Award to the film The Imitation Game.  The award will honor the film’s cast, which includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Charles Dance and Mark Strong.  

 During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of ‘gross indecency’, an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality – little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany’s World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, The Imitation Game follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives. The Weinstein Company film is directed by Morten Tyldum with a screenplay by Graham Moore.

Reese Witherspoon

Academy Award® winning actress Reese Witherspoon will be presented with the Chairman’s Award for Wild.  In Wild, director Jean-Marc Vallée, Witherspoon and Academy Award nominated screenwriter Nick Hornby bring bestselling author Cheryl Strayed’s extraordinary adventure to the screen. After years of reckless behavior, a heroin addiction and the destruction of her marriage, Strayed makes a rash decision. Haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi (Academy Award nominee Laura Dern) and with absolutely no experience, she sets out to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail all on her own. Wildpowerfully reveals her terrors and pleasures –as she forges ahead on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her. Fox Searchlight Pictures presents, a Pacific Standard production,Wild starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, Michiel Huisman, Gaby Hoffmann, Kevin Rankin, W. Earl Brown, Mo McRae, Keene McRae. In addition to starring in Wild, Witherspoon also produced the film through her Pacific Standard Films banner, optioning the rights to Strayed’s memoir prior to its release.

This year, in addition to Wild, Reese Witherspoon appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice and Philippe Falardeau’s The Good Lie, and through her production banner Pacific Standard Films, set up the adaptation of the bestselling novel Gone Girl. Her other film credits include Mud, Water for Elephants,Election, Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama, Vanity Fair, Pleasantville and The Man in the Moon. In 2006, her performance as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, earned her the Academy Award for ‘Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role,’ as well as the BAFTA Award, Golden Globe® Award, Screen Actors Guild Award™, New York Film Critics Award, Broadcast Film Critics Award, People’s Choice Award, along with eleven other awards.

Richard Linklater

Two-time Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Richard Linklater will be presented with the Sonny Bono Visionary Award.  Linklater wrote, produced and directed Boyhood, a film about growing up as seen through the eyes of a boy named Mason (in a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents, and Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood, parenting and growing up. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners, to birthdays and graduations, and all the moments in between are set to a soundtrack spanning the years with music from Coldplay, Paul McCartney and Arcade Fire.  The film, which was produced by Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland, Jonathan Sehring and John Sloss, was released by IFC Films.

Linklater’s list of film credits include Slacker, Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, Waking Life, Tape,School of Rock, Before Sunset (which earned him an Academy Award® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay), A Scanner Darkly, Bernie, and Before Midnight (which earned him a second Academy Award® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay). Linklater also serves as the Artistic Director for the Austin Film Society, which he founded in 1985.

Rosamund Pike

Rosamund Pike will be presented with the Breakthrough Performance Award, Actress.  From the tour de force thriller that became a bestselling must-read comes David Fincher’s screen version of Gone Girl, a wild ride through our modern media culture and down into the deep, dark fault lines of an American marriage – in all its unreliable promises, inescapable deceits and pitch-black comedy.  The screenplay is by Gillian Flynn based upon her novel.  The Twentieth Century Fox film stars Ben Affleck with Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry.

Rosamund Pike was nominated for a 2011 London Critics’ Circle Award for “British Actress in a Supporting Role” for her role in Made in Dagenham. For Barney’s Version Pike earned a 2011 London Critics’ Circle Award for “British Actress of the Year” and a Genie Award nomination for best actress. Pike’s other film credits include An Education, The World’s End, Jack Reacher, Wrath of the Titans,Johnny English Reborn, The Big Year, Women in Love, The Libertine, Pride and Prejudice, Fracture, Fugitive Pieces, Surrogates, Burning Palms, What We Did on Our Holiday, Hector and the Search for Happiness, A Long Way Down and Die Another Day. 

J.K. Simmons

J.K. Simmons will be presented with the Spotlight Award, Actor.  In Whiplash, Andrew Neyman is an ambitious young jazz drummer, single-minded in his pursuit to rise to the top of his elite east coast music conservatory. Plagued by the failed writing career of his father, Andrew hungers day and night to become one of the greats. Terence Fletcher, an instructor equally known for his teaching talents as for his terrifying methods, leads the top jazz ensemble in the school. Fletcher discovers Andrew and transfers the aspiring drummer into his band, forever changing the young man’s life. Andrew’s passion to achieve perfection quickly spirals into obsession, as his ruthless teacher continues to push him to the brink of both his ability—and his sanity. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle, the Sony Pictures Classics film stars Miles Teller and J.K. Simmons.

