Tunisia’s major film festival starts under tight security
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‘Manta Ray’, ‘Bulbul Can Sing’ win Mumbai Festival prizes
TUNIS, Nov 4, (Agencies): Tunisia kicked off a major film festival Saturday under tight security, just days after a suicide blast rocked the centre of the capital.
Events at the Carthage Film Festival are being held a stone’s throw away from where a female suicide bomber wounded 20 people in central Tunis on Monday.
“We wanted to show that Tunisia continues to live,” Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told AFP at the opening ceremony.
“Tunisia combats terrorism through security measures … and also through culture.”
The festival, now in its 29th year, celebrates the best of Arab and African cinema and is set to run for one week.
Monday’s attack was the first in the Tunisian capital since Nov 24, 2015 when a suicide bombing killed 12 security agents on a bus for presidential guards. That attack was claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
Since the 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, jihadist attacks in Tunisia have killed dozens of foreign tourists and members of the security forces.
In June 2015, 38 people were killed in a shooting rampage at the coastal resort of Sousse which targeted tourists, while an attack in March that year on the National Bardo Museum in Tunis left 22 people dead, most of them tourists.
Those attacks, also claimed by IS, devastated Tunisia’s crucial tourism sector.
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LOS ANGELES: Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” won the Mumbai Film Festival’s Golden Gateway award in the international competition. It previously won best film at Venice’s Horizon section and has toured the Toronto, Thessaloniki, San Sebastian festivals.
Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” won the Silver Gateway award in the competition, after winning accolades worldwide, including three awards at Berlin. Another globally lauded film, Gabrielle Brady’s, “Island of the Hungry Ghosts,” won the international competition’s grand jury prize.
Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” won the Golden Gateway in the India Gold competition section. Das’ “Village Rockstars” was feted in Mumbai in 2017, and is India’s entry to the Oscars foreign language category. The Silver Gateway in the Indian competition was split between Ridham Janve’s “The Gold-Laden Sheep & the Sacred Mountain” and Rotterdam title “Jonaki”, by Aditya Vikram Sengupta.
“Jonaki” also won a special mention at the festival’s Oxfam awards for gender equality, as did “Sivaranjani and Two Other Women” by Vasanth Sai. Ivan Ayr’s Venice and London title “Soni” won best film in the category. All the nominated films were directed by men.
Darren Aronofsky received the festival’s excellence in cinema award. Aronofsky said, “I’ve been to Mumbai a few times, and it is always completely insane, more insane than New York City,” to rapturous applause from the audience. “It has incredible people and incredible food, and it is one of the great fountains of movies in the world. And so, to get this honor in Mumbai means a lot.”
LOS ANGELES: Martha Pinson’s “Tomorrow” took the narrative feature prize at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Saturday, while Matthew Testa’s “The Human Element” won the documentary award. Other winners were the short “Geoff” and its directors and “Hold the Night” for editing. Skyler Samuels won the acting Jury Award for “Spare Room”, while “One Cambodian Family Please for My Pleasure” won the Jury Award for screenwriting. “Facing the Dragon” took the Unheard Voices trophy. The awards were given at a brunch at the Olde Pink House on Saturday.
The 21st edition of the fest kicked off with Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” on Oct 27 and honored John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Armie Hammer, KiKi Layne and Chloe Grace Moretz, among others.
In all, 164 films, including 33 narrative films, 16 documentary films and 115 shorts unspooled at the Savannah fest, which ended Saturday. The festival also screened several awards hopefuls, from “Ben Is Back” and “Boy Erased” to “The Favourite”, “The Front Runner”, “If Beale Street Could Talk” and “Widows”.
Professional jury members were Laura Berwick (Berwick & Kovacik), Kevin Fallon (The Daily Beast), Amy Kaufman (Los Angeles Times), Bill Keith (Entertainment Weekly), Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair), Elise Pearlstein (Participant Media), David Westhead (actor-producer) and Alison Willmore (Buzzfeed).
In total, 27 awards were announced from the 105 films that competed in the categories of narrative features, documentary features, professional shorts, animated shorts and student shorts selections.
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