"Monica and David" Wins Top Doc Honor
By Jake Coyle, Entertainment Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The Turkish-German drama “When We Leave” and the Down syndrome romance documentary “Monica & David” have won top honors at the ninth annual Tribeca Film Festival.
“When We Leave,” which stars Sibel Kekilli as a mother who flees her abusive husband by moving with her 5-year-old son from Istanbul to Berlin, won best narrative feature. Kekilli also won best actress.
The jury that decided the category, which included actors Hope Davis and Aaron Eckhart, said in a statement that “When We Leave” ”examines one woman’s struggle for personal freedom. It’s a theme that is often explored – but rarely told with such humanity, subtlety, craftsmanship or immediacy.”
“Monica & David,” which won best documentary, chronicles the love between two people with Down syndrome. It was directed by Alexandra Codina, Monica’s cousin.
Best actor in a narrative feature film went to Eric Elmosnino, who plays the French musician Serge Gains bourg in “Gainsbourg, Jet’Aime … Moi Non Plus.”
The festival also singled out two new filmmakers: Kim Chapiron, the director of the youth correctional facility drama “Dog Pound,” and Clio Barnard, the director of the British documentary-fiction hybrid “The Arbor.”
Jane Rosenthal, who co-founded the festival with Robert De Niro and her husband, entrepreneur Craig Hatkoff, said: “The award-winning films selected by the jury each features strong characters and subjects; these films challenge you to see the world from another perspective.”
The awards were handed out Thursday evening at a ceremony in New York. Tribeca, which finishes Sunday, will screen “Freakonomics” on Friday evening as its closing film.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More