Germanwings fly to many airports in Germany and Greece from Nice airport.

First-time UK director Becky Preston took CIFF’s award for Best Film for her afterlife drama LOVELORN shot for €200k. Australian actress Natalie Eleftheriadis (photo) won the festival’s Best Actor award for her lead role in the prostitution drama BIRTHDAY. Kenyan filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu won Best Short Film for her post-apocalypse short PUMZI. And rounding out an awards list dominated this year by female filmmakers, American documentarian Cassie Jaye took Best Documentary for her DADDY I DO, shot for € 20k, which explores the abstinence movement in America.

It’s interesting to note that unlike this year’s Festival de Cannes, the Independent festival featured women filmmakers and a prominent African winner.

During the festival run from May 12 to 22, the Cannes Independent Film Festival screened over 40 features and 90 short films, showcasing indie filmmakers from all over the world. The majority of the screenings took place in the 50-seat screening room at the CIFF Villa, just off the Croisette, but CIFF films also screened at the Palais des Festivals and other top screening venues in Cannes. The CIFF Villa also housed 6 teams of participating filmmakers during the festival.

Actress Natalie Eleftheriadis, who also produced BIRTHDAY, used the screening at CIFF as a jumping off point for selling her film to buyers gathered for the Marché du Film. She, and the film’s director James Harkness, spent their days working the Croisette, enticing sales agents and buyers to attend BIRTHDAY’s screening at the CIFF Villa. Eleftheriadis said “Being a part of CIFF has provided a unique ‘entrée’ into the market with its boutique, intimate screening facility and wonderfully supportive indie filmmaker vibe. Participating in the festival has generated considerable buzz for our film, and we have planted the seeds for many future international collaborations. The Cannes Independent is a gem in the festival circuit.”
List of CIFF winners:
Best Film: Becky Preston for LOVELORN (UK)
Best Micro-Budget film: Mercy Malick for TALES OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF ELVIS! (USA)
Best No-Budget film: Kris De Meester for FOUR ROSES (Belgium)
Best actor: Natalie Eleftheriadis for BIRTHDAY (Australia)
Best Horror / Sci Fi: Till Kleinert for LANGE NACHT (Germany)
Best Documentary: Cassie Jaye for DADDY I DO (USA)
Best Short Film: Wanuri Kahiu for PUMZI (South Africa)
Best Short Documentary: Mike Walter BREAKING NEWS BREAKING DOWN (USA)
Best Animated Short Film: Sen Wong for SATAY SATAY (Malaysia)
Best Music Video: Robert Powers for TEST (USA)

Arts & Entertainment winner Paolo Pellegrin, Italy © Paolo Pellegrin courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010 / Magnum Photos for New York Times Magazine

The L’Iris d’Or and professional category winners of the 2010 Sony World Photography Awards were announced on Thursday 22 April, at the Sony World Photography Awards Ceremony at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France. The 12 professional winners spanned categories as diverse as fashion, architecture, current affairs and sport and were revealed alongside the Sony World Photography Awards Amateur Photographer of the Year as part of the World Photography Festival.

The prestigious L’Iris d’Or/Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year award was awarded to Tommaso Ausili in the Professional category. Vitali Seitz was announced as the 2010 Sony World Amateur Photographer of the Year.

The professional category winners are:

Photojournalism and Documentary

* Walter Astrada (Argentina) for Current Affairs
* Scott Barbour (New Zealand) for Sport
* Tommaso Ausili (Italy) for Contemporary Issues
* Paolo Pellegrin (Italy) for Arts and Entertainment

Fashion winner David Handley, UK © David Handley courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2010 / Jackie Gibbs

Commercial

* Martin Brent (United Kingdom) for Advertising
* David Handley (United Kingdom) for Fashion
* Mohammad Golchin (Iran) for Music

Fine Art

* Philipp Lohöefener (Germany)for Architecture
* Tommaso Bonaventura (Italy) for Portraiture
* Renhui Zhao (Singapore) for Conceptual and Constructed
* Pere Pascual (Spain) for Natural History
* Peter Franck (Germany) for Landscape

The prestigious L’Iris d’Or/Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year award was awarded to Tommaso Ausili. The Italian photographer’s evocative series of photographs in the Cotemporary Issues category, entitled “The Hidden Death”, is an insightful depiction of an assembly line at an abattoir. Ausili was awarded a $25,000 cash prize plus Sony digital SLR camera equipment and he joins previous L’Iris d’Or winners David Zimmerman and Vanessa Winship as a member of the World Photographic Academy.
Tommaso Ausili said at the ceremony: “I’m very glad to receive this award. Since I started this series on the death of animals, I have felt an enormous sense of guilt, and this prize goes some way to repay that debt. Thanks to the Sony World Photography Awards for honouring my work with this prize.”

