A Roundup of Foreign Film Festival Winners: Stockholm and Tokyo

What do the Stockholm Film Festival and Tokyo Filmex have in common? Nothing! Except that they both ended and announced their winners this weekend. That's enough to combine 'em into one post, I say.

At the 18th annual Stockholm fest, the top winner was 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the Romanian abortion drama that's been racking up prizes since debuting at Cannes earlier this year. (Cinematical's James Rocchi reviews it here.) It was named best film at Stockholm, and star Anamaria Marinca won the actress prize.

Jason Patric was named best actor for his performance in the abrasive dramedy Expired (a film I hated at Sundance), with Carlos Reygadas taking best script for the challenging religious drama Silent Light. Janusz Kaminski's cinematography in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was honored, and Persepolis -- it's impossible to hold a film festival in 2007 without giving Persepolis a prize -- got a trophy for Oliver Bernet's musical score.

The audience award went to Juno (another 2007 film fest fave). FIPRESCI -- the international association of film critics -- chose Caramel, Nadine Labaki's romantic comedy about five Lebanese women.

Strangely, despite awards in all those other categories, Stockholm has no prize for best director. You can see the complete list of winners here.
Now for Japan! Tokyo Filmex just launched in 2000 but is already considered by many to be more important than the Tokyo International Film Festival, despite being newer and smaller. The grand jury prize went to Tehilim, an Israeli drama by Raphaël Nadjari about a family dealing with the father's strange disappearance. Eye in the Sky, a Hong Kong crime thriller from regular Johnnie To collaborator Yau Nai-hoi, won the jury's Kodak Vision Award prize (and $8,000 worth of Kodak film). Johnnie To himself was honored with the audience award for his rambunctious crime caper Exiled.