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The film is directed by 30-year-old Canadian-born Jason
Reitman, whose 2005 comedy "Thank you for Smoking" scooped a
string of awards and was nominated for two Golden Globes. "It's terrifying to bring your film to another culture,"
Reitman said, calling his film "feminine." "They say you don't really know another culture until you
can make them laugh, so to hear your laughter it warms my heart
and makes me feel that perhaps we are closer than we all
think," he said. Critics praised the performance by actress Ellen Page as
Juno MacGuff, the quick witted young woman who falls pregnant
at her first sexual experience. Suddenly plunged into adulthood, she sets out to find a
suitable set of parents to adopt her unborn child. The film, one of 14 titles in competition, also casts
Jennifer Garner as the affluent, prospective adoptive mother
whose marriage is not as idyllic as it seems. The jury, made up of 50 ordinary movie-goers, also awarded
a special prize to Iranian director Abolfazl Jalili for his
film on a renowned Persian poet, "Hafez." Outside the competition, Sean Penn won a sponsors' award
for "Into the Wild," the real-life story of a 24-year-old
adventurer and his two-year, journey of self-discovery from
South Dakota to Alaska. The award ceremony wrapped up the second season of the
10-day movie marathon that was launched last year by Mayor
Walter Veltroni, irking organizers of the venerable Venice film
festival who see it as an unwelcome rival. The "Festa del Cinema" drew to Rome a string of Hollywood
stars and veteran film-makers including Francis Ford Coppola,
who picked the festival to present his first film in 10 years,
"Youth Without Youth." But some critics said the Rome event, whose stated aim is
to be a showcase of quality films for wide audiences and not
just the industry or the press, lacked a clear identity. The
competition was generally regarded as lackluster, with the
A-list of actors and directors kept outside the contest. Some commentators quipped that the most eye-catching event
of the festival had been a vandal turning the waters of the
famed Trevi Fountain blood-red with a bottle of dye, partly in
protest at the money spent to roll out the red carpet. (Additional reporting by Cristiano Corvino and Fabio
Severo) |
"Juno," the story of an American teenager
faced with an unplanned pregnancy, won the top prize at the
Rome film festival on Saturday. 