Photographer Vitali Seitz was announced as the 2010 Sony World Amateur Photographer of the Year at the ceremony. Based in Munich, but originally from Siberia, Vitali’s image entitled “Hauskonzert: Home concert” was taken at an informal concert as part of a family birthday and also won the amateur Music category. In addition to his title Vitali picked up a $5,000 cash prize and Sony digital SLR camera equipment.

All the winning and shortlisted images of the 2010 awards are on display until 27 April as part of the World Photography Festival in Cannes. The images will then be showcased in the Sony World Photography Awards Global Tour exhibition which will tour around the world throughout 2010 and 2011.

The final presentation of the evening went to celebrated American photojournalist Eve Arnold. Presented the day after her 98th birthday, the Lifetime Achievement Award was collected by her grandson Michael Arnold. Eve’s 50 year career has captured some of history’s most memorable figures from Malcolm X to Marilyn Monroe and was the first female photographer to be taken on by Magnum. A retrospective of Eve’s work, curated by Zelda Cheatle, is currently on display at the Palais des Festival.

Astrid Merget, Creative Director of the World Photography Organisation, said: “The quality of work submitted by this year’s professional photographers was remarkable. Narrowing down so many impressive selections to just 36 finalists was a feat worthy of a very distinguished jury like ours to undertake. We are all thrilled with the results and honoured to have such talented photographers participate in our awards programme.”

Yoshiyuki Nogami, Vice President of Digital Imaging at Sony Europe, said: “We are once again honoured to support this unique competition which celebrates the power of photography. This year’s contest has produced an inspired showcase of phenomenal photographic talent and we congratulate all these deserving winners.”

All the winning professional and amateur images can be viewed at worldphotographyawards.org

It’s a fun idea and worth supporting (and by the way, they also accept corporate shillings as sponsorship – see the site).  Details and the submission form can be found here. Photo courtesy of Flickr.

The projects were chosen by a panel of experts comprising Virginia Mouseler and Stefano Semeria from international programme tracking company The WIT, Nicole DeFusco of Sundance Channel, David Lyle, Fox Reality Channel, Jan Salling, Banijay International; and Mikko Silvennoinen, Channel 4 Finland.

Organised in association with C21FormatsLab, C21Media’s feed of daily news and analysis on the non-scripted business for the entertainment industry, MIPFormats has already received 500 registrations, almost half of whom are buyers representing 54 countries.

Selected filmmakers are presented with an opportunity to screen at the Palais des Festivals, sell in the Marché du Film, attend CIFF marketing and sales courses, have their film listed in CIFF’s Official Market Guide, network with attending industry executives, and attend launch and promotion parties at the CIFF villa. The Festival offers awards in eleven categories with sponsored prizes totaling over $100,000 in value. CIFF also offers a number of travel and accommodation allowances to participating filmmakers, covering airfare, accreditation, and lodging in the villa.

Submissions are open. For details, visit CIFF.

The Content 360 Challenge at MIPTV offers an opportunity to pitch directly to media decision makers, including Coca-Cola executives, in Cannes next April 13-14. Entry is free and the deadline for submitting a short description of your idea is February 15.

Check http://www.miptv.com/content360 to compete. In addition to Coca-Cola, there are 5 other pitching categories supported by TF1, National Film Board of Canada, Korea Communications Commission and the European Commission.

The Zimbabwean billboard

Politics is generally the very last subject that is talked about at Cannes. So I was surprised to find that two political campaigns left Cannes with trophies to put on their mantelpieces. Barrack Obama’s presidential campaign picked up two awards for its combination of new media, door-to-door and grass roots campaigning along with highly tactical use of traditional TV advertising. The campaign picked up a Titanium and an Integrated Lions award. The first goes to campaigns that are “provocative, challenges assumptions and points to a new direction”. The second goes to campaigns that are, well, integrated.

A campaign to boost sales of The Zimbabwean, the newspaper that attacked Robert Mugabe’s regime by using the troubled country’s almost worthless bank notes to make billboard adverts, was awarded a Gold Lion in the Titanium and Integrated Lions category. Created by the South African agency TBWA/Hunt/Lascaris Johannesburg, it also won the grand prix for outdoor advertising. It ran slogans such as “It’s cheaper to print this on money than on paper” (a reference to the country’s chronically devalued currency).