The ALHAMBRA DE ORO, the prize for best feature-length film, which is accompanied by 50,000 euros and a trophy, was awarded to the film The Other Bank (Georgia/Kazakhstan, 2009) by the Georgian director, George Ovashvili.

The ALHAMBRA DE PLATA, the prize for best director of a feature-length film, which is accompanied by 30,000 euros and a trophy, was awarded to the film Before the Burial (Iran, 2008) by the Iranian director, Behnam Behzadi.

The ALHAMBRA DE BRONCE, the Special Jury Prize, which is accompanied by 15,000 euros and a trophy, was awarded to the film Jalainur (China, 2008) by the Chinese director, Zhao Ye.

The AUDIENCE AWARD for the best film, which is accompanied by 5,000 euros and a trophy, was awarded to the film $9.99 (Israel/Australia, 2008) by the Israeli director, Tatia Rosenthal.

The JURY SPECIAL MENTION for best actress was awarded to Irina Agejkina for her performance in the film Songs from the Southern Seas, and for best actor to Melih Selçuk for the film Milk.

The RTVA MEDITERRÁNEOS AWARD, sponsored by Cajasol for the best film produced in a country bordering the Mediterranean and accompanied by 6,000 Euros for the acquisition of broadcasting rights in Andalusia, was awarded to the film Slingshot hip hop (Palestine/United States, 2008) by the director of Palestinian descent, Jackie Reem Salloum.

The NETPAC AWARD, granted ex aequo on equal terms to the two best Asian films, went to the film Flowers of the SkyBefore the Burial (Iran, 2008) by the Iranian director Behnam Behzadi. (Sri Lanka, 2008) by the Sri Lankan director Prasanna Vithanage and the film

The film The Other Bank (Georgia/Kazakhstan, 2009), winner of the Alhambra de Oro, will be shown this evening at 19:00 in the Teatro Isabel la Católica.

At 22:30 in the Corral del Carbón, there will be a showing of the film Slingshot Hip Hop, winner of the Mediterráneos Award. At that same time, the film $9.99 which won the Audience Award, will be shown in the Plaza de las Pasiegas.

The Festival will finish up a week of films and activities with a closing ceremony that will be held in the Patio de los Aljibes at the Alhambra with the showing of the film film Arráncame la vida [Tear This Heart Out] (Mexico, 2008) by the Mexican director, Roberto Sneider, an adaptation of the well-known novel by Ángeles Mastretta and the biggest box-office hit in Mexican cinemas.

Un año más diferentes espacios de la ciudad se convierten en grandes salas de cine al aire libre.
Desde hoy y hasta el viernes 19 a partir de las 22:30 horas, la Plaza de las Pasiegas, el Corral del Carbón y el Palacio de los Córdova se iluminarán por la magia del cine.

Hoy lunes 15 en la Plaza de las Pasiegas se proyectará la película Dada’s Dance. En principio se anunció la presencia de su director, Zhang Yuan, para introducir la película, pero finalmente no ha podido viajar a Granada por motivos profesionales.

La Alhambra será esta noche el telón de fondo de la pantalla abierta del Palacio de los Córdova,
que se inaugura con la película india Ghajini.

En el Corral del Carbón comenzarán las proyecciones de la sección a competición Mediterráneos, que también se podrán ver en el Pabellón de Al-Ándalus y la Ciencia (Parque de las Ciencias). Esta noche, la película palestina South.

Video-summary of the programming of the Third Edition of the International Film Granada Cines del Sur.

The Ministry of Culture of the Andalusian Government, Rosa Torres, presented the programme for the 2009 edition of the Cines del Sur Festival, which is now in its third year. The act took place in the central patio of the Corral del Carbón, a lovely, historical building in the heart of Granada which is the new location of the Festival’s headquarters. Accompanying the Minister of Culture were the director of Cines del Sur, José Sánchez-Montes, and its co-director of programming, Casimiro Torreiro.

In addition to the already existing sections, the Festival has introduced some novelties. These new features include the special session “Andalusians and the South” which will bring together Andalusian productions and the NETPAC Prize, which will be awarded by the organisation of the same name (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) to the best Asian film among those shown in either the Official Section or Itineraries.

It was also announced that the Festival will be using some new venues for activities and screenings, such as the newly inaugurated CajaGRANADA Cultural Centre “Memoria de Andalucía” and the “Pabellón Al-Andalus y la Ciencia”, the headquarters of El Legado Andalusí, located in Granada’s Parque de las Ciencias. The places already known by audiences for their outdoor, free-of-charge screenings, the Open Screen section, will continue to be used: the Plaza de las Pasiegas (next to the Cathedral), the Palacio de los Córdova (which has stunning views of the Alhambra) and the central patio of the aforementioned Corral del Carbón.

The Egyptian actor Omar Sharif will be travelling to Granada to participate, on June 13, in the inauguration of this third annual Cines del Sur. This year the Festival will pay tribute to him and his career in film by awarding him the Alhambra of Honour.Personalities such as the Mexican filmmaker Arturo Ripstein and the Jordanian actress Rana Sultan have been invited to form part of the Jury of the Official Section.
The Festival’s Official Section is comprised of fourteen titles, never before seen in Spain, from the countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The South African-Australian Disgrace, directed by Steve Jacobs and starring John Malkovich, will be one of these films. Competing with it will be, among others, the Brazilian Garapa, the Mexican I’m Gonna Explode and the Chinese Perfect Life.
The other competitive section of the Festival, Mediterráneos, includes five productions from countries bordering the Mediterranean. The section includes films from Palestine, Lebanon, Spain, and others.
This year, the Festival is devoting its retrospectives to the Cuban Revolution as seen through the eyes of foreign filmmakers, such as Agnés Varda, Joris Ivens and Andy Warhol, and to the work of the Malian director Souleymane Cissé, the most internationally renown living filmmaker of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The presentation of Al-Jazeera Children’s Channel marks the start of a new line of collaboration between Cines del Sur and the most widely-seen network in the Arab world. Next year, six of its films will be shown here in Granada, as part of the Festival’s educational project, AulaSur. Also, an agreement is to be signed between the Cines del Sur Festival and UNESCO’s Audiovisual e-Platform to foment and promote the cinemas of the south on Internet.
Tear This Heart Out, the screen adaptation of the well-known Ángeles Mastretta novel and one of the most popular films in Mexico this year, will be the film that closes the Festival on June 20. Tickets can purchased through TICKETMASTER and at the box offices of the Festival venues.