Winners
at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
PARK
CITY, UTAH, Jan 30: Following is a list of
winners at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, the
top gathering for independent movies made outside
of Hollywood’s major studios.
Winners are
grouped in categories for drama films and
documentaries and in sections for US films and
world cinema.
U.S., DRAMA
FILMS
Best film, Jury
Prize - "Like Crazy"
Best film,
Audience Award - "Circumstance"
Directing
- Sean Durkin, "Martha Marcy May
Marlene
Screenwriting
- Sam Levinson, "Another Happy
Day"
Cinematography
- Bradford Young, "Pariah"
Special
jury prize, film - "Another
Year"
Special
jury prize, acting - Felicity Jones,
"Like Crazy"
US, DOCUMENTARY
FILMS
Best
documentary, Jury Prize - "How to Die in
Oregon"
Best
documentary, Audience Award -
"Buck"
Directing - John
Foy, "Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the
Toynbee Tiles"
Editing - Matthew
Hamachek, Marshall Curry, "If A Tree Falls:
A Story of the Earth Liberation Front"
Cinematography -
Eric Strauss, Ryan Hill, Peter Hutchens "The
Redemption of General Butt Naked"
Special Jury Prize
- "Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s
Journey"
WORLD CINEMA,
DRAMA
Best film,
Jury Prize - "Happy, Happy"
Best film,
Audience Award - "Kinyarwanda"
Directing
- Paddy Considine,
"Tyrannosaur"
Screenwriting
- Erez Kav-El, "Restoration"
Cinematography
- Diego F. Jimenez, "All Your Dead
Ones"
Special
Jury Prize, acting - Olivia Colman, Peter
Mullan, "Tyrannosaur"
WORLD CINEMA,
DOCUMENTARY
Best film,
Jury Prize - "Hell and Back
Again"
Best film,
Audience Award - "Senna"
Directing
- James Marsh, "Project Nim"
Editing - Goran
Hugo Olsson, Hanna Lejonqvist, "The Black
Power MixTape 1967-1975"
Cinematography
- Danfung Dennis, "Hell and Back
Again"
Special Jury
Prize, film - "Position Among the
Stars"
OTHER AWARDS
US short film,
"Brick Novax pt. 1 and 2" World
short film, "Deeper Than Yesterday"
Alfred P. Sloan Award for science film -
"Another Earth" Best of NEXT! for
low-budget film - "to.Get.Her"
(AGENCIES)
87-year-old
woman ‘ends life after pet dog taken
away’
LONDON,
Jan 30: An 87-year-old dog lover in Britain
has ended her life after her pet was taken away
by a rescue centre, a media report said.
Former veterinary
nurse Joan Mary Crowhurst was found dead on her
living room floor, having taken an overdose and
left a handwritten note on her mantelpiece that
read: "You stole my dog, you stole my
life," the ‘Daily Mail’ reported.
Crowhurst had
adopted Dalmatian Gemma six years ago from a
rescue centre near her home in Whippingham on the
Isle of Wight. In June last year, Crowhurst was
hospitalised after collapsing at home and the dog
was taken back to the centre, the Isle of Wight
Coroner’s Court heard.
Crowhurst, who
kept dogs throughout her life, was in hospital
and then a care home for around a month before
she was allowed back to her house in Campfield
Road. She killed herself two weeks later, the
report said.
Sue Hemmings, who
runs the centre, told the hearing that she had
visited Crowhurst after she came out of hospital
and believed she was not up to looking after the
dog.
"On two or
three occasions she told me she didn’t want
to have the dog back. She was phoning me eight or
nine times a day; one minute it was ‘I
don’t want the dog’, then it was
‘someone has stolen my dog’.
"In every
conversation I was trying to calm her down and
express that Gemma was OK. I think the dog was a
major factor in her thoughts. I was concerned
about her. It was never my intention not to let
the dog go back," she said.
An entry written
by a carer on the day she died read: "Still
saying she does not want to live without
dog."
