For Your Consideration: AS IF I AM NOT THERE Best Foreign Language Film - Ireland
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
AS IF I AM NOT THERE
Best Foreign Language Film - Ireland
Los Angeles Screenings for AMPAS and Guild Members
Friday 30th December 7.30pm, Wilshire Screening Room, 8670 Wilshire Blvd, BH 90211
Thursday 12th January 7pm, Wilshire Screening Room, 8670 Wilshire Blvd, BH 90211
Official AMPAS Screening
Tuesday 10th January 7.30pm, Samuel Goldwyn Theatre
RSVP: asifRSVP@yahoo.com
Juanita Wilson's AS IF I AM NOT THERE which was funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board has been announced as Ireland's submission for the Foreign Language category for the 2012 Academy Awards.
Set in the Balkans, developed and produced by Octagon Films in Dublin and shot primarily in the Serbo-Croatian language, the creative control and talent behind the film is Irish (including writer/director Juanita Wilson, producer James Flynn, DP Tim Fleming, editor Nathan Nugent, etc).
Most recently, As If I Am Not There has been included in the Official Selection List for the European Film Awards. The film won three top Awards at the Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA's) ceremony earlier this year - Best Film, Best Director and Best Script, and was nominated in a further five categories. A few days after the IFTAs, it was nominated along with, amongst others, The King's Speech and The Social Network, in the category of "The Most Valuable Film of The Year" at the Cinema For Peace Gala at the 2011 Berlinale. Since then, As If I Am Not There has won awards at a number of high profile festivals throughout the world including prestigious U.S festivals for independent feature films (see selected Awards list below).
Juanita Wilson was previously nominated for an Academy Award in 2010 for her live action short film The Door. In January 2011 at a ceremony at the Palm Springs Film Festival where As If I Am Not There was screened, Wilson was selected amongst Variety's Top Ten Directors to Watch. This followed the premiere of As If I Am Not There at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2010 which garnered a rave review in Variety magazine at the time. Wilson was the only woman on the list of named directors.
As If I Am Not There represents Ireland's 2nd submission for the US Academy's Foreign Language Film category following Tom Collins' Irish-language drama Kings, which was chosen for consideration in 2009.
About the Film:
Starring Natasa Petrovic and Miraj Grbic, the As If I Am Not There is hard hitting true story from the Balkan War of the 1990's, based on Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic's book of the same name.
The story follows a young woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered the day a young soldier walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things. Rounded up with the other women from the village and imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia, she quickly learns the rules of camp life. The day she is picked out to ‘entertain' the soldiers, the real nightmare begins.
Stripped of everything she ever had and facing the constant threat of death, she struggles against all the hatred she sees around her. In a final act of courage or madness, she decides to make one last stand: to dare to be herself. And this simple act saves her life.
As If I Am Not There is an Irish/Macedonian/Swedish co-production filmed in the Serbo-Croatian language on location in Macedonia in late 2009. Developed and produced by Irish producers James Flynn (Octagon Films) and Nathalie Lichtenthaeler (Wide Eye Films), the Irish creative team behind the project also includes cinematographer Tim Fleming, Editor Nathan Nugent and composer Brian Crosby.
As If I Am Not There was released across Ireland during March and April in 2011, followed by a UK theatrical release in July. The film is an official Irish/Macedonian/Swedish co-production from Octagon Films, Wide Eye Films, Sektor Film Skopje and Stella Nova Films with financial contribution from the Irish Film Board, the Swedish Film Institute/Film I Vast, Macedonian Film Fund, Section 481 investment and Eurimages.
Selected Awards:
Phoenix Film Festival 2011, Arizona, Won Best World Picture
Long Island International Film Expo 2011, Won Best Feature Film
Rhode Island Film Festival 2011, Won Best Feature Film
Cairo International Film Festival, Silver Pyramid Award
Woods Hole Film Festival 2011, Won Audience Award for the Best Dramatic Feature Film
Moondance Film Festival, Won Best Feature Film 2011
World Fest 44th Ed. Housten Texas 2011, Won Platinum Remi Award
Istanbul Film Festival 2011, Won the Face Award- Human Rights Category