'My Sweet Pepper Land' Takes Top Honor At Chicago International Film Festival

By Steven Pate in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 21, 2013 6:00PM

Bookies looking to lay odds on future Chicago International Film Festival award winners take note. Drink recipes based on movies in competition now have a 100 percent predictive track record. Director Huner Saleem's My Sweet Pepper Land pulled down the Gold Hugo for best film at the 2013 Festival's awards ceremony last Friday. The French-German co-production, named for the town's bar, is a Kurdish-language western of sorts cited by the Fest's jury for using "different genres to deal with important issues." The runner-up was Jan Verheyen's The Verdict, from Belgium.

If Dario Argento had only arranged for a blood-based cocktail for Dracula 3D, or Drew Hunt had broken out the curacao for Blue Is the Warmest Color. We're hoping 2014 brings a slew of specialty cocktails to the Lucky Strike bar inside River East. It might make the crowds a bit easier to take.

Other winners included Nadeshda Brennicke for best actress for her turn in Banklady and Robert Weickiewicz for his portrayal of one of the world's most famous mustaches in Andrzej Wajda's Walesa: Man of Hope.

Winning for best short film was Misterio from Spain, while Mexico's Diego Quemada-Díez pulled down the top spot in the New Director's competition for La Jaula De Oro. The After Dark sidebar gave top honors to Cheap Thrills (U.S.A.). The festival also gave career achievement awards to George Tillman Jr. and Bruce Dern, and a special "spirit of the festival" honor to A Thousand Times Good Night. Girl With Child, directed by recent Columbia grad Maria Abraham, won the Chicago Award.

CIFF winners will be screened this Wednesday as part of the Best of the Fest at the AMC River East 21 (322 E. Illinois St.). Tickets and more information are available online.