HAPPY AS LAZARRO[/caption]
The 54th Chicago International Film Festival hosted its Awards Ceremony and taking home the top prize, the Gold Hugo for Best Film, in the International Feature Film Competition, is director Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro, a film the jury recognized for its poetic cinematic language and formal rigor. The Silver Hugo for Best Director was awarded to Jia Zhangke for Ash Is Purest White and the Silver Hugo Special Jury Prize was awarded to Joy, directed by Sudabeh Mortezai.
Director Ash Mayfair took home top honors in the New Directors Competition with a Gold Hugo for The Third Wife and the Silver Hugo was awarded to Joël Karekezi for The Mercy of the Jungle. The Roger Ebert Award, presented to an emerging filmmaker with a fresh and uncompromising vision, was awarded to directors Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer for Little Tickles, and the Chicago Award was presented to Michael Paulucci for Hashtag Perfect Life. The Founder’s Award, given to one film across all categories that captures the spirit of the Chicago International Film Festival for its unique and innovative approach to the art of the moving image, was presented to Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy.
“Each year, the films presented in our competitions represent the excellence and diversity of filmmaking from around the world, and this year was no exception,” said Festival Artistic Director Mimi Plauché. “We are proud to honor these extraordinary films from around the world and here at home, saluting a diverse lineup of singular filmmakers and their work.”
[Censored] (2018)
[CENSORED] (2018) – This unique 63 minute documentary was entirely created using the banned motion picture film footage removed by the censors working at the “Australian Film Censorship Board” located in Sydney Australia, between 1951 and 1978. Melbourne archivist and filmmaker Sari Braithwaite after making her initial short film SMUT HOUNDS (2015) containing seventy-seven seconds of 1960s forbidden celluloid, famously gained unprecedented access to Canberra’s World Cinema storage archive of many many thousands of banned movie clip sequences. Film frames that were cut from international/continental films, that were screened very heavily edited with reduced running times, in Australian Cinemas between 1951 and 1978. Cleverly re-edited scenes, there were no obvious signs that image and soundtrack had been removed.
Directed by Sari Braithwaite
Starring Sari Braithwaite
Genre(s) Documentary Film
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HAPPY AS LAZZARO Wins Best Film at 54th Chicago International Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_30997" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] HAPPY AS LAZARRO[/caption]
The 54th Chicago International Film Festival hosted its Awards Ceremony and taking home the top prize, the Gold Hugo for Best Film, in the International Feature Film Competition, is director Alice Rohrwacher’s Happy as Lazzaro, a film the jury recognized for its poetic cinematic language and formal rigor. The Silver Hugo for Best Director was awarded to Jia Zhangke for Ash Is Purest White and the Silver Hugo Special Jury Prize was awarded to Joy, directed by Sudabeh Mortezai.
Director Ash Mayfair took home top honors in the New Directors Competition with a Gold Hugo for The Third Wife and the Silver Hugo was awarded to Joël Karekezi for The Mercy of the Jungle. The Roger Ebert Award, presented to an emerging filmmaker with a fresh and uncompromising vision, was awarded to directors Andréa Bescond and Eric Métayer for Little Tickles, and the Chicago Award was presented to Michael Paulucci for Hashtag Perfect Life. The Founder’s Award, given to one film across all categories that captures the spirit of the Chicago International Film Festival for its unique and innovative approach to the art of the moving image, was presented to Felix van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy.
“Each year, the films presented in our competitions represent the excellence and diversity of filmmaking from around the world, and this year was no exception,” said Festival Artistic Director Mimi Plauché. “We are proud to honor these extraordinary films from around the world and here at home, saluting a diverse lineup of singular filmmakers and their work.”