Stockholm International Film Festival
November 9 - 19 (Sweden)

The highlight of the 11th Stockholm International Film Festival was the Lifetime Achievement award given to Lauren Bacall: "for her memorable portrayal of timeless female beauty and refinedelegance." Six films she selected were shown in a Bacall retrospective, and her film noir stills were the festival icons.

Notable to the Stockholm event was the I- festival, an Internet festival of ten films. If you look carefully at the festival poster, one of Bacall's eyes is illuminated, signifying the I- (eye) event. A short warm animation called Cloud Cover by Swedish director Lisbeth Svärling won Best I-film in an event watched by over 500,000 viewers during the festival. Svärling called the event 'democratic' and a good way of getting work out.

The Bronze Horse for Best Film 2000 was awarded to Moroccan Nabil Ayouch for Ali Zaoua, a drama on street slums in Casablanca, his second film. Nabil Ayouch was born in 1969 of a Moroccan father and a French mother, and raised in Paris. He has directed more than 50 commercials. His first short film Les Pierres Bleues du Désert (1992) with Jamel Debbouze. Two other shorts Hertzienne Connexion and Vendeur de Silence. Ayouch has received many awards at international festivals. 1997 Moroccan box office success Mektoub, his first feature film, was nominated for the 1999 Oscars. The jury's praised Ali Zaoua as "a movie that will not leave you and that you will not want to leave."

Billy Elliot by British theatre director Stephen Daldry won the Best First Feature Film award. The film about 11-year old Billy who decides to learn ballet, meeting resistance from both father and brother, walked away with two other awards. The E! Audience Award , and the international critic jury FIPRESCI award for Best Film. The jury wrote that "Billy Elliot dances his way right to the stars."

Best Script went to Ronan Girre for Virilité et autres sentiments modernes , which according to the jury "makes our old neuroses look pretty modern." The French romance comedy explores masculinity in a 'surrealistic' world.

The Best actor award went to Eric Bana as Mark Chopper Reads in Chopper (Australia). According to the jury his portrayal of the Australian serial murderer Eric Bana "manages to win our sympathy."

Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb in Requiem For a Dream by Darren Aronofsky (USA) won the Best actress award. Burstyn plays an ordinary housewife that becomes an amphetamine addict while trying to lose weight for a television show. Aronofsky's film on drug addiction is a riveting, shocking testimony of the process of deterioration that besets healthy lives.

Tim Orr won Best Cinematography for David Gordon Green's George Washington about a young African-American boy in the south-- a "visual poem," wrote the jury. Back Room by Guillem Morales (Spain) won Best Short Film, a chronicle of the behind the scenes rooms of gay nightclubs. "Back Room makes us feel lonely and miserable -- and yet we still laugh!" said the jury.

Special Mention went to The Low Down by Jamie Thraves (Great Britain) and Krampáck by Cesc Gay (Spain). 1 kilometre of film, a scholarship to young independent Swedish filmmakers was awarded to a " romantic comedy with a touch of Woody Allen" -- Hundtricket by Christian Eklöw and Christopher Panov: " Special Mention--and 1 kilometre film -went to Moa & Malte by Jonas Embring (Sweden). Eight weeks at the New York Academy are included in the prize.

The international critics jury FIPRESCI also gave out awards. Of over 1,500 film festivals in the world, only 30 are awarded by FIPRESCI. The FIPRESCI jury was made up of Philip Cheah, Singapore (head), Natalia Bassina, Russia, Heike Hurst, France, Bo Ludvigsson, Sweden, and Tarmo Pousso, Finland.

In addition to Best film Billy Elliot, honorable mention went to Eating Air by Jasmine Ng och Kelvin Tong (Singapore). Lukas Moodyson (Sweden) shared the award for best film for Tillsammans (Together) in the Northern Lights section with Erik Clausen's Slip hesterne løs (Denmark). The Stockholm International Film Festival is a space for new and inventive filmmaking by young directors. The 12th festival will be held November 8-18 2001.

Moira Sullivan