01/08/2016 - The film by Egyptian director Tamer El Said took home the Grand Prix (€20,000) at the 16th edition of the Festival, which came to a close last night in Wrocław

In the Last Days of the City [+see also:
trailer
film profile], by Egyptian director Tamer El Said, which is about Cairo before the 2011 revolution, and is a mosaic made up of a series of images shot from 2007 onwards (chosen from 260 hours of footage in total), took home the Grand Prix of the New Horizons Film Festival in Wroclaw (along with a cash prize of €20,000). The international jury took a shine to “this moving and highly personal urban symphony, which takes the audience on a journey linking the personal to the world we currently live in, a film which comes straight from the heart”.

Meanwhile, Michal Marczak’s new film, All These Sleepless Nights [+see also:
trailer
film profile], took home the Audience Award. Marczak has won a number of awards, most notably at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto and the Visions du Réel Festival (in both cases for his documentary At the Edge of Russia de 2010), but he caused the greatest stir with his documentary Fuck for Forest [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile](2012), a film about amateur porn film producers who sold their films on the Internet to raise money to protect the environment. All These Sleepless Nights, as the director himself says, is once again about portraying life in the jungle, but this time focusing on the jungle of a big modern city. 

The FIPRESCI jury awarded its prize to Dark Beast [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]by Felipe Guerrero. In the section reserved for films on art (the second main competition of the Festival), the award for Best Film went to A Magical Substance Flows Into Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile]by Palestinian director Jumana Manna, who met with the representatives of communities whose traditional musical compositions were recorded and kept by Jewish German musicologist Robert Lachmann in the 1930s. Through these encounters, the director demonstrates that music is universal and a magical substance that enables us to overcome differences and political conflict. In the same section, the special mention of the jury went to Melissa Dullius and Gustavo Jahn for German-Brazilian co-production Muito romantico.

New Horizons International Competition

Grand Prix
In the Last Days of the City [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Tamer El Said (Egypt/Germany/United Kingdom/United Arab Emirates)

FIPRESCI Prize
Dark Beast [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Felipe Guerrero (Colombia/Argentina/the Netherlands/Germany/Greece)

Audience Award
All These Sleepless Nights [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Michał Marczak (Poland/United Kingdom)

Films on Art International Competition 

Main Prize
A Magical Substance Flows Into Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Jumana Manna (Palestine)

Special Mention
Muito romântico - Melissa Dullius, Gustavo Jahn (Germany/Brazil)

European Short Films Competition

1st Prize (ex aequo)
Kwassa Kwassa - Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Superflex (Denmark/Vietnam)
With All Our Cameras - Miguel López Beraza (Spain/Hungary)

2^nd Prize
I Don’t Think I Can See an Island - Emmanuel Lefrant and Christopher Becks (France)

3^rd Prize
Cinéma concret – Takashi Makino (Japan/the Netherlands) 

Polish Short Films Competition

1^st Prize
Education - Emi Buchwald (Poland)

2^nd Prize
16.03 - Natalia Siwicka (Poland)

3^rd Prize
Close Ties - Zofia Kowalewska (Poland) 

Zoom Competition

Best Videoclip
Limbs of Sun - Krzysztof Skonieczny, Jacqueline Sobiszewski (Poland)

Best Film
Goran The Camel Man (short film) - Marcin Lesisz (Poland/Georgia)

Special Prize
Tu Do / Asia Mina - Maciej Gryzełko (Poland)

(Translated from French)