Film awards
July 12, 2009
The 44th annual Karlovy Vary Film Festival has drawn to a close, with the best director award going to a German filmmaker.
Leading filmmaker Andreas Dresen won the award for his movie, Whisky mit Wodka (Whiskey with Vodka), which is a tragicomedy about a well-known actor called Otto who discovers a movie director has hired an understudy.
The Belgian-Canadian movie, Un Ange a la Mer (Angel at Sea), won the top prize at the film festival, which took place in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary on the Czech-German border.
The disquieting family drama is the feature debut of Belgian director Frederic Dumont. It focuses on a 12-year-old boy who lives with his parents and older brother by the seaside in Morocco. His life is changed one day when his father tells him a secret.
Dumont's film was chosen out of 14 contenders for the Crystal Globe by the festival's seven-member jury led by French producer Claudie Ossard. The award includes a cash prize of $30,000.
The best actor award was shared between Olivier Gourmet for Un Ange a la Mer and Paul Giamatti for his role in the film Cold Souls from the US. The special jury prize went to Bist (Twenty) by Abdolreza Kahani of Iran, the best actress award was won by Paprika Steen for Applause from Denmark.
In recent years, Karlovy Vary has become a major showcase for movies from Central and Eastern Europe. The festival also includes a special east-of-the-west section in its programme.
This year's festival marked the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism across Central and Eastern Europe with a strong lineup of films from the region. A total of 226 films from 64 countries were screened during the eight-day festival.
av/dpa/Reuters
Editor: R.Balasubramanyam