J.K. Simmons has appeared in diverse projects spanning motion pictures, television and the stage on and off Broadway. His motion picture credits include Sam Raimi’s Spider Man trilogy, Hidalgo, The Ladykillers, The Mexican, Off the Map, For Love of the Game, The Gift, Thank You for Smoking,Rendition, Burn After Reading, Juno, The Words, The Music Never Stopped, Jennifer’s Body, Extract, The Vicious Kind, I Love You Man, Beginner’s Guide to Endings, Contraband, Up in the Air, Jobs, Labor Day. His upcoming projects include The Reluctant Professor opposite Hugh Grant and Marisa Tomei, Gillian Raimi’s next feature Murder of a Cat and Jeremy Sisto’s feature Breakpoint.

Julianne Moore

 Julianne Moore will be presented with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actress.  In her latest film Still Alice, Moore plays Alice Howland, happily married with three grown children, and is a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words.  When she received diagnosis of Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, Alice and her family find their bonds thoroughly tested.  Her struggle to stay connected to who she once was is frightening, heartbreaking and inspiring.  The Sony Pictures Classics film stars Moore, Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, Alec Baldwin, Hunter Parrish and is directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland.  The film is being released in New York and Los Angeles for a one-week qualifying run on December 5, 2014 and opens on January 16, 2015

Moore’s notable films include the remake of Carrie; Non-Stop; Crazy, Stupid, Love; The Kids Are All Right; A Single Man; The Forgotten; What Maisie Knew; The English Teacher; Laws Of Attraction; Chloe; 6 Souls; Blindness; Savage Grace; I’m Not There; Children Of Men; Hannibal; Jurassic Park: The Lost World; The Fugitive; Nine Months; Benny & Joon; The Hand That Rocks The Cradle; The End Of The Affair; Boogie Nights; Magnolia; Cookie’s Fortune; Short Cuts; Don Jon; Gus Van Sant’s re-make ofPsycho; Safe; Vanya On 42nd Street; Surviving Picasso; and The Big Lebowski. Moore will next be seen as President Alma Coin in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay. Next year she will star in The Seventh Sondue out on February 6, 2015 and Maps To The Stars.  She is currently in production on the indie drama Freeheld.

Eddie Redmayne

Eddie Redmayne will be presented with the Desert Palm Achievement Award, Actor, currently seen in In The Theory of Everything. The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary and uplifting story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, and of two people defying the steepest of odds through love. The Focus Features release, based on the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking, is directed by Academy Award winner James Marsh (Man on Wire). The film stars Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, and David Thewlis.

Eddie Redmayne’s film credits include Les Misérables, My Week with Marilyn, Savage Grace, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Like Minds, The Yellow Handkerchief, The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Good Shepherd. His stage work includes Red – for which he won a Tony Award – Richard II, Now or Later, and The Goat or Who is Sylvia. His notable television credits include starring in the miniseries Birdsong, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, The Pillars of the Earth, and Elizabeth I. Redmayne was nominated for BAFTA’s Rising Star Award and he shared a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination with his fellow actors from Les Misérablesfor Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

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THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN

The 25th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced this year’s juried award winners of the Festival, held from January 3 to13, 2014.  From the 46 of the 76 official Foreign Language submissions to the Academy Awards screened at this year’s Festival, the Oscar shortlisted THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN (Belgium), directed by Felix van Groeningen was awarded the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year.  FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actor of the Year in a Foreign Language Film went to Mads Mikkelsen from THE HUNT (Denmark) directed by Thomas Vinterberg, which is on the Oscar shortlist, and Bérénice Bejo from THE PAST (Iran), directed by Asghar Farhadi, received the FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actress of the Year in a Foreign Language Film.  

