Day 10 - September 10
"Girlfight" a Winner

Karyn Kusama's Girlfight apparently knocked out the jury. Tonight it won the Grand Prix as well as an acting prize for distaff puncher Michelle Rodriguez.

If you put stock in quantity, Memento, Christopher Nolan's deconstructed thriller about memory and revenge, impressed even more people. It nabbed the second place Jury Prize in a tie with Ben Younger's sharp riff on stock market chicanery and filial piety, Boiler Room, in addition to the Cine Live Prize (voted by readers of "Cine Live" magazine) and the International Critics Prize.

The celebrity jury led by Neil Jordan also selected two winners in the third annual competition for American short films. The Grand Prix went to Seraglio, co-directed by Gail Lerner and Colin Campbell, and the Jury Prize honored Zen and the Art of Landscaping by David Kartch. Oddly enough, both films are witty comedies about big revelations in the lives of middle- aged women, brought about as a direct result of gardening.

Maggie Greenwald's Songcatcher, a tale of feminist gumption and musicological persistence in Appalachia, won the audience prize. Greenwald sent a lovely telegram in French to say "Songcatcher is so American that it's a surprise to me that its story and music touched French audiences as much as they evidently did."

In the Best Male performance category, the Ralph Lauren "Fragrances" acting prize honored Mike White'sportrayal of Buck in the role he wrote for himself in Miguel Arteta's Chuck and Buck.

The Canal Plus Short Film Prize, which carries a 100,000 franc ($13,000) cash award went to George Lucas in Loveby Joe Nussbaum. The director saluted the incredible quality of the other seven films in the line-up and shared his amazement that a festival would fly makers of short films all the way to France and put them up in style.

Boiler Room writer-director Ben Younger was effusive about what a terrific event - and place - Deauville is. "I've been to lots of festivals as a filmgoer and you hardly ever get to see any movies because you're so busy schmoozing. Here I saw at least one every day. The comraderie here has been extraordinary. Competition is a difficult concept. But if audiences everywhere could be as astute and supportive as you've been, it'd be a much better world."

After the protracted awards ceremony, the crowd enjoyed a surprise screening of Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks, a swell comedy whose French release is still three months off.

Wilma Radar