The inquest also
heard a psychiatrist’s report saying
Crowhurst may have been suffering from the early
stages of dementia, however Coroner John Matthews
said the distress caused by the loss of her dog
had affected her. (PTI)
)
)
Netherlands
freezes ties after Iran hangs Dutch woman
TEHRAN,
Jan 30: The Netherlands has frozen contacts
with Iran after Tehran hanged an Iranian-Dutch
woman for drug smuggling, having initially
arrested her for taking part in anti-government
protests.
Zahra
Bahrami’s execution yesterday brings the
total number of people hanged in Iran so far this
year to 66 -- on average more than two a
day—according to an AFP tally based on media
reports.
"A drug
trafficker named Zahra Bahrami, daughter of Ali,
was hanged early on Saturday morning after she
was convicted of selling and possessing
drugs," the Tehran prosecutor’s office
said.
Dutch Foreign
Minister Uri Rosenthal "was profoundly
shocked by the news, he called it an act
committed by a barbarous regime," foreign
ministry spokesman Bengt van Loosdrecht told.
"The
Netherlands has decided to freeze all contacts
with Iran" after obtaining confirmation of
Bahrami’s execution from Iran’s
ambassador to the Netherlands Kazem Gharib Abadi,
the ministry spokesman said.
"This
concerns all official contacts between diplomats
and civil servants," he added.
Bahrami, a
46-year-old Iranian-born naturalised Dutch
citizen, was reportedly arrested in December 2009
after joining a protest against the government
while visiting relatives in the Islamic republic.
The
prosecutor’s office confirmed on Saturday
that she had been arrested for "security
crimes."
But elaborating on
the drug smuggling charge, the office said
Bahrami had used her Dutch connections to bring
narcotics into Iran.
"The convict,
a member of an international drug gang, smuggled
cocaine to Iran using her Dutch connections and
had twice shipped and distributed cocaine inside
the country," it said.
During a search of
her house, authorities found 450 grams of cocaine
and 420 grams of opium, the prosecutor’s
office said. Investigations revealed she had sold
150 grams of cocaine in Iran, it added.
"The
revolutionary court sentenced her to death for
possessing 450 grams of cocaine and participating
in the selling of 150 grams of cocaine," it
said.
The Dutch
government said it was "surprised" by
Bahrami’s execution. (AGENCIES)
Philips
eyes to tap Indian street lighting market
NEW
YORK, Jan 30: Dutch electronics firm Philips today
said it plans to tap the Indian street lighting
market for which it is developing a range of
products to suit the requirements of the country.
"In India,
there is an untapped market which is the street
lighting. So we are really focused on developing
the range of products which could be of true
value for Indian street lighting and we are
practically doing that right now," Philips
Light Asia Regional Business Director Nigel
D’ Acre told.
He said among the
Asian countries, India and China contribute a
major chunk to the company’s overall
lighting division sales and expects a huge growth
coming from these regions as well.
"We expect
huge growth from these markets both in
infrastructure and private investments," he
said.
D’ Acre
also singled out
the hospitals
segment as
another
area to grow its
lighting business as the company, which is
pushing its LED (light emitting diode) products,
as looks to ramp up its brand presence in India.
"Hospitals in
India are huge. So we see lot of opportunities
there," he added.
According to Frost
& Sullivan, the overall Indian LED lighting
is expected to reach USD 399.2 million by 2015
from USD 49.6 million in 2009 at an estimated
annual growth rate of 41.5 per cent till 2014.
At present, 38 per
cent of Philip’s lighting business comes
from the emerging markets driven by healthy
growth in India and China. In 2010, lighting
business contributes about 34 per cent to the
company’s overall revenue. Last year, the
company’s total sales stood at 25.4 billion
euro.
Besides, the
company said it is also planning to increase its
presence in India in the lighting space and
create more awareness about LED products and
solutions in the country.
"We will ramp
up our presence through education of LED lighting
products, hold trade shows. Besides, we are
putting in more technical people with LED
expertise," Philips Lumileds Director of
Marketing Communications Steve Landau said.
