Oscar winner “Searching for Sugar Man” vying for People’s Choice Award

PanARMENIAN.Net - Oscar-winning Swedish music documentary "Searching for Sugar Man", which just celebrated more than a year in theaters in Sweden, is one of the prime contenders for this year’s People’s Choice Awards at the annual European Film Awards, The Hollywood Reporter said.

"Searching for Sugar Man" tells the strange story of singer-songwriter Rodriguez. Back in the early 1970s, the record company had high hopes for him.

With eminently hummable tunes and lyrics that eloquently spoke to life on the mean streets of Detroit, Rodriguez seemed poised to be the next Bob Dylan. But his two albums, "Cold Facts" and "Coming from Reality," never really caught on in the United States. That would seem to be the end of the story, except, for reasons that still aren't entirely clear, Rodriguez's album did, unbeknownst to him, phenomenally well in South Africa, The Guardian said.

His songs proved to be the anthems of a generation of young South Africans who were increasingly frustrated by their government's apartheid policies. While his albums were selling as well as "Abbey Road" in Cape Town, Rodriguez seemingly disappeared into obscurity.

"Searching for Sugar Man" also follows some hardcore South African fans, such as Steve "Sugar" Segerman, who grew fascinated by the mysterious origins of his favorite albums. Over many years, he eventually managed to track down the musician, who was living like a Zen monk in a rundown section of the Motor City.

“He's an extraordinary man,” the film helmer Malik Bendjelloul said, referring to Rodriguez in an interview with Yahoo! Movies.

“I think one of the reasons why he doesn't like to do interviews is that he doesn't really have an ego. Honestly, he doesn't think that he is particularly interesting. I kept telling him, "Rodriguez, you have the most interesting story ever." It was really hard to convince him that he was worth making a movie about.

He also has a very different approach to material stuff. He gives all his money from touring away to his family. He doesn't need much, so no one compels him to do anything. He's actually a free man. It's very, very inspiring. He has a very different way of living in this modern world, where everything is about consuming,” Bendjelloul said.

Other People’s Choice nominees include J.A. Bayona’s Spanish box office sensation The Impossible with Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina starring Kiera Knightly and Jude Law; Italian drama The Best Offer from Giuseppe Tornatore with Geoffrey Rush; Baltasar Kormakur’s Icelandic survival drama The Deep; The Broken Circle Breakdown from Belgian director Felix van Groeningen; Pedro Almodovar’s airplane comedy I’m So Excited; Susanne Bier’s romantic comedy Love is All You Need; Jan Ole Gerster’s German tragicomedy Oh Boy; Norwegian adventure film Kon Tiki and Ruben Alves' Portugese-French co-production The Gilded Cage.