Waltz With Bashir Wins Film Prizes

Posted by Dominic von Riedemann Dec 2, 2008

Writer's Note: Once again, I'm using this space for a news story that doesn't contain enough information to warrant a full article)

Ari Folman's animated documentary Waltz With Bashir has won two international film awards.

On Sunday, the film defeated Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's 2007 animated film Persepolis, plus the live action flicks The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Gomorrah and I've Loved You So Long to win the Best Foreign Film prize at the 11th Annual British Independent Film Awards.

That same day, Waltz With Bashir also won the Grand Prize at the 9th Annual Tokyo Filmex Festival. The judges at the Japanese fest honoured the film for “inventing a new cinematographic language.”

Waltz With Bashir Up for 2 Academy Awards?

Sony Pictures Classics is the domestic distributor for both Persepolis and Waltz With Bashir.

Israel has also selected the film – which features the art design of David Polonsky – to compete for Best Foreign Film honours at next year's Oscars. Waltz With Bashir is also a dark horse candidate for the Best Animated Feature Film category, taking on such Hollywood animated fare as Disney Animation's Bolt, DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda and Disney/Pixar's WALL-E.

Waltz With Bashir is receiving a limited release in Los Angeles on December 25th, and in New York on December 26th. Sony Pictures Classics is releasing it on those dates, so the film will be eligible for Academy consideration.