Highlights and Winners of
AFI FEST 2004 presented by Audi

Academy Award nominated Javier Bardem gives another Oscar noteworthy performance in Fine Line Features' "The Sea Inside", AFI FEST 2004 Closing Night Film (to be released on December 17)	Pedro Almadovar with Penelope Cruz during AFI FEST's Gala presentation of "Bad Education"
The cast of "The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things" (L-R) Kip Pardue, Jeremy Renner, J.T. Leroy (writer), Ben Foster, with kids Dylan and Cole Sprouse	From the Premiere of "A Very Long Engagement", (L-R) Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet, with cast members Jodie Foster, Audrey Tatou and Gaspard Ulliel
"Ethan Mao" cast members: (L-R) David Tran, Julia Nickson, Raymond Ma, Jerry Hernandez, Director Quentin Lee, and Kevin Kleinberg.	Zhang Ziyi at "House of Flying Daggers" AFI FEST Gala at Cinerama Dome.
"Bad Education" star Gael Garcia Bernal with this writer.	Husband and wife team Christine Maggiore and Director Robin Scovill of "The Other Side of AIDS" received a Special Mention Jury Award for Documentary.
Tony Jaa, the next Jackie Chan, star of the sold-out screenings of "Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior"	Actors from the movie "The Woodsman" (L-R) Benjamin Bratt, Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, with producer Damon Dash.
(All photos by Oliver Carnay. More pics from the AFI FEST 2004 presented by Audi at www.picturetrail.com/olivercarnayphotos. E-mail at carnay25@yahoo.com)

The 16th Annual AFI FEST wrapped up on Sunday, November 14, with the Los Angeles Premiere at the Cinerama Dome on Sunset Blvd. (corner Cahuenga Blvd.) of New Line Cinema’s “The Sea Inside”, written and directed by Alejandro Amenabar and stars Javier Bardem (in one of his best performances, a sure-fire contender for 2005 Academy for Best Actor category).

The ten-day film festival saw a twenty percent increase in attendance, according to festival organizers. Yearly, this festival has indeed attracted many filmmakers, high-profile actors and actresses, and movie-lovers in the Hollywood industry, not to mention regular audiences. One of the great pleasures, as a media covering this event, is being able to browse on the best upcoming films, including different entries for the Best Foreign Language Film category for the upcoming Academy© Awards.

More than 40 countries participated and featured more than 136 films in different mediums (shorts, docs, feature, etc.) with mostly having sold-out screenings: including Ivo Trajkov’s “The Great Water” (Macedonia’s official Best Foreign Film entry to Academy©), Luis Mandoki’s “Innocent Voices” (a powerful film, Mexico’s Best Foreign Language film entry to the Academy©), Asia Argento’s “The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things” (a tour de force performance and direction of Argento), Dick Rude’s “Let’s Rock Again!”; Terry George’s “Hotel Rwanda” (winner of Best Jury Award), Wash Westmoreland’s “Gay Republicans”, Robin Scovill’s controversial film who was given a Special Mention-Documentary Award, “The Other Side of AIDS”, Prachya Pinkaew’s “Ong Bak: Thai Warrior”, Jonathan Jakubowicz’s “Secuestro Express”, Rafal Zielinski’s “Downtown: A Street Tale, Gurinder Chadha’s “Bride and Predujice”, Niels Mueller’s “The Assasination of Richard Nixon” ( great performance from Sean Penn), Pete Travis’ “Omagh”, Quentin Lee’s “Ethan Mao”, Christophe Barratier’s “Les Choristes” (France’s official entry to Academy’s Best Foreign Language Film), Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bad Education” (just when you think he’s mellowed, but I think this is his best –great screenplay!), and of course, his tribute was also a sold-out event (“A Tribute to Pedro Almadovar). Additionally, this year’s four “Short Programs” were extremely well attended as well.

Luminaries from around the globe attended AFI FEST 2004, including, Mark Addy, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Pedro Almodóvar, Alejandro Amenábar, Kevin Bacon, Eric Balfour, Javier Bardem, Gael Garcia Bernal, Thora Birch, Orlando Bloom, Kate Bosworth, Benjamin Bratt, Red Buttons, Don Cheadle, Kevin Costner, Penolope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Tim Daly, Rosario Dawson, Stephen Dorff, Flea, Joseph Fiennes, Jodie Foster, Cuba Gooding Jr., John Goodman, Joshua Jackson, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Scarlett Johansson, Udo Kier, David Lynch, Olivier Martinez, Emily Mortimer, Brittany Murphy, Edward James Olmos, Haley Joel Osment, Ron Pearlman, Pink, Kyra Sedgwick, Kevin Spacey, Harry Dean Stanton, Patrick Swazye, Audrey Tautou, Marissa Tomei, Gaspard Ulliel, Deborah Kara Unger, James Van Der Beek, Leslie Anne Warren, Ziyi Zhan, Brady Corbet, Evan Rachel Wood, Kristin Stewart, and many more.

Here are the Jury Award Winners:

INTERNATIONAL SHORTS COMPETITION
GRAND JURY PRIZE - TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT (New Zealand)
Directed by Taika Waititi; SPECIAL MENTION: RYAN (Canada)
Directed By Chris Landreth (Jurors: Actor, Shohreh Aghdashloo; Film Critic, Wade Major; Filmmaker, Ray McKinnon)

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
GRAND JURY PRIZE - THE TAKE (Canada), Directed by Avi Lewis

SPECIAL MENTION
THE OTHER SIDE OF AIDS (USA), Directed By Robin Scovill – (Jurors: Filmmaker, Xan Cassavetes; Filmmaker, Paola Di Florio; Filmmaker, Allen Hughes)

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE COMPETITION
GRAND JURY PRIZE - DUCK SEASON /TEMPORADA DE PATOS (Mexico), Directed by Fernando Eimbcke (Jurors: Actor/Filmmaker, Joshua Jackson; Actor, Emily Mortimer; Film Scholar, Peter Scarlet)

The Jury Award winners above received film-related prizes and in-kind from our sponsors including Eastman Kodak Company, Best Buy, Panavision, Variety, Indiewire, Avid, Entertainment Partners, Final Draft, ifilm and Ameoba Music.

AUDIENCE AWARDS presented by Los Angeles Times
BEST SHORT FILM - MY PARENTS/MEINE ELTERN, Directed by Neele Leana Vollmar; BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM - GAY REPUBLICANS, Directed by Wash Westmoreland; BEST FEATURE FILM - HOTEL RWANDA, Directed by Terry George.

Additional information about AFI is available at AFI.com. All photos by Oliver Carnay. More photos at www.picturetrail.com/olivercarnayphotos. E-mail at carnay25@yahoo.com.

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