RiverRun Film Festival Jury Winners 2009

Hatice Aslan as Hacer (left) and Yavuz Bingöl as Eyüp in THREE MONKEYS. A film by Nuri Bilge Ceylan. A Zeitgeist Films release.

The RiverRun International Film Festival announced the jury prize winners last night.

They are:

Best Narrative Feature: Three Monkeys
Best Director: Paolo Sorrentino, Il Divo
Best Actor: Tony Servillo, Il Divo
Best Actress: Hatice Aslan, Three Monkeys
Best Screenplay: Sergey Dvortsevoy & Gennady Ostrovskiy, Tulpan
Best Cinematography: Il Divo
Special Jury Prize for Cinematic Audacity: Rumba

The 2009 Narrative Competition jury includes Lucasfilm distribution executive Eric Besner; Wake Forest University professor and Hollywood Reporter film critic Peter Brunette; Salon.com film critic Andrew O’Hehir; Michael Kutza, Founder and Artistic Director of the Chicago International Film Festival; and Callie Martin, a filmmaking student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

Best Documentary Feature: Unmistaken Child
Best Director: Robert Kenner, Food, Inc.
Special Jury Prize for Original Music: Rocaterrania

The 2009 Documentary Competition jury includes Facets Cinematheque Film Program Director Charles Coleman; Christian Gaines, Director of Festivals for imdb.com; Nancy Kalow, Professor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; Hollywood Reporter Deputy Editor Dave Morgan; and Deede Pinckney, a film student from Wake Forest University.

Best Narrative Short: Pop Art
Best Documentary Short: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
Best Animated Short: This Way Up
Honorable Mention: Irinka and Sandrinka

The 2009 Shorts Competition jury includes animator Nathanael Fuller, from Out of Our Minds Animation; Elon University Instructor Nichole Triche; Filmmaker Glenda Wharton; Salem College student Lauren Meek and Winston-Salem State University student Nicholas Poinsette.

I was pulling for Three Monkeys and Unmistaken Child, so the best films won, and it's nice that they spread the love around a bit, especially to Il Divo and Toni Servillo for his masterful performance as Giulio Andreotti.