Philips Lumileds
is a part of the Philips Electronics, which makes
LED products and solutions for the company.
He said the
company will carry out different activities in a
variety of formats in order to create awareness
about the LED lighting products and "we will
support the industry by providing the kind of
expertise required".
Globally, Philips
Lighting business has been driven by LED-based
products, comprising 14 per cent of total sales
(of lighting business). (PTI)
Sarah Palin slams rumours of
her husband’s affair
NEW
YORK, Jan 30: America’s glamourous politician
Sarah Palin has slammed rumours of her
husband’s affair with a message therapist,
calling the claims "a waste of time".
The 47-year-old
former Republican vice presidential candidate was
speaking on an Alaskan morning radio show, the
‘The Bob and Mark morning show’, when
she refuted the claims made in ‘National
Enquirer’ newspaper earlier this month.
Palin had been
asked if it was hurtful that much of her harshest
criticism originates in her home state of Alaska.
She said she tries not to pay too much attention
to the poll numbers—but admitted that
stories like the affair rumour were hurtful.
"Look at this
recent (story) about Todd supposedly being all
caught up in a prostitution ring in Anchorage.
APD (the Anchorage Police Department) had to come
out and say ‘bull’, there’s no
evidence...
"Heck, all
they needed to do was ask me or ask Todd himself.
‘Hey Todd, you been hanging out with hookers
in Anchorage?’ And he’d tell the truth,
obviously it’s a big lie.
"It’s a
waste of time... Things like that are hurtful
because when we trace back the lies and know that
they come from our home state of Alaska,
that’s hurtful," the ‘Daily
Mail’ online quoted Palin as saying.
The former Alaskan
governor spoke in reference to an
‘Enquirer’ report earlier this month
claiming a 36-year-old woman named Shailey Tripp
had been arrested in Anchorage for running a
brothel.
Police had
confiscated physical evidence tying Palin’s
husband to her, the Enquirer said. The tabloid
did not reveal what the evidence was or when the
alleged affair was to have taken place.
The New York Daily
News quoted Anchorage police as blasting the
report, slamming it as "guilt by
innuendo". It said Tripp had been arrested
for running an illegitimate massage parlour, but
there was no Palin link.
It is not the
first time that the Palins have been accused of
affairs. The couple strongly denied similar
claims in 2008 and 2009. (PTI)
Teodoro
Obiang Nguema: 30 years of iron rule
ADDIS
ABABA, Jan 30: Teodoro Obiang Nguema, expected to
be designated chairman of the African Union, has
ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist for
more than 30 years.
With the discovery
of petroleum, his country rose from being a Gulf
of Guinea backwater to sub-Saharan Africa’s
third oil producer after Nigeria and Angola.
In an attempt to
boost his much-maligned image, Obiang tried in
2009 to float an international scientific prize
under the auspices of the UN cultural body
UNESCO, offering to allocate USD 3 million for
five years to reward "research in life
sciences".
The Equatorial
Guinea president, who has built up a real
personality cult in his country, has for a long
time come under fire for rights abuses from
numerous NGOs and international organisations.
Non Government
Organisations, academics, and even Nobel laureate
Desmond Tutu spoke out in indignation at the idea
of a UN prize bearing Obiang’s name, and in
the end the project was shelved.
Born on June 5,
1942 in Akoakam-Esangui in the east of the
mainland chunk of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro was
a timid, almost retiring boy with a taciturn
streak.
After attending a
religious school in Bata, the biggest town in the
mainland part of the country, he joined the army
which in 1963 awarded him a scholarship to a
military academy in Zaragoza, Spain, the then
colonial power.
He returned home
in 1965 and one year after independence in 1968
was put in charge of troops in the capital
Malabo.
He rose up quickly
through the ranks. A former comrade-in-arms, now
in retirement, called him "someone who is
cunning... Who can give you the impression
he’s on your side whereas in fact he thinks
quite the opposite."
