News

Rome -- Li Hongqi 's "Han Jia" (Winter Vacation), a coming-of-age story set it small town China, won the Locarno Film Festival's Golden Leopard prize Saturday during a full but drizzly ceremony at the Piazza Grande. It is the second consecutive year that a film from a Chinese director took home the festival's top prize.

 

Among the festival's other top prizes: "Morgen," a border drama set on the boundary between Romania and Hungary from Marian Crisan, won a Special Jury Prize, while Denis Cote was given the Prize of the City and Region of Locarno for Best Director for the Canadian thriller "Curling." Emmanuel Bilodeau, the male lead in "Curling" was given the prize for best actor, while Jasna Duricic won the Best Actress honor for her work in "Beli Belisvet" (White White World) from Serbian director Oleg Novkovic.

 

The top prize carries an award of 90,000 Swiss francs ($85,000), while the...

Until women reach a 50-50 parity with men directors, my mission continues to count the women directors in upcoming and recent film festivals (and an occasional informal glance at what’s selling in the markets). Women’s films in Berlin reflect women’s place in the world both in content and in the numbers of women represented as directors, producers, writers, etc. John Cooper of Sundance stresses the increasing and possibly 50-50 parity of women producers, but I am looking at the directors. As March is Women’s History Month (and all the other months are Men’s History Month according to Gloria Steinem’s L.A. Times Article of March 4, 2010) this blog is in honor of all women everywhere.

Congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow for winning the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. La Times puts into perspective the fact that the Best Director Oscar went to Kathryn Bigelow...