01/12/2008

Ruben Östlund’s vignette film Involuntary [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erik Hemmendorff
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] won Best Screenplay and the Star! Audience Award at the closing ceremony of the 19th Stockholm International Film Festival on Saturday.

The festival jury said about Östlund’s film: ”The award for Best Screenplay goes to a film that employs subtle humour and realism to highlight everyday choices that could lead to catastrophic consequences. It shows that how we deal with awkward, no-win situations may define us as human beings. ”

The film has been collecting international awards since its world premiere at Cannes’s Un Certain Regard last May. The Audience Award will bring music to SF’s ears as the distribution company just launched the film nationwide last Friday.

Although the Bronze Horse, the festival’s top award, went to the US independent film Frozen River by Courtney Hunt, the rest of the awards celebrated European cinema.

UK artist Steve McQueen’s Hunger [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Hastings-Smith Rob…
interview: Steve McQueen
film profile] (see Focus) won Best Director and Best Actor (Michael Fassbender), and the Czech film A Country Teacher [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bohdan Slama
film profile] also got a double nod for Best Actress (Zuzanna Bydzovska) and Best Cinematography (Divis Marek).

An Honorary Mention for Best Debut Feature went to French filmmaker Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire for Johnny Mad Dog [+see also:
trailer
film profile], while the UK film Better Things [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Duane Hopkins won the FIPRESCI award.

Stockholm’s 1km Film 2008 scholarship award given to a promising Swedish filmmaker was presented to the short film Come Here by Alexandra Dahlström, who starred in Lukas Moodysson’s 1998 hit Show Me Love.