As people begin to head out of Sundance in droves, the honors are starting to pour in. Although the awards won't be handed out until a ceremony on Saturday night, Sundance Institute has released a statement listing the winners of the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award -- an honor that highlights new projects from Europe, Latin America, the United States, and Japan. Four winners were selected, one from each region, from a jury that included Gregg Araki, Anand Tucker, Jeremy Pikser, Erin Cressida Wilson, Martin Rejtman, Andrucha Waddington, and Shekhar Kapur.

The lucky winners for 2008, who will receive a $10,000 award and "a guarantee from NHK to purchase the Japanese television broadcast rights upon completion of their project" -- Alejandro Fernandez Almendras, Chile, for Huacho, Braden King, United States, for Here, Aiko Nagatsu, Japan, for Apoptosis, and Radu Jude, Romania, for The Happiest Girl in the World.

This award is part of Sundance's commitment to world cinema, and considering some of their past picks, there could be big things in store for these films. Past winners include Miranda July for Me and You and Everyone We Know, Waddington for The House of Sand, and Gyorgy Palfi for Taxidermia.

After the jump, you can find some information on the filmmakers and each selected film.






Alejandro Fernández Almendras / HUACHO (Chile)
Set in the Chilean countryside, HUACHO presents a day in the life of a small rural family struggling to adjust to changing economic realities and a modern world that continues to move on without them.

Alejandro Fernández Almendras was born in Chillán, Chile, in 1971. He has worked as a journalist, photographer and film critic, and has lived in Chile and New York. He has directed several short films, including LO QUE TRAE LA LLUVIA (2007), which screened at the Berlin Film Festival and was awarded the Casa de Americas prize in the Version Española short film competition; and DESDE LEJOS (2006), which won best short film at the Santiago International Film Festival , and best regional work at the Valdivia Film Festival. Almendras is a 2007 Artists' Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).

Radu Jude / THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (Romania)
When working class teenager Delia wins a luxury car in a promotional campaign, she and her parents travel to Bucharest to shoot a commercial in which she must thank the sponsoring company for the car. As the shoot wears on, the car slowly becomes both the object and catalyst of an absurd clash of desire, values, and will between Delia's cash-strapped parents and her youthful self.

Radu Jude was born in Bucharest in 1977. He graduated in 2003 from the filmmaking department of Media University. He worked as an assistant director for feature films shot in Romania, such as AMEN by Costa Gavras and THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU by Cristi Puiu. He has directed several commercials and short films including THE TUBE WITH A HAT (2006), which won the Short Filmmaking Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, the Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, and the Best Narrative Short at Los Angeles Film Festival. THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD is his first feature film.

Tomoko Kana / TWO BY THE RIVER (Japan)
An elderly man has an increasingly hard time caring for his infirm wife until finally, with only memories of their life together to offer solace, he feels compelled to make a very difficult choice.

Formally a producer at NHK, Tomoko Kana has become a crusading filmmaker whose travels in Southeast Asia inspired MARDIYEM (2001) a documentary about Indonesian "comfort women" who had been forced into prostitution by Japanese troops. Later, during a trip to China, she was inspired to make NIGAI NAMIDA NO DAICHI KARA (FROM THE LAND OF BITTER TEARS) (2004) which chronicles the plight of Chinese victims still affected by old, discarded Japanese ordnance. BITTER TEARS was awarded a Rookie Award from the Japanese Congress of Journalists.

Braden King / HERE (USA)
Measurement and orientation break down in an intensely visual, landscape-obsessed road movie that chronicles the relationship between an American mapmaker and a foreign art photographer who impulsively decide to travel together into deeply uncharted territory.

Braden King co-directed the lyric Aleutian Island documentary, DUTCH HARBOR: WHERE THE SEA BREAKS ITS
BACK, which had extensive festival screenings and a theatrical release. King has directed music videos and short films for artists including Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Sparklehorse and Yo La Tengo. Recent nonnarrative work includes HEAVEN IS A PLACE / NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, a film/video installation commissioned by Chris Doyle for the 50,000 BEDS exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; and [THE STORY IS STILL ASLEEP], a multi-channel film, video and live music event that will premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. His screenplay, HERE (co-written with Dani Valent), has received grants and awards from the Creative Capital, Alfred P. Sloan and Annenberg Foundations.