"Revanche "- Best Foreign Language Film-Palm Springs International Film Festival

From national submissions to the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, a jury of FIPRESCI selected – at the Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA, January 6-19, 2009) – the Best Foreign Language Film of 2008:

Revanche by Götz Spielmann (Austria, 2008),
"The suspenseful story of a heist whose unexpected repurcussions
radiate out with satisfying moral complexity" (jury member Lisa Nesselson).

The jury decided also prizes for best actor/actress.

Best actor: Natar Ungalaaq in The Necessities of Life
(Ce qu'il faut pour vivre, directed by Benoit Pilon, Canada 2008).
"Though not a trained actor, Natar Ungalaaq brings rare warmth
and icy clarity to his role as an Inuit hunter culturally and emotionally
marooned in at TB hospital in 1940's Quebec" (juror Roger Clarke).

Best actress: Martina Gusman in Lion's Den
(Leonera, directed by Pablo Trapero, Argentina/South Korea/Brazil, 2008).
"Martina Gusman masters every scene of Lion's Den,
expressing extreme emotions with restrained intensity and subtly conveying
her character's transformation from passivity to power over the course
of her ordeal" (jury member Peter Keough), informs FIPRESCI

National Society of Film Critics (USA) Votes Forty-third Annual Awards

The National Society of Film Critics (USA) on Saturday, January 3rd, 2009, chose Waltz With Bashir as Best Picture of the Year 2008. The Society, which is made up of 63 of the country's most prominent movie critics, held its 43rd annual awards voting meeting at Sardi's Restaurant in New York City. Forty-nine members voted. TheAnnual Awards for 2008 Films:

Best Actor
Sean Penn (Milk) (Focus Features)

Best Actress
Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky) (Miramax)

Best Supporting Actor
Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky) (Miramax)

Best Supporting Actress
Hanna Schygulla (The Edge of Heaven) (Strand Releasing)

Best Picture
Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman) (Sony Pictures Classic)

Best Director
Mike Leigh (Happy-Go-Lucky) (Miramax)

Best Nonfiction Film
Man on Wire (James Marsh) (Magnolia)

Best Screenplay
Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)

Best Cinematography
Slumdog Millionaire (Anthony Dod Mantle) (Fox Searchlight)

Best Experimental Film
Ken Jacobs' Razzle Dazzle

Film Heritage Awards
The Criterion Collection for finally making Samuel Fuller's suppressed White Dog(1982) available to a wide American audience via DVD release.
The Exiles, Kent Mackenzie's realistic 1961 independent film about Native Americans in Los Angeles. (Restored by Ross Lipman of the UCLA Television and Film Archives and distributed by Milestone.)
Flicker Alley for releasing DVD collections of rare early U.S. and foreign silent films.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment for its DVD set "Murnau, Borzage and Fox".