Chicago Film Festival winners announced

October 29, 2008

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All the winners of the 2008 Chicago Film Festival have been announced.

Steve McQueen’s Hunger won the Gold Hugo for Best Film “for its outstanding visual and dramatic strength, telling an uncompromisingly disturbing story of the courage to fight for one’s belief.”

The Silver Hugo and the Grand Jury Prize went to Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Tokyo Sonata which, in the jury’s words, “uses a story of humble family life as a metaphor of global anxieties in an era of economic and moral collapse.”

The Audience Choice Awards went to Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Mark Herman’s The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.

Several special tributes were awarded during the festival. Director Mike Leigh was presented with a Career Achievement Award. Oscar winning actor Sidney Poitier was given a Gold Hugo, Lifetime Achievement Award, while another Oscar winner, actress Jennifer Hudson, was presented with an Artistic Achievement Award during the 12th Annual Black Perspectives Tribute. On the last day of the festival, Viggo Mortensen received a Career Achievement Award, preceding the screening of Good, his latest U.S. release, directed by Vicente Amorim.

Here is the list of this year’s winners across the categories:

INTERNATIONAL FILM COMPETITION

The Gold Hugo for Best Film:
Hunger (UK/Ireland), directed by Steve McQueen

The Silver Hugo – Grand Jury Prize:
Tokyo Sonata (Japan/Netherlands/Hong Kong), directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

The Silver Hugo for Direction:
Henrik Ruben Genz for Terribly Happy (Denmark)

Silver Hugo Award for Best Actor
Michael Fassbender for Hunger

Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress
Preity Zinta for Heaven on Earth

The Silver Hugo Award for Best Screenplay
Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni Di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, and Roberto Saviano for Gomorrah

The Silver Plaque
Nanni Moretti, Laura Paolucci and Francesco Piccolo for their sensitive adaptation of Sandro Veronesi’s Quiet Chaos (Italy/UK).

NEW DIRECTORS COMPETITION

The Gold Hugo
The Dead Girl’s Feast, directed by Matheus Nachtergaele

The Silver Hugo
King of Ping Pong, directed by Jens Jonsson

SHORT FILM COMPETITION

The Gold Hugo for Best Short Film
Man (USA), directed by Myna Joseph.

The Silver Hugo for Best Animated Short Film
Lies (Sweden), directed by Jonas Odell.

DOCUFEST COMPETITION

The Gold Hugo for Best Documentary
Valentino: The Last Emperor (USA), directed by Matt Tyrnauer

The Silver Hugo
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (USA), directed by Sacha Gervasi

The Silver Plaque
They Killed Sister Dorothy (USA/Brazil), directed by Daniel Junge

CHICAGO AWARD

The Gold Hugo for the Chicago Award
Wesley Willis’s Joyrides, directed by Chris Bagley and Kim Shively