The Jean Vigo Award goes to Mathieu Amalric
- Thanks to his Barbara, the filmmaker has joined the winning ranks of a prize that rewards originality; an Honorary Jean Vigo Award goes to Aki Kaurismäki
Intended to reward a filmmaker’s independent mind-set, originality and quality, the 65th Jean Vigo Award has been bestowed upon Mathieu Amalric for Barbara [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which was revealed as the opening film of Un Certain Regard at the most recent Cannes Film Festival. Branded by the jury as a “bold and ferocious auteur whose full-on acting career must not eclipse his work, that of an experimenter whose appetite for risk-taking allows him to reinvent himself with each film”, the director joins a list of names including Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol, Philippe Garrel, Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Laurent Cantet, Xavier Beauvois, Alain Guiraudie and Albert Serra (who was victorious last year).
Singled out in Un Certain Regard with a "Prize for the Best Poetic Narrative", Barbara is Amalric’s seventh feature as a director, and his two previous opuses were also part of the official selection on the Croisette (On Tour [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mathieu Amalric
interview: Mathieu Amalric
film profile] in competition in 2010, winning the Best Director Award, and The Blue Room [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mathieu Amalric
film profile] in Un Certain Regard in 2014). Co-written by the filmmaker and Philippe Di Folco, the story of Barbara revolves around an actress (Jeanne Balibar) who is about to play the role of the famous French singer and who prepares for the shoot by letting herself be totally taken over by the character, as does the director of the film (Amalric himself). Produced by Patrick Godeau for Waiting For Cinéma and Alicéléo, Barbara will be distributed in France from 6 September by Gaumont, which is also in charge of the international sales.
The 2017 Jean Vigo Award for a Short Film was given to Emmanuel Marre for the 30-minute title Le Film de l'été, which previously won the Grand Prix in the national competition at Clermont-Ferrand this year as well as the Best Film Award at IndieLisboa. It was also selected in competition at Berlin. The production was staged by Paris-based outfit Kidam, with a co-production by Belgium’s Michigan Films.
Lastly, an Honorary Jean Vigo Award was handed to Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, "for having invented a social and poetic brand of cinema like no other, which straddles humour and terseness, and which is simultaneously enchanted and disenchanted".
(Translated from French)
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