"He knows how
to turn a situation to his advantage even when
you think there’s nothing in it for
him," the same officer went on. (AGENCIES)
Jihad Jane expected to
switch plea to guilty in terror plot
BOSTON,
Jan 30: An American woman, who called
herself ‘Jihad Jane’ and is accused of
conspiring to provide support to terrorists for
staging terror attacks in South Asia and Europe,
is expected to reverse last year’s
not-guilty plea in a Philadelphia court on
February 1.
Colleen LaRose,
47, had pleaded not guilty in March 2010 to
charges including conspiracy to kill in a foreign
country.
She was allegedly
part of a plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars
Vilks, whose 2007 portrait of prophet Mohammed
had angered many.
According to a
court document, LaRose is set to plead guilty at
a "change-of-plea" hearing in
Philadelphia on February 1.
She faces a
possible sentence of life imprisonment.
LaRose has been
held in a federal detention centre in a special
housing unit and spends 23 hours a day in her
cell.
LaRose, from
Pennsylvania, was arrested by the FBI in
October 2009.
Her case came to
light in March last year, a few months after
Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley was
charged with plotting terrorist attacks in India
and Denmark.
In the 11-page
indictment unsealed last year against LaRose, US
Attorney Michael Levy had said, the "case
demonstrates that terrorists are looking for
Americans to join them in their cause and it
shatters any lingering thoughts that one can spot
a terrorist on a appearance."
LaRose’s
indictment was followed by the arrest of seven
other people in Ireland in connection with a
suspected plot to assassinate Vilks.
According to the
indictment, LaRose, also known as ‘Fatima
LaRose’, allegedly was recruiting women
online who had passports and could travel in
Europe.
She
"recruited men online to wage violent jihad
in South Asia and Europe" and recruited
women to support them.
LaRose had posted
a comment on You Tube in 2008 under the username
‘JihadJane’, saying she was
"desperate to do something somehow to
help" Muslims, according to a federal
indictment.
She traveled to
Europe in August 2009, allegedly with the intent
to find and assassinate cartoonist Lars Vilks.
(PTI)
"Like
Crazy" wins top drama film award at Sundance
PARK
CITY, UTAH, Jan 30: Love story "Like
Crazy" and assisted suicide documentary
"How to Die in Oregon" won the top
awards at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday,
putting both on the list of must-see independent
movies for 2011.
"Like
Crazy," directed by Drake Doremus, picked up
the jury prize for best drama with its tale of an
American woman and British man who fall in love
for the first time but move away from each other,
testing their relationship.
Doremus, accepting
his award, said yesterday it is "about love
never dying and being with you for the rest of
your life." The movie also earned a special
prize for its actress, Felicity Jones.
The documentary
winner, "How to Die in Oregon," has
been among the most talked about movies at
Sundance 2011, with its examination of assisted
suicide and its footage of a terminally ill woman
taking an overdose of drugs and literally dying
on camera.
Special juries of
industry professionals vote on winners, and those
are considered the top prizes, but audiences also
vote for their favorites.
The Audience Award
for best drama went to "Circumstance,"
which tells of two Iranian teenagers who fall in
love but are not allowed to be together due to
cultural influences.
"The cast and
the crew have given up a lot to do this (movie)
because we believe in the story, and we believe
in human rights and artistic expression,"
said "Circumstance" director Maryam
Keshavarz when accepting her trophy.
The Audience Award
for documentary was given to "Buck," a
revealing tale of animal trainer Buck Brannaman,
who was the inspiration for the film "The
Horse Whisperer."
Other top prizes
went to John Foy, director of documentary
"Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee
Tiles," and to Sean Durkin for directing
drama "Martha Marcy May Marlene."
LOOK OUT ART
HOUSES
Sundance, which is
backed Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute
for filmmaking is the largest US gathering for
independent movies, and winners here will go on
to become some of the most talked about films in
art houses.
