SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2009 SHORTS AWARDS

Shorts Awards Announced

The winners of the Festival’s 2009 shorts program were announced on Tuesday night.

(Posted by Todd Luoto on Jan 21, 2009 at 09:01 pm.)

On Tuesday, Festivalgoers – many of whom had been celebrating Tuesday as they welcomed a new president into the White House – continued their festivities by reveling in short-form storytelling with the Festival’s Shorts Awards and Party held at the Legacy Lodge last night.

After watching 96 films in this year's program, short film jurors Gerardo Naranjo (director/writer/producer: Voy a explotar, Perro Negro, among others); Lou Taylor Pucci (actor, The Informers, Thumbsucker); and Sharon Swart (journalist, Variety) made a few hard choices, and came up with the 2009 winners.

The International Jury Prize was awarded to the Swedish film Lies by Jonas Odell. Odell's animated vision features three perfectly true stories about lying: a burglar who, when found out, claims to be a moonlighting accountant; the boy who finds himself lying and confessing to a crime he didn’t commit; and the woman whose whole life has been a chain of lies.

The U.S. Jury Prize was awarded to Short Term 12 by Destin Daniel Cretton. Short Term 12 is about Denim, the supervisor of a residential facility housing kids who are all affected by child abuse and neglect. As Denim is able to keep things under control at the facility, his personal life crumbles around him and he soon realizes he is no better than the kids he is trying to help.

Honorable mentions were given to the following films: The Attack of the Robots from Nebula-5, Protect You + Me, Western Spaghetti, Jerrycan, Love You More, I Live in the Woods, Omelette, and Treevenge.

This has been a notable year for the Festival’s shorts program. An all-time high 96 films were chosen from a record-breaking 5,632 submissions. Tuesday night's event further proved that short films are a vital part of the Festival mission, and just as entertaining, thought-provoking, and rich as their feature counterparts.

http://festival.sundance.org/2009/news/article/shorts_awards_announced/

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS

I Love You Phillip Morris

US Narrative Feature Films

U.S.A., 2008, 100 mins., color

Director(s):

Glenn Ficarra, John Requa

Executive Producer:

Luc Besson

Producers:

Andrew Lazar, Far Shariat

Cinematographer:
Xavier Perez Grobet

Editor:

Thomas J. Nordberg

Production Designer:

Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski

Costume Designer:

David C. Robinson

With alacrity and style, Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the codirectors of I Love You Phillip Morris, have fashioned an improbable, but true, tale of a spectacularly charismatic and resourceful con-man’s journey from small-town cop to flamboyant white-collar criminal. Concocted by the absurdist sensibilities and warped minds that were behind the creation of Bad Santa and centered around an eccentrically wonderful performance by Jim Carrey, the film relates a story that is truly stranger than fiction and showcases a love story that will not be denied. When a local Texas policeman, Steve Russell (Carrey), turns to cons and fraud to allow him to change his lifestyle (in more ways than one), his subsequent stay in the state penitentiary results in his meeting the love of his life, a sensitive fellow inmate named Phillip Morris, perfectly portrayed by Ewan McGregor. What ensues can only be described as a relentless quest as Russell attempts escape after escape and executes con after con, all in the name of love. This is the world of the preposterous: it plays like a farce but is vastly entertaining because it turns all that we take for granted about life on its head. As a primer on the irresistible power of a man who is either insane or in love (is there a difference?), I Love You Phillip Morris surely serves to remind us of the resilience of the human spirit.

CAST

Jim Carrey, Ewan McGregor, Leslie Mann, Rodrigo Santoro

http://festival.sundance.org/2009/film_events/films/i_love_you_phillip_morris