Scripted by Mark O'Halloran who also wrote Abrahamson's debut feature Adam & Paul, Garage is the story of Josie, a sweet and harmless gas station manager in rural Ireland whose naïvete and loneliness get him into trouble.
Garage debuted at Cannes Directors Fortnight and participated in Toronto's Contemporary World Cinema earlier this year.
The Special Jury prize went to The Elephant and the Sea - also a second film - by Malaysian director Woo Ming Jin. The film is a Malaysia and Netherlands co-production, which depicts the lives of a man who has lost his wife and a boy that has lost his big brother figure in the same mysterious epidemic.
The special jury prize is accompanied by $14,600 (Euros 10,000) in prize money.
The best actress recognition went to Joan Chen for the Australian film The Home Song Stories by Tony Ayres. Best actor kudos went to South Korean actor Kim Kang-Woo for his performance in Park Heung-sik's The Railroad (Gyeongui Seon).
These prizes were given by the festival's competition jury, which was chaired by Toronto Festival co-director and TIFFG CEO Piers Handling.
The Fipresci award was given to The Railroad (Gyeongui Seon).
The audience prize went to American director Craig Gillespie for Lars and the Real Girl.
Three categories dedicated to Italian or regional awards were given in the following categories:
Italiana.doc awarded best Italian documentary to La Nacion Mapuce by Fausta Quattrini, which took a $14,600 (Euros 10,000) prize.
Italiana.doc special jury prize went to L'esame di Xhodi by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio, with an accompanying $7,300 (Euros 5,000) in prize money.
A special mention went to Biutiful Cauntri by a trio of directors:
Esmeralda Calabria, Giuseppe Ruggiero and Andrea D'Ambrosio.
Italiana.corti - (Italian Shorts), awarded the Best short-length film to Giganti by Fabio Mollo along with Euros 14,600 (Euros 10,000).
The special jury award of $4,400 (Euros 3,000 in Kodak film) went to Primogenito Complesso by Lavinia Chianello and Tomas Creus.
Il resto di una storia by Antonio Prata received a special mention.
The Spazio Torino (Turin Space) prizes were given to Il Lavoro by Lorenzo De Nicola, which received $11,100 (euros 7,600) in technical services from Blue Gold in Milan and Unistudio in Turin.
The Labor Ministry's Cipputi award went to Francesca Comencini for La Fabbrica (The Factory), the best-worker themed film.
The 25th edition of the Turin Film Festival was the first led by reclusive yet often politically controversial Palme d'Or winning director Nanni Moretti.
Moretti, whose solid reputation was seen as a means to give status to the Turin Festival, just as the more glamorous, politically well-connected and big-budgeted Rome Film Fest's entrance on the scene could cause it to sink.
During a year when Venice, Turin and Rome's directors acted with as much diplomacy as possible, Moretti surprised all when during the November 7 press conference in Rome to announce Turin's line up he outright attacked Rome's choice of dates - saying 'we can't it pretend never happened.'
He also criticized Rome for Extra, the section dedicated to cutting-edge fare - a long held trademark for the Turin Festival.
But while speculation about the three festivals in Italy may continue, nothing new has come out. Italian Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli visited Moretti in Turin last Monday, but the meeting between the two was behind closed doors.
While journalists pressed to know more about dates, the Minister relied on his often-repeated verdict that Italy now has three film festivals.
Any upcoming shifts in calendar - this year Rome overlapped the London Film Festival, in 2006 it overlapped Pusan - will be minor, when put in the perspective to industry concerns around the world.
Moretti closed the discussion saying 'what I said, I said once,' in reference to the earlier outburst, 'and I won't say it anymore.'
Moretti has promised to remain in the post for two years, not the standard four, and will consider two additional years at a later time.
The 25th edition went smoothly and Moretti maintained his promise 'to direct the festival as it has always been known' not to change it.
No comments yet