City of Rome Award – Best Asian Feature Film 2005

Bidar Sho Arezoo/Wake Up Arezoo
by Kianush Ayyari (Iran)

Motivation:
The film tells with great passion the tragic situation in Bam after the devastating effects of the earthquake. The camera follows the destiny of a teacher and of a father who has lost his whole family, the desperate efforts to try to save the survivors, the sorrow of death and the efforts to keep living. This film has the immediacy of the live documentary and the poetry of neorealism, succeding in blending reality and cinema in a heartrending tale, which involves and moves. It shows a tragedy which we have seen on tv news, but penetrates the reality of things, of the lives and of the people with a strength which belongs to true arthouse cinema.

Jury

Francesca Comencini (film director, script writer)
Renato De Maria ( film director)
Enzo Monteleone (film director, script writer)
Sandra Petrignani (writer)
Vieri Razzini (film critic, writer, distributor)
City of Rome Award – Best Documentary 2005

Landmines – A Love Story
by Dennis O’Rourke (Australia)

Motivation:
For the extraordinary touch in portraying the drama of an entire population through the portrait of a single woman. A courageous woman who decides to take her destiny in her own hands, and in doing so, she redeems the images and stereotypes of the Afghan women.
The director is able to create a sympathy between the audience and the character, and a dramatic tension between the narration and the emotion at the same time. The spectator is carefully leaded into the drama of an epoch.

Special Mention

Electric Fragments n. 4-5 Asia-Africa
by Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)

Motivation:
By signalling this work, the jury intends to pay tribute to two great international filmmakers. Their impressive research and reading of history have constructed and deconstructed our cinematographic imagination. Their underground activity proceeds constantly and meticulously, in spite of the semi-secrecy and isolation to which it is relegated in Italy.

Special Mention

Yang Ban Xi – de 8 model werken
The 8 Model Works
by Yangting Yuen (The Netherlands-China)

Motivation:
For the ability to represent contemporary China in a historic perspective, using a double register of lightness and lucidity of investigation. The narration manages to catch and reveal the controversial relation between art and propaganda in yesterday and today’s China.

Jury

Daria Menozzi ( documentary film maker)
Stefano Martina journalist, festival director)
Serafino Murri (film director, film critic, script writer)

Asiaticafilmmediale Award 2005

To the film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf

For his courageous work and for his artistic and civil commitment.

Audience Award 2005

Invisibles – Dalit Adivasi and the Narmada
by Tommaso D’Elia (Italia)