AFI Fest Awards Grand Jury Prize to The Loneliest Planet

AFI Fest closes up shop today (with a very climactic showing of The Adventures of Tintin), but before we say so long to the parking garage at Hollywood & Highland, we have one piece of business left to deal with: the awards. AFI awarded its Grand Jury Prize to Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet "for its bold exploration of societal structures and gender roles, set against a landscape that conveys both profound beauty and profound alienation." And because Gael Garcia Bernal is adorbz. Click through for the rest of prizes and announcements.

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Breakthrough Section (award accompanied by a $5,000 cash prize) WITH EVERY HEARTBEAT by Alexandra-Therese Keining

New Auteurs Section BULLHEAD by Michaël R. Roskam

World Cinema Section A tie: JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI by David Gelb and KINYARWANDA by Alrick Brown

Young Americans Section WUSS by Clay Liford

LIVE ACTION AND ANIMATED SHORT FILM SECTION JURY AWARDS

As in previous years, a jury determines the AFI FEST 2011 Live Action and Animated Short Film Section Awards. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recognizes each winner as a qualifier for the annual Academy Awards®. The Short Film Jury -- comprised of filmmakers Barry Jenkins and Gerardo Naranjo (AFI Conservatory Class of 2001) and festival programmer Kim Yutani -- announced the awards with their statements.

Live Action Short Film Section Grand Jury Prize: FROZEN STORIES from Grzegorz Jaroszuk "for its world of meta-reality suffused with enough context to rend a beautifully nuanced story for the most heightened elements."

Honorable Mention: BABYLAND by Marc Fratello "for its assured direction, stunning lead performance and the ability to balance humor and pathos all the way up to its shocking conclusion."

Animated Short Film Section Grand Jury Prize: THE EAGLEMAN STAG by Michael Please "for its ambitious and elegant storytelling, both narrative and aesthetically, in which the bigness of life and the concept of time are deftly unpacked in a moving nine minutes."

Honorable Mention: THE VOYAGERS by Penny Lane "for its skillful juxtaposition of archival footage and personal narrative to tell a moving story of exploration, romance and space travel."

NEW AUTEURS SECTION CRITIC'S PRIZE

This year AFI FEST debuts its New Auteurs Critic's Prize selected by an esteemed panel of international critics: Justin Chang (Variety), Mike Goodridge (Screen International), Mark Olsen (The Los Angeles Times) and Jean Oppenheimer (American Cinematographer).

Grand Jury Prize: THE LONELIEST PLANET by Julia Loktev "for its bold exploration of societal structures and gender roles, set against a landscape that conveys both profound beauty and profound alienation."

Special Jury Prize: ATTENBERG by Athina Rachel Tsangari "for its wit, distinct voice and playful sense of storytelling."

Acting Award Prize: BULLHEAD's Matthias Schoenaerts "for his nuanced and intensely physical embodiment of bruised masculinity."

Read more of Movieline's coverage of the 2011 AFI Fest here.