Palm Springs – January 13, 2012— Today, Palm Springs International Film Festival named Jump as the winner of Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging the Borders Award. When Day Breaks, from Serbia, took home Cinema Without Border’s Special Jury Award.
Kieron J. Walsh, director of Jump , the winner of the 2013 Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging the Borders Award, received an HP Elitebook 8770W mobile workstation with a built-in HP DreamColor display, an approximate $5000 value. The prize was provided by HP, who sponsors the award.
This year’s nominees for the award were Any Day Now (USA), Eat Sleep Die (Sweden), English Vinglish (India), Filmistaan (India ), Flying Blind (UK), Imagine (Poland), Jump (Ireland), Lore (Australia), The Intouchables (France), and When Day Breaks (Serbia).
The award luncheon for the 2013 Palm Springs International Film Festival was held at Spencer’s Restaurant in Palm Springs, California. Kieron J. Walsh, director of Jump, accepted his award from Bijan Tehrani, Editor-in-Chief of Cinema Without Borders.
“At Cinema Without Borders, we are proud to be a part of the Palm Springs International Film Festival’s celebration of world cinema by bestowing our Bridging the Borders Award to a film that helps bring the people of our world closer together. Additionally, this year our staff has chosen a second outstanding film for a Special Jury Award. The film that garnered the first Cinema Without Borders’ Special Jury Award is When Day Breaks, directed by Goran Paskaljevic. Paskaljevic’s poetic film emphasizes the importance of uniting to defeat racism and avoid preventable tragedies. The Special Jury Award winner receives a certificate for an upcoming Method Acting Intensive provided by The Lee Strasberg Theater & Film Institute in West Hollywood, CA—valued at $2000.
The film that shone the brightest and earned HP’s 2013 Bridging the Borders Award—presented by Cinema Without Borders —takes the audience on an adventurous journey on New Year’s Eve to witness people from all walks of life—regardless of differences and conflicts—coming together to face tragedies, endure the present, and look for a better future. JUMP, the brilliant work directed by Kieron J. Walsh, demonstrates the power of a film to eliminate social barriers and unite people behind a powerful idea. This rare quality inspired CWB to award HP’s Bridging the Borders Award to JUMP. Hewlett-Packard is providing the winning filmmaker with the latest in mobile computing, the HP Elitebook 8770W, an approximate $5,000 value.“ said Bijan Tehrani, Editor In Chief of Cinema Without Borders.
“Let me first congratulate Kieron Walsh, winner of 2013 Bridging Borders Award. HP understands the important role technology plays in helping artists bring their visions to life and we’re proud to support the arts through programs like Bridging the Borders,” said Ray Gilmartin, digital media and entertainment segment manager, Worldwide Marketing, Commercial Solutions Business Unit, HP. “As the leading technology provider for the digital entertainment industry, HP is committed to bridging the world’s cultural gaps through art and entertainment.”
After receiving Hp’s Bridging The Borders Award Kieron J. Walsh, director of Jump said: ” I am absolutely delighted to receive the Bridging the Borders award for my film Jump. It’s really fitting that my film receive this particular award as the film is set in Derry City, Northern Ireland – a city with a troubled past. Less that ten miles from the city is the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – a much disputed border due to religion and politics. My film is one of the first films to emerge from Northern Ireland which does not dwell on this border and purposely ignores the religious and political dimension of the region. It’s not that I am in denial about the situation – There have been many terrific films about the war in Northern Ireland but for most people who live there life goes on as normal, like any small western city and my film attempts to show that. In this way I hope it bridges the divide between the people of Derry and exposes them and their lives to the world.
Thank you to Cinema Without Borders, Hewlett-Packard and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.”
Jump (Ireland)
An intricate and deliciously twisted tale of fractured fate, Jump traces the lives of several characters whose paths weave and intersect, jumping back and forth in time over the course of one wildly eventful New Year’s Eve in contemporary Northern Ireland.
Greta and Pearce meet distinctly non-cute on a night that will become a turning point in both their lives, as Greta, spoiled by her rich con-man father but bedeviled by a sense of purposelessness in life, is poised to jump off the bridge above Derry Harbour. Coming upon the distraught young woman – dressed as an angel and about to take flight from the bridge’s railing – Pearce, a young man in flight from his own devils, attempts to talk her down. What starts as a seeming struggle of wills evolves into a complex, wildly inventive and occasionally giddy mix of crime caper, star-crossed romance and fateful moral tale.
Director: Kieron J. Walsh
Producer: Brendan J. Byrne
Editor: Eimear Reynolds, Jake Roberts
Screenwriter: Steve Brookes, Kieron J. Walsh
Cinematographer: David Rom
Music: Edith Progue
Principal Cast: Nichola Burley, Martin McCann, Richard Dormer, Ciaran McMenamin, Charlene McKenna, Valene Kane, Lalor Roddy.
When Day Breaks (Serbia)
One day retired music professor Misha Brankov receives a letter requesting him to contact the Jewish Museum in Belgrade. There he learns that during an excavation at the city’s Old Fairgrounds, previously the site of an infamous concentration camp where some 48,000 Serbian Jews and Gypsies perished during the Second World War, an iron box was found.
The box contains personal documents and an unfinished musical score. It belonged to the composer Isaac Weiss, a concentration camp inmate in 1941. Eventually, the professor discovers that when he was an infant, his real parents, the Weisses, entrusted him to their friends, the Brankovs, just before they were taken into the camp.
The initial shock of the professor’s discovery gives way to a determination to fulfill the shattered dreams that he has inherited. It is something that infuses him with new purpose and provides him with a second lease on life. If director Paskaljevic has his way, this moving film will inspire an official memorial to the Jewish and Romany victims of Serbia’s shameful past.
Director: Goran Paskaljevic
Producer: Goran Paskaljevic, Damir Teresak, Ilann Girard
Editor: Kristina Pozenel
Screenwriter: Goran Paskaljevic, Filip David
Cinematographer: Milan Spasic
Music: Vlatko Stefanovski
Principal Cast: Mustafa Nadarevic, Predrag Ejdus, Nebojsa Glogovac, Nada Sargin, Zafir Hadzimanov, Meto Jovanovski
Photos by Maya Hooshivar, CWB’s Event Editor