2006

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Foreign Language Film of the Year Grand Prix — Best Film of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award European Film Award of the Critics

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year

In the framework of the Palm Springs festival (USA, January 5-16, 2006), our jury reviewed the official Best Foreign Language submissions to the Academy Awards and presented the "FIPRESCI Award for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year 2005" to Buffalo Boy (Mua Len Trau), the submission from Vietnam (2005). Director Minh Nguyen-Vo's feature debut is a coming-of-age journey through French Indochina shortly before World War II. A teenaged boy transports his family's buffalos to greener pastures during the seasonal floods and discovers the joys and challenges of masculine ritual.
Ion Fiscuteanu received the "FIPRESCI Award Best Actor" for his performance in The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Moartea Domnului Lazarescu, Romania) directed by Cristi Puiu.
Meltem Cumbul received the "FIPRESCI Award Best Actress" for her performance in Lovelorn (Gönül Yarasi, Turkey) directed by Yavuz Turgul.
Jury: Kirill Razlogov, Russia, president ("Moskovskaya Pravda", "Kompania", "Kultura"), Henrik Uth Jensen, Denmark ("Kristeligt Dagblad"), Gideon KOUTS, France ("Israel Channel Two", "Globes Magazine", "L'Arche"), Charles-Stéphane Roy, Canada ("ICI Montréal", "Séquences"), Robert Koehler, USA.
Print source, Buffalo Boy: Pyramide International, Paris, T +33 (1) 4296 0220, F +33 (1) 4020 0551, pricher@pyramidefilms.com
Palm Springs Festival: www.psfilmfest.org

Grand Prix — Best Film of the Year

Actresses Yohana Cobo and Lola Dueñas, and producers Agustín Almodovar and Esther García pictured at the Opening Ceremony. Photo: San Sebastian Film Festival

The film Volver, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, receives the FIPRESCI Grand Prix for the Best Film of the Year at San Sebastian International Film Festival. More than 350 critics from all over the world have voted for a film released between July 2005 and July 2006. The award, presented each year since 1999 at the San Sebastian Festival and created to highlight the overall artistic value of a film, will be awarded for the second time to a film by Pedro Almodóvar, undoubtedly one of the most innovating moviemakers with one of the wealthiest and most original personal universes in contemporary cinema. In its first year, the Grand Prix was awarded to Todo sobre mi madre, and today it is Volver that the international critics have chosen. Volver has been a smash hit with audiences and critics alike, and was one of the most applauded films at the last Cannes Festival Official Selection, where it earned the Best Actress prize for all of the six actresses in the cast: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo and Chus Lampreave.
Violeta Kovacsics on "Volver"

Lifetime Achievement Award

At the occasion of the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, our Lifetime Achievement Award 2006 will be presented to Brazilian director Nelson Pereira dos Santos. "This Award is in fact been given to a filmmaker", writes José Carlos Averllar, "that conquered the freedom learning from the people. He conquered the freedom for himself and for the entire Brazilian cinema escaping from the prison of technical and industrial rules and telling the true story as he just decided to invent it right now." The Third Bunch of Reality

European Film Academy Award of the Critics — Prix FIPRESCI 2006

"Les amants réguliers" by Philippe Garrel wins the Critics' Award of the European Film Academy. As Andrei Plakhov, president of FIPRESCI, has explained, “Philippe Garrel made his first film when he was 16, and by 20 had earned the reputation of the Nouvelle Vague's Wunderkind and 'younger brother of Godard'. His sophisticated cinematographic style, with long concentrated frames, is unique. His films are like fake detective stories, where mystery lies, not in the plot but in the style.” Philippe Garrel will receive the Prize at the Award Ceremony on December 2, 2006, in Warsaw. Andrei Plakhov on "Les amants réguliers"

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