LONDON: Gongs for ‘Mice,’ ‘Tulpan’ … and my own awards

My last post on the London Film Festival brings some happy news, as one of my favourite festival titles was justly rewarded last night. The festival is not a competion-based one, but three prestigious awards are still handed out before the final screening.

One of these is the global festival staple, the FIPRESCI International Critics’ Award. I’m thrilled to see it went to Australian multi-hyphenate Matthew Newton for his superb debut feature “Three Blind Mice,” which I already gushed over here. At only 31 years of age, I predict big things for Newton, both before and behind the camera.

Meanwhile, the Sutherland Trophy for best debut feature went to “Tulpan,” the Kazakhstani entry for Best Foreign Language Film, beating such heavyweight contenders as “Ballast” and “Hunger.” It’s an auspicious award with a 50-year history: previous winners include “L’Avventura,” “In the Realm of the Senses,” “The Fabulous Baker Boys,” “You Can Count on Me” and “Persepolis.” I was rather taken with “Tulpan,” so I’m pleased to see this underdog come through — it’s a dark horse to crack the Oscar shortlist.

Other winners included the Italian character drama “Mid-August Lunch,” which took the Satyajit Ray Award for “artistry, compassion and humanity” in a debut film, and “Victoire Terminus,” a study of female boxing in the Congo that took the Grierson Award for best documentary. I’m afraid to say I missed both films, though I particularly wanted to catch the latter.

And with that, bearing in mind that I couldn’t see everything, I thought I’d hand out my own inaugural (and no doubt much-prized) awards for the best that I saw at the fest, starting with my own personal Top Ten:

TEN BEST FILMS OF THE FESTIVAL: 1. “The Class”; 2. “Synecdoche, New York”; 3. “Il Divo”; 4. “Slumdog Millionaire”; 5. “Three Blind Mice”; 6. “Wendy and Lucy”; 7. “The Good, The Bad, The Weird”; 8. “The Wrestler”; 9. “Sugar”; 10. “La Belle Personne”

BEST ACTOR: 1. Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”; 2. Mathieu Amalric, “A Christmas Tale”; 3. Matthew Newton, “Three Blind Mice”

BEST ACTRESS: 1. Michelle Williams, “Wendy and Lucy” (plus “Incendiary” and “Synecdoche, New York”); 2. Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”; 3. Marisa Tomei, “The Wrestler”

BEST DOCUMENTARY: 1. “Citizen Havel”; 2. “Tyson”; 3. “Waltz With Bashir”

BEST BRITISH FILM: 1. “Awaydays”; 2. “Hunger”; 3. “1234”

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: 1. “The Good, The Bad, The Weird”; 2. “Tulpan”; 3. “Awaydays”

BEST NEW DISCOVERY: Gracie Otto, “Three Blind Mice”

WORST FILM OF THE FESTIVAL: “The Other Man”

I didn’t bother with a Best Director citation as the films in the Top 10 are pretty much all singular directorial achievements. And Charlie Kaufman’s script for “Synecdoche” is, hands down, the writing achievement of the year, let alone the festival.

So that’s it from London this year. If I had more than one head, I’d have watched more. As it stands, I was hoping to catch more of the Best Foreign Language Film entries (though I at least caught up with six of them), and I can’t believe various forces of scheduling conspired to make me miss the likes of “Three Monkeys,” “Ballast” and (still) “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Oh well.