19/10/2009

At the 25th Warsaw Film Festival on Saturday, the Grand Prize for Best Film was awarded to Austrian director Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jessica Hausner
film profile].

The feature, unveiled in competition at Venice (see review), explores the subject of contemporary faith and religiosity by focusing on the famous French shrine. President of the Warsaw jury, composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, commented: "Hausner’s film shows an impressive knowledge of the film studio and a real maturity of thought. It’s a film of perfect composition, multiple meanings and extraordinary harmony. It’s an unforgettable story."

Borys Lankosz’s The Reverse [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Agata Buzek - actress
interview: Borys Lankosz
film profile], which won Best Film at the recent Gdynia Polish Film Festival in September (see news), picked up the FIPRESCI Foreign Critics’ Prize in Warsaw.

In the international competition, the Special Jury Prize went to Luis Alberto Restrepo’s The Passion of Gabriel, which tells the story of a Catholic priest in a Colombian village community. The feature was lauded for "its depiction of human courage in the difficult conditions of political conflict in Colombia."

In the 1-2 Competition (for debut and second features), Best Film was jointly awarded to Eastern plays [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Kamen Kalev
film profile] by Bulgaria’s Kamen Kalev (European Parliament LUX Prize 2009 competition) and Seven Minutes in Heaven by Israel’s Omri Givonand.

Roberto Rochin Naya’s Purgatory (Mexico) and Alvaro Brechner’s Bad Day to Go Fishing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Uruguay/Spain) were the prize-winners of the Free Spirit Competition.

Meanwhile, Best Documentary went to Disco and Atomic War [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Estonia’s Jaak Kilmi and Kiur Aarma and Best Short Film to Notes on the Other by Spanish director Sergio Oksman.

Finally, for the first time in the festival’s history, the Audience Award was presented to two films (with a surprisingly equal score): Wojciech Smarzowski’s The Dark House and Philippe Lioret’s Welcome [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Philippe Lioret
film profile].

(Translated from French)