Director Tony Kaye’s feature film Detachment has won the Cartier Revelation Prize at the Deauville 37th American Film Festival, marking the latest honor its and Kaye have earned on the festival circuit.
Detachment stars Academy Award® winner Adrien Brody as Henry Barthes, an educator with a true talent to connect with his students. Yet Henry has chosen to bury his gift. By spending his days as a substitute teacher, he conveniently avoids any emotional connections by never staying anywhere long enough to form an attachment to either students or colleagues. When a new assignment places him at a public school where a frustrated, burned-out administration has created an apathetic student body, Henry soon becomes a role model to the disaffected youth. In finding an unlikely emotional connection to the students, teachers, and a runaway teen he takes in from the streets, Henry realizes that he’s not alone in his life and death struggle to find beauty in a seemingly vicious and loveless world.
The Detachment cast also includes Christina Hendricks, James Caan, Marcia Gay Harden, Lucy Liu, Blythe Danner, Bryan Cranston, William Petersen and Tim Blake Nelson.
The Deauville award comes on the heels of Detachment being the closing night film at the Woodstock Film Festival where Kaye also won the 2011 Honorary Maverick Award. The Maverick kudo is given each year to an individual whose life and work is based on creativity, independent vision, and social activism. Previous recipients include Kevin Smith, Christine Vachon, Barbara Kopple, Tim Robbins, Les Blank, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, Woody Harrelson, Mira Nair, Steve Buscemi, and Bruce Beresford.
Kaye said, “I made America my home in 1991 for one reason only, to work with the great American actors and actresses of this era and to find new ones–to go deeper, to help them go deeper and find the truth within the spectacle. I am praying that this cool honor from Woodstock will give me an opportunity to just work more, to be able to help with what I have learned from my blessed journey so far.”
Prior to the Woodstock Festival, Tribeca Film acquired all U.S. distribution rights, including theatrical, VOD, digital, TV and DVD, to Detachment, a movie which had its world premiere at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. Tribeca Film, supported by founding partner American Express, plans a 2012 release via a multi-city theatrical engagement, running day-and-date with nationwide VOD and digital distribution, followed by DVD, pay-TV, and a range of other platforms.
Kaye whose commercialmaking roosts are Supply & Demand Integrated in the U.S. (which also represents actor Brody as a spot director) and Filmmaster which earlier this year began handling the director in both Italy and Spain.
Kaye’s feature film directing debut was American History X (1998), a drama about racism starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong. Norton was later nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Actor for his performance in the film. Kaye made the documentary Lake of Fire on the abortion debate in the United States, which opened in Toronto to positive reviews in September 2006. Lake of Fire made the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences short-list for Best Documentary Film. It was also nominated for Best Documentary Film at the Independent Spirit Awards, Chicago Film Critic Association Awards, and the Satellite Awards.
Fernanda Torres’ Oscar Nomination Has Made Her Brazil’s Carnival Muse
Brazil's Carnival muse this year isn't one of the divas or drum queens parading with the Rio de Janeiro samba schools. It's Fernanda Torres, who's competing for the best actress Oscar on Sunday.
The Oscars fall smack in the middle of Carnival, Brazil's largest celebration, which runs through Tuesday. During the five-day revelry, the rest of the universe usually fades into the background as Brazilians cut loose and indulge.
Not this year, and the keen focus on the Oscars speaks to Brazil's pride for its culture and desire to be recognized on the global stage.
"Just imagine, her winning the Oscar on Carnival Sunday. It'll be a double celebration," Clarissa Salles, 33, told The Associated Press while buying a replica Oscar statuette in Sao Paulo for her costume.
Torres is nominated for her performance as the lead in the Walter Salles-directed "I'm Still Here," which is also nominated for best picture and best international feature. Excitement around the awards has prompted TV Globo, Brazil's largest network, to resume live coverage of the ceremony after a five-year hiatus. It will forgo the nationwide airing of high-ratings Carnival parades, instead broadcasting the Oscars everywhere except Rio.
Bars and nightclubs across Brazil are organizing Oscar watch parties and results will even be shown on a big screen to the tens of thousands of spectators gathered at Rio's Sambadrome for the parades.
"Today, all of Brazil only thinks about this," President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on his social media channels. "Everybody is cheering for 'I'm Still Here' and Fernanda Torres at the Oscars."
As far away as the Amazon, an Indigenous community in the Inhaa-be village promoted a screening of the film on Friday. With singing... Read More