"...and it kept saying it was meant to be the headliner, darling, not one of three in a tote bag," whispered a source close to the Golden Shell, who asked not to be named because the shell reads everything.
Here are the facts, and they are staggering. Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care took the Golden Shell for Best Film. It also took Best Screenplay, and Best Lead Performance for Kate O'Flynn. A jury headed by Ira Sachs handed over all three. To one film. In one night. In front of everyone.
Nobody on the red carpet would say the real story out loud, so we will. The festival's top prize had reportedly spent all year preparing for a solo moment. Instead it left the building sharing a back seat with two other honours, like a lead actor told to carpool with the understudies. By Monday it had stopped returning calls. Its people are said to be reviewing the lighting, the running order and whether Best Film still means anything when Best Screenplay shows up wearing the same outfit.
The audience awards went to La Bola Negra and NAZA, a development insiders call lovely, deserved and absolutely not the point.
