"Juno" wins in Rome
by Addie Morfoot
Jason Reitman's "Juno" took home the second annual Rome Film Festival's top prize on Saturday. Teen pregnancy comedy was a favorite among audiences at both the Telluride and Toronto film fests this past September but Rome's kudo marks the films' inaugural best pic award. Last week "Juno" scribe Diablo Cody (pictured in Telluride) took home Hollywood Film Festival's breakthrough screenwriter of the year kudo while pic's thesp Ellen Page received the breakthrough actress nod.
The public jury, made up of moviegoers from Italy and elsewhere in Europe and presided over by helmer Danis Tanovic ("No Man's Land"), judged fest's in-competition films. They presented a Special Jury prize to Abolfaz Jalili's "Hafez" while thesp nods went to Chinese actress Jiang Wenli for "Li Chun" ("And the Spring Comes") and Croatian actor Rade Serbedzija for "Fugitive Pieces."
The red carpet oriented festival also honored non-competition films including Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," which received the top nod in the fest's Premiere section category while Silvio Soldini's "Giorni E Nuvole" ("Days and Clouds") garnered a special mention. Giuseppe Battiston ("La Giusta Distanza") received the best Italian performer kudo while Anna Broinowski's "Forbidden Lie$" and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine's "War/Dance" took home documentary prizes.
Jason Reitman's "Juno" took home the second annual Rome Film Festival's top prize on Saturday. Teen pregnancy comedy was a favorite among audiences at both the Telluride and Toronto film fests this past September but Rome's kudo marks the films' inaugural best pic award. Last week "Juno" scribe Diablo Cody (pictured in Telluride) took home Hollywood Film Festival's breakthrough screenwriter of the year kudo while pic's thesp Ellen Page received the breakthrough actress nod. The public jury, made up of moviegoers from Italy and elsewhere in Europe and presided over by helmer Danis Tanovic ("No Man's Land"), judged fest's in-competition films. They presented a Special Jury prize to Abolfaz Jalili's "Hafez" while thesp nods went to Chinese actress Jiang Wenli for "Li Chun" ("And the Spring Comes") and Croatian actor Rade Serbedzija for "Fugitive Pieces."
The red carpet oriented festival also honored non-competition films including Sean Penn's "Into the Wild," which received the top nod in the fest's Premiere section category while Silvio Soldini's "Giorni E Nuvole" ("Days and Clouds") garnered a special mention. Giuseppe Battiston ("La Giusta Distanza") received the best Italian performer kudo while Anna Broinowski's "Forbidden Lie$" and Sean Fine and Andrea Nix-Fine's "War/Dance" took home documentary prizes.
Michael Jones is the film festival editor at Variety.com. 
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