07/02/2011

The 40th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) unveiled the winners of its Tiger Awards competition section as the festival drew to a close this weekend. One of the three Tigers went to experimental Catalan feature Finisterrae [+see also:
interview: Sergio Caballero
film profile], from first-time director Sergio Caballero (see news).

Each of the Tiger Awards come with a €15,000 prize. This year, all three winners were debuting filmmakers. The other two winners came from Asia: Park Jung-Bum’s The Journals of Musan, about a man from North Korea, played by the director, who defects to the South; and Sivaroj Kongsakul’s Thai entry Eternity, which like Finisterrae deals with ghosts and the afterlife, amongst other things.

The jury was composed of Argentinean director Lucrecia Martel (The Headless Woman [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]); Sandra den Hamer, former director of the IFFR and currently head of EYE Film Institute Netherlands; Lee Ranaldo, from American music group Sonic Youth; Romanian filmmaker Andrei Ujica, whose The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile] played in one of the collateral sections of IFFR this year, and Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng (Tears of the Black Tiger).

Because of the festival’s 40th anniversary edition, a special award was given to a film in a special section that showcased new work from past Tiger Award contenders. This award went jointly to Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-Soo for his Oki’s Movie and Dutch director David Verbeek, who presented his Club Zeus, a Shanghai-set film about loneliness and the lack of affection in the big city.

The festival’s Audience Award went to Incendies [+see also:
trailer
film profile] from Dennis Villeneuve. The Canadian/French co-production narrowly beat another intercontinental production, Mexican/Spanish film Biutiful [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] from Alejandro González Iñárritu, which came in second place.