Owl and the Sparrow is a 2007

2007 in film

This is a list of major films released in 2007.-Top grossing films:Please note that following the tradition of the English-language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the USA in 2007...

 film by Stephane Gauger

Stephane Gauger

Stephane Gauger is a Vietnamese-American film director, screenwriter, and cinematographer.-Biography:Born in Saigon, South Vietnam to an American civilian contractor and his Vietnamese wife, Gauger was raised in Orange County, California and graduated from California State University, Fullerton in...

 that follows the fictional story of three Vietnamese

Vietnamese people

The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...

 individuals (a runaway child, a zoo keeper and a flight attendant) over a period of five days as they meet in Saigon.

Release

The movie premiered in January 2007 at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, before playing in over thirty film festivals worldwide.

The movie was released theatrically in Japan as The Happiest Place in the World, South Korea as The Lovely Rose, and Spain as Cinco dias en Saigon.

In the United States, it opened in limited release on January 16, 2009. Image Entertainment

Image Entertainment

Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...

 is scheduled to release the DVD in May 2010.

Reception

Owl and the Sparrow won awards such as best narrative feature at the 2007 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, the audience award at the 2007 Los Angeles Film Festival

Los Angeles Film Festival

The Los Angeles Film Festival, presented by the Los Angeles Times is an event held annually in June in downtown Los Angeles, California. The Los Angeles Film Festival began as the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival in 1995. The first LAIFF took place over the course of five days in a single...

, and the emerging filmmaker award at the 2007 Starz Denver Film Festival.

Director Stephane Gauger was nominated for breakthrough director at the 2007 Gotham Awards

Gotham Awards

The Gotham Awards is an annual ceremony of awards presented to the makers of independent films which takes place in New York City...

, and for the John Cassavetes award at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards

Independent Spirit Awards

The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...

.

The movie received positive reviews in the U.S. and currently holds a 76% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

External links

• Official Website
• Interview with Stephane Gauger from AsiaXpress.com
• http://www.sf360.org/features/stephane-gauger-on-owl-and-the-sparrow-and-a-new-view-of-vietnam