Jonathan Demme's 'Jimmy Carter Man From Plains' Wins Three Awards at the Venice Film Festival

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains Awarded
• The Fipresci Prize- International Critics Jury Award
• The Human Rights Film Network Award for Best Feature Film
• The Collateral Award for Best Biography 

TORONTO, CANADA, September 10, 2007--Academy Award®-winner Jonathan Demme’s documentary Jimmy Carter Man From Plains was awarded three prizes at the Venice Film Festival this weekend: The Fipresci Prize- International Critics Jury Award, The Human Rights Film Network Award for Best Feature Film and The Collateral Award for Best Biography (presented by the Bologna film festival in association with the Venice film festival). Jimmy Carter Man From Plains was one of eleven documentaries selected for the festival.

The Human Rights Film Network stated The Human Rights Film Network Award was presented to the film “for its representation of the intellectual honesty, coherence and strength of Jimmy Carter, in pursuing with perseverance a path of peace and dialogue towards a resolution for the tragic situation in Palestine, beyond any prejudice and bias. From the portrait of the former US President, Jimmy Carter, Peace Nobel Prize, a very different image of America than the contemporary one does emerge - a nation able to evaluate different perspectives, but never ready to be silent in front of crimes against humanity from whatever side they would come from. It is an example of humanity that shows concrete ways to reach peace.” The Human Rights Film Network Award is homage to the courage of film directors who use the camera as an instrument of visual resistance.

Jimmy Carter Man From Plains is an intimate, surprising encounter with President Jimmy Carter. Following the path of Mr. Carter’s recent controversial book tour for Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, Academy Award®-winning director Jonathan Demme reveals a complex individual who, with the gusto and determination of a youngster, criss-crosses the country to get his message across, even as that message creates a media onslaught in which his credibility and judgment are called into question. Jimmy Carter Man From Plains explores both the private and public sides of Jimmy Carter, whose intense sense of justice compels him to pursue, with undiminished energy and hope, his lifelong and deeply spiritual vision of reconciliation and peace.

Sony Pictures Classics will release Jimmy Carter Man From Plains in October 2007. A Participant Production, Jonathan Demme produced and directed the film, which premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, via his company Clinica Estetico. Neda Armian (The Truth About Charlie, The Situation and the upcoming Dancing With Shiva) is also producing. Sundance-winner and Emmy-nominated Declan Quinn (Breakfast on Pluto, In America, Leaving Las Vegas and HBO’s Hysterical Blindness) is cinematographer. The film is edited by ACE Eddie and IDA Award-winner Kate Amend (Into the Arms of Strangers: Story of the Kindertransport and The Long Way Home) and Executive Producers are Jeff Skoll, Diane Weyermann and Ron Bozman. Sony Classics and Demme (The Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia and The Manchurian Candidate) recently announced their first project together, the upcoming Dancing With Shiva, written by Jenny Lumet.
 

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