The New Voices/New Visions selected MEDEAS (USA) directed by Andrea Pallaoro.  The film is an archetypal tale of adultery, rendered with exquisite strokes in this slow burning rural psychodrama, the first feature from an Italian-born filmmaker working in the US.  The New Voices/New Visions competition included 12 new international talents making their feature film debut at the Festival, with the additional criteria that the films selected are currently without U.S. distribution. The jury presented a special mention to LEFT FOOT RIGHT FOOT (Switzerland), directed by Germinal Roaux.  

The Cine Latino Award, was presented to two films HELI (Mexico), directed by Amat Escalante and LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED (Spain) directed by David Trueba. Special Mention went to GLORIA (Chile). 

FINDING VIVIAN MAIER (USA), directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel, received The John Schlesinger Award, which is presented to a first-time documentary filmmaker.  The film is a compelling, eye-opening introduction to an anonymous and mysterious woman who recently found posthumous fame as a giant of 20th century photography. 

WALESA. MAN OF HOPE (Poland), directed by Andrzej Wajda, received the HP Bridging the Borders Award presented by Cinema Without Borders and Hewlett Packard, which honors the film that is most successful in exemplifying art that promotes bringing the people of our world closer together.  The Cinema Without Borders Special Jury Award went to PLOT FOR PEACE (South Africa) directed by Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson.  

The complete list of award winners are:

Mercedes-Benz Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
TBA

Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature 
TBA

FIPRESCI Prize for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
THE BROKEN CIRCLE BREAKDOWN (Belgium), directed by Felix van Groeningen

FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actor of the Year in a Foreign Language Film 
Mads Mikkelsen from THE HUNT (Denmark), directed by Thomas Vinterberg

FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actress of the Year in a Foreign Language Film 
Bérénice Bejo from THE PAST (Iran), directed by Asghar Farhadi

New Voices/New Visions Award
MEDEAS (USA), directed by Andrea Pallaoro – Winner
LEFT FOOT RIGHT FOOT (Switzerland), directed by Germinal Roaux – Special Mention

Cine Latino Award
HELI (Mexico), directed by Amat Escalante and LIVING IS EASY WITH EYES CLOSED (Spain), directed by David Trueba – Winner
GLORIA (Chile), directed by Sebastian Lelio – Special Mention

The John Schlesinger Award
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER (USA), directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel – Winner

HP Bridging the Borders Award
WALESA. MAN OF HOPE (Poland), directed byAndrzej Wajda – Winner
PLOT FOR PEACE (South Africa), directed by Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson – Special Jury Award

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GLORIA

The 25th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced the 21 films eligible for the Cine Latino Award, which will be presented to the best Ibero-American film screening at the Festival.  The list of films include GLORIA directed by Sebastian Lelio and Chile’s entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category for the Oscars. GLORIA stars Paulina García who won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance as a vivacious, middle-aged divorcée who finds what may be her last chance for love while grooving on the dance floor of the local singles club. PSIFF is scheduled to run January 3-13, 2014.

This year’s eligible films are:

15 Years and One Day (Spain), Director: Gracia Querejeta
Anina (Uruguay/Colombia), Director: Alfredo Soderguit
Coast of Death (Spain), Director: Lois Patiño
Gloria (Chile/Spain), Director: Sebastián  Lelio
Grazing the Sky (Spain/Portugal/Mexico), Director: Horacio Alcalá
Heli (Mexico/Germany/Netherlands/France), Director: Amat Escalante
Ignasi M.  (Spain), Director: Ventura Pons
La jaula de oro (Mexico/Spain), Director: Diego Quemada-Diez
Last Call (Mexico), Director: Francisco Franco
Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed (Spain), Director: David Trueba
Purgatorio  (Mexico/USA), Director: Rodrigo Reyes
Rabbit Woman (Argentina/Spain), Director: Verónica  Chen
Reaching for the Moon (Brazil), Director: Bruno Barreto
Roa (Colombia/Argentina), Director: Andrés Baiz
Root (Chile), Director: Matías  Rojas Valencia
Tattoo (Brazil), Director: Hilton Lacerda
The German Doctor (Argentina), Director: Lucía Puenzo
The Magnetic Tree (Spain/Chile), Director: Isabel Ayguavives
The Mute  (Peru/France, Mexico), Director: Daniel Vega & Diego Vega
The Searches (Mexico), Director: José Luis Valle
The Summer of Flying Fish (Chile/France), Director: Marcela Said

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