Last year’s
Sundance jury winners included drama
"Winter’s Bone" and documentary
"Restrepo," and both are nominated this
year for Oscars.
Sundance 2011 has
proven to be exceptionally strong, audiences and
filmmakers seem to agree. "This year, what
has excited me, is I think the quality is
increasing in diversity and is increasing in
depth" of artistry, Redford told Reuters.
He said that three
years ago, the Sundance Institute set out to get
back to its roots of supporting alternative
voices in cinema and he felt like this year that
strategy paid off.
In addition to
prizes for US films, Sundance also gives awards
in world cinema. The Danish/Norwegian
co-production "Happy, Happy," about a
woman engaging in an extramarital affair, won the
jury prize for best drama, and Afghanistan war
film "Hell and Back Again," was the
jury’s pick for best documentary.
"Hell and
Back Again" director Danfung Dennis also won
the prize for best cinematography. "This is
for those that didn’t come back ...
It’s something that we need to keep thinking
about, remember those who didn’t come
back."
Best directing for
world cinema documentary went to Oscar winner
James Marsh for his "Project Nim," a
movie about a chimpanzee who teaches audiences
about humanity.
The Audience Award
for the festival’s top drama went to Rwandan
genocide movie "Kinyarwanda," and for
best documentary to "Senna" about
Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna.
In other awards,
the unconventional love story
"Tyrannosaur" picked up two world
cinema awards, a special jury prize and best
directing for its maker Paddy Considine.
(AGENCIES)
A
bad taste in music ‘can ruin a
relationship’
LONDON,
Jan 30: A bad taste in music can really ruin
a relationship, say researchers.
A new study has
revealed that music actually predicts sexual
attraction - in fact, music functions as a
"badge" that people use to not only
judge others, but at the same time, to express
their own ideas.
For their study,
the researchers examined the link between
identity, music and what makes people
"click".
The study,
published in the ‘Psychology of Music’
journal, explored what it’s about why people
like, what people like, and perhaps more
importantly, how this can make or break a
relationship.
During
adolescence, music becomes a symbol of one’s
identity to help one belongs. This symbol of
identity also helps one strike a balance between
belonging but also being original, the study
found.
The researchers
believe that rock is associated with social
awareness and rebelliousness while pop is
connected to values about gender roles and
conformity. They discovered that people who like
blues, jazz, classical, and folk are liberal and
more open to experiences.
The study also
found that a woman’s devotion to country
music diminishes her attractiveness to a
potential male mate and a man’s interest in
country music make him less attractive to women.
But devotion to
classical music and heavy metal rock has a
different effect depending on if one’s a man
or a woman.
"A
date’s devotion to country music was found
to diminish attraction in respondents of both
genders. In contrast, devotion to classical music
and to heavy metal rock proved to be gender
specific.
"Fascination
with heavy metal rock greatly enhanced the appeal
of men, but it proved detrimental to that of
women. Adoration of classical music produced
reverse consequences. It tended to facilitate the
appeal of women, but to diminish that of
men," the ‘Daily Mail’ quoted the
study as saying.
It also found that
men were more strongly attracted to women with
whom they shared musical tastes. But for women,
this had only a ‘negligible effect’ on
their attraction to men. (PTI)
Pak anti-terrorism court
acquits former parliamentarian
ISLAMABAD,
Jan 29: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court
today acquitted a former parliamentarian known
for his links with militants in a case related to
the abduction and execution of a Polish engineer.
Shah Abdul Aziz, a
former member of the National Assembly or lower
house of parliament, and another accused were
acquitted by Judge Raja Ikhlaq Hussain of the
Rawalpindi-based court.
The judge gave
both the accused the benefit of doubt since the
prosecution could not present "solid
evidence against them".
Police in Attock
district of Punjab province had registered a case
against Aziz and the other accused for their
alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder
of Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak.
Stanczak was
surveying oil and gas fields for Geofizyka
Krakow, a Polish firm, when he was abducted in
September 2008.
