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'Varga,' 'Train' Cited: Awards are given out; well-attended festival itself is called a 'tremendous success'
Journal Photo by Bruce Chapman
The audience settles in for the concluding screening of Hipsters, a Russian musical, in Main Theater at UNC School of the Arts.
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Click here to read more stories and view videos from the RiverRun 2010 Film Festival
Published: April 26, 2010
Katalin Varga, a Romanian/British drama about a woman seeking justice, and Last Train Home, a documentary about Chinese workers, were among the winners of awards at this year's RiverRun International Film Festival.
The festival ended last night with an awards ceremony and a screening of Hipsters, a Russian musical.
"I think it was a tremendous success," Andrew Rodgers, the executive director of RiverRun, said about this year's festival.
Katalin Varga won the jury award for Best Narrative Feature, and Last Train Home won the jury award for Best Documentary Feature.
Among the other awards were Giorgos Lanthimos for Best Director, Narrative Feature for Dogtooth; Susan Gluth for Best Director, Documentary Feature for Soap and Water; Ivadelle for Best Narrative Short; A Song for Ourselves for Best Documentary Short; and Please Say Something for Best Animated Short.
Tony Craig, an animator who has worked on TV shows for Warner Bros. and Disney and now lives in Stokes County, was one of the jurors who judged the animated shorts. He said that he enjoyed RiverRun, which was his first film festival.
"I'm going to do a film to submit next year if I can," he said.
Final attendance numbers won't be available until midweek, but Rodgers said that this year's festival had more than 13,500 attendees, up from last year's record-setting attendance of 12,250.
More screenings were sold out this year than in previous years. "The number of people was up, and the average size of the venues was a little down," he said.
Among other aspects of the festival that were new this year, Rodgers said: "People loved Aperture."
The new Aperture Cinema on Fourth Street was used for various showings of films, with RiverRun movies shown on both its screens.
"Audiences were very enthusiastic about coming downtown," Rodgers said.
Lawren Desai, the majority owner of Aperture, said that RiverRun was "great for us," and that it helped introduce a lot of patrons to the new theater.
"I'm anxious to see how many people come back," she said.
The Spotlight on Mexican Cinema was also very successful, Rodgers said, with six Mexican classic films including Los Olvidados, a 1950 drama by legendary director Luis Bunuel about poor children in the slums of Mexico City. The showing of that film sold out, Rodgers said.
"Our audience was willing to take that risk with us, and I love that," he said.
Leonardo Garcia Tsao, a noted Mexican film critic and historian who helped pick the films for the spotlight, said he was pleased that modern audiences would turn out for a movie from 1950, in black and white, in Spanish with subtitles, on a bleak topic.
Rodgers said that he and his staff are already working on plans for next year.
Rodgers said that audiences this year seemed to appreciate the festival's longer format, stretched over 11 days, which included more repeat screenings of films.
Rodgers said he isn't sure if the festival will keep that 11-day format next year, but "early indications are we would. There were more positives than negatives."
tclodfelter@wsjournal.com
727-7371
A full list of award winners can be found online at www.riverrunfilm.com.
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