Tokyo Sakura Grand Prize, $50,000. for the Best Film in competition.
"Untouchables", France with DUO directors, Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, for their study of an improbable friendshipo that develops betweena white man in a wheelchair and his black care-taker.
Special Jury Prize, $20,000
"The Woodsman and the Rain", Japan, Dir. Shuichi Okita, (34) -- Another Improbable friendship tale, this time bertween a Japanese lumberjack and a clueless young director who cames to his neck of the woods to shoot a Zombie film.
Award for Best Director, $5,000
Ruben Östlund, "PLAY":
For this hard-hitting study of racism in Sweden, with teenage African bullies in Gotheburg gaming on hapless fearful white kids.
Award for Best Actress
Glenn Close, picks up $5,000 for her cross-dressing "role of a lifetime" as Albert, the male butler in "Albert Nobbs",
Irish competition entry directed by Mexican helmer Rodrigo Garcia. Ms. Close calls it "the culmination of her career".
Best Actor, awarded this year in tandem to both co-stars of "Intouchables", a film about a miraculous meeting
between two men from different worlds in France who become Improbable Friends.
Françis Cluzet -- Philippe, white victim of paragliding accident in a wheelchair, $5,000
Omar Sy -- Black African imigrant just out of jail, who becomes his Care-giver, $5,000
Audience Award : $10,000
The most popular film from the audience point of view as chosen by ballots at screenings.
"When Pigs have Wings" (Le Cochon de Ghaza) by Uruguay based French director Sylvain Estibal--is a highly off-beat comedy about Israel-Palestinian relations, which casts an Israeli actor as a Palestinian and a Tunisian actress an an Israel -- talk about "role reversal!
TOYOTA Earth Grand Prix Natural --
Comprising Ten films tackling ecological issues and "How we should live in relation to nature"
Special Jury Prize
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga:
Co-directed by veteran German helmer Werner Herzog & Russian Dmitry Vasyukov
Documentary on Indigenous people of central Sibera follows a trapper thru the four seasons
(with resonances of Kuosawa's Siberian epic "Dersu Uzala")
Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film Award (Winds of Asia)
"The Mirror Never Lies": Indonesia
First feature by young femme director, Kamila Andini, (25) --studied media arts in Melbourne, daughter of an acclaimed film director, Garin Nugroho-- deals with folklorish tradition of resurrecting the dead in a mirror!
Honorable Mention in this large section: (Three films)
"Trespassers" (Philippines) Director Jeffrey Jeturian
Original Tagalog title :"Besperas" (Christmas Eve)
『TATSUMI』 directed by Singaporean ace Eric Khoo with hot track record at Cannes,
this is the story of a young Manga (comic book) artist in post-war Japan who is inspired
by his idol, the Manga Grand Master, Osamu Tezuka.
"ENDHIRAN, The Robot" -- Fantastic A-I Sci-fi from India --all time largest budget and all-time
biggest box-office megahit of the Sub-continent, starring Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth and Bollywood
superstar beauty Aishwarya Rai. Nuff said there!
Finally, Japanese Eyes, Best Picture Award for a new Japanese film ==> Prize money￥1,000,000 yen.
"About The Pink Sky"-- (Momoiro Sora wo), dir.Keiishi Kobayashi (Born 1972, debut feature by video and TV veteran) follows the adventures of a high school girl who finds a wallet with a large sum of money ... Shot in monohrome with highly innovative camerawork.
Official festival stats:
Total festival attendance：41,648 (number of films screened: 128/ number of screenings: 315; last year approx. 275) --
Total number of visitors to TIFFCOM, and other allied events ： 172,231 persons
Green Carpet, Arena and other offiicial events: approx. 20,000 persons
As one official visitor from Germany put it "This is really a small festival from the point of view of the number of films shown compared to German festivals like Berlin and Munich, but the presentation is large-scale and state-of-the-art".
31.10.2011 | Editor's blog
Cat. : actor actress Aishwarya Rai Albert Nobbs Artist Asia Audience Award Berlin Best Cannes Cannes Dersu Uzala Director Dmitry VasyukovDocumentary ENDHIRAN, The Robot Entertainment Entertainment Eric Khoo Eric Toledano film director Films France Garin Nugroho Germany Human Interest Human Interest Intouchables Intouchables Japan Jeffrey JeturianOriginal Kamila Andini Manga Melbourne Munich Olivier Nakache Osamu Tezuka Person Career Primorsky Krai Rodrigo Garcia Russian culture Shuichi Okita Social Issues Social Issues Soviet films Sweden Sylvain Estibal Tokyo Toyota Werner Herzog