He was beheaded by
the Taliban in February 2009 after negotiations
for his release ended in failure.
In a separate
case, Judge Hussain awarded the death sentence to
Hameedullah Khan, who was arrested for a August
2008 suicide attack at the Pakistan Ordinance
Factory at Wah that killed 69 people.
Khan was convicted
for being part of a team of four suicide bombers
that carried out the attack.
The court
sentenced him to death for killing 69 people and
directed him to pay a fine of Rs 200,000.
He was also given
a life term for conspiring to carry out the
attack, a 10-year jail term for attempting to
kill more people and another 10-year jail term
for injuring 70 people.
The court declared
another accused in the same case, Maqsood Ahmed,
as a proclaimed offender or fugitive. (PTI)
)
Belarus
frees jailed ex-presidential candidate
MINSK, BELARUS, Jan 30: Belarus’ KGB has said
it has released former presidential candidate
Vladimir Neklyayev and the wife of another
candidate from jail, both of whom had been in
prison since massive election night protests more
than a month ago.
Neklyayev and
Irina Khalip were arrested on December 19 as a
demonstration broke out against alleged fraud in
that day’s presidential election.
Neklyayev was
severely beaten as he tried to lead supporters to
the protest, while Khalip, the wife of candidate
Andrei Sannikov, was arrested after riot police
broke up the protest. Her husband was also beaten
and arrested and remains in jail as do two other
ex-candidates, Nikolai Statkevich and Ales
Mikhalevich.
In all, seven
candidates were arrested along with some 700
protesters.
The KGB yesterday
said in a statement that Neklyayev and Khalip had
been released but were now under house arrest
because the investigation into their cases has
been completed. The other arrested candidates
face charges that could bring prison sentences of
up to 15 years.
The arrests
brought widespread criticism from Western Europe
and the United States. Both the European Union
and Washington have raised the prospects of
sanctions against Belarus in response.
Under President
Alexander Lukashenko - in office since 1994 -
Belarus has retained a Soviet-style
state-controlled economy while also repressing
opposition activists and free news media.
The West has
pushed for reforms and offered economic
incentives, but Lukashenko has rebuffed them,
choosing to tilt strongly toward Russia, on which
the country relies for oil and natural gas.
(AGENCIES)
Irish
bailout bill passes
DUBLIN,
Jan 30: The upper house of the Irish
legislature has passed a contentious Finance Bill
needed to comply with terms of a massive
international bailout package for the country,
Irish state television reported.
The Finance Bill
is designed to comply with the terms of a
European Union-International Monetary Fund loan,
which is contingent on Ireland cutting euro 15
billion (USD 20.56 billion) from its deficit
spending over the coming four years and the
country imposing the harshest cuts this year.
The vote was
30-20, RTE said.
The bill’s
passage was expected. Prime Minister Brian Cowen
has said he will seek dissolution of the
legislature on Tuesday, setting the stage for a
national election.
Cowen’s
Fianna Fail is expected to take a drubbing in
that vote. His Fianna Fail has long dominated,
but Cowen, who was Ireland’s finance
minister from 2004 to 2008, is widely blamed for
Ireland’s stunning slide from Celtic Tiger
boom economy to the brink of bankruptcy.
The measure
included a 90 per cent tax on bonuses paid to
employees of any of the Irish banks that needed
state support to survive after a runaway property
market collapsed.
The government
proposed the tax in December following uproar
over news that Allied Irish Bank, the beneficiary
of a euro 3.7 billion (USD 5.07 billion) bailout,
was about to pay bonuses to more than 2,000
executives totaling euro 40 million.
The government
quickly dropped the idea, but it was revived on
Wednesday to secure the votes of two independent
legislators, Michael Lowry and Jackie Healy-Rae.
That concession clinched passage of the bill in
the lower house the following day.
The parliament has
already approved cuts in welfare benefits, the
minimum wage and salaries of Cabinet ministers,
and it has raised school fees. (AGENCIES)
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