15 November 2011

Life Above All wins the Canberra International Film Festival

| johnboy
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The Canberra International Film Festival has announced their winners for 2011:

And the winners are:
Best International Feature Film: Life Above All (South Africa/Germany)
Best Documentary: Buck (USA)
Best Retrospective: Carmen Jones (USA)

Life Above All was a heart-breaking story of a young girl dealing with powerful social taboos in South Africa. Speaking from his current film set in Morocco, the film’s director Oliver Schmitz said he was happy and honoured to receive the award. “Life, Above All means a lot to me and has an important message,” he said. “Thanks to the CIFF audience and the wonderful cast. We all thank you!”

CIFF Artistic Director, Simon Weaving said it was wonderful to see so many people enjoy the African films. “Life, Above All brought a very powerful story about a part of the world we rarely see on screen,” he said. “ So, I’m delighted it has picked up the Audience Award.”

Buck, a moving documentary directed by Cindy Meehl about Buck Brannaman, the man who inspired The Horse Whisperer, won Best Documentary.

And winner of the audience award for Best Retrospective screening was Carmen Jones, a 1954 musical love-story, starring Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge.

life above all screenshot

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I understand all three Audience Awards were for films screened at Arc Cinema at the National Film and Sound Archive. The NFSA is pleased to report a nearly 20% increase in attendance at CIFF screenings at Arc from last year.

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