Doclisboa has just celebrated its 20^th anniversary at an edition that unspooled from 6-16 October. On Saturday, the festival organised its closing ceremony, where it announced the winners of the International and National Competitions, as well as the Cross-sectional Competition and the Green Years Competition.

A Date in Minsk, directed by Nikita Lavretski, received the City of Lisbon Award for Best International Competition Film. It was a unanimous decision by the jury (consisting of Dario Oliveira, Jonathan Ali, Ondjaki, Ruth Beckermann and Sofia Marques), who decided to present the Belarusian film with the top prize in the International Competition “for its cinematographic concept, its contemporary thematic concerns, its authentic dialogues and performances as well as its subtle interweaving of important political considerations”.

Alejandro Vázquez San Miguel’s A Landscaped Area Too Quiet For Me, also part of the International Competition, received the YouTube Award for “the great empathy and honesty with which he portrays the day-to-day reality of extreme old age” as well as for its subtle approach and political evocations.

In the Portuguese Competition, and according to the jury’s statement, there were plenty of “engaging, inventive films” that, despite sometimes being made with “limited means”, were nonetheless “ambitious in their desire to depict a singular framing of the world”. Two films stood out for the jury (Éric Baudelaire, Luís Fernando Moura and Lula Pena) “in terms of their form and the stories they tell”. The Visit and a Secret Garden [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] by Irene M Borrego (which also received the ETIC School’s Award in the same competition) and Vexations by Leonardo Mouramateus split the HBO Max Award for Best Portuguese Competition Film. In the same contest, Welket Bungué’s Calling Cabral received the Portuguese Authors Society Award for showing how “cinema is capable of depicting not only ways of experiencing things, but also history itself, its standpoints and a common path that might lead us to delightful findings”.

Turning our attention to some of the Portuguese films awarded in the cross-sectional category, Home, Revised by Inês Pedrosa e Melo received the Fernando Lopes Award – Midas Filmes and Doclisboa Award for Best Portuguese First Film. The Audience Award for Best Portuguese Film, for which movies in all sections with the exception of Green Years were eligible, was given to What Words Can Do by Luísa Marinho and Luísa Sequeira. Finally, the Pedro Fortes Award for Best Green Years Portuguese Film was given to Bentuguês by Daniel Borga.

Here is the full list of winners at Doclisboa 2022:

International Competition

City of Lisbon Award for Best International Competition Film
A Date in Minsk – Nikita Lavretski (Belarus)

YouTube International Competition Jury Award
A Landscaped Area Too Quiet For Me – Alejandro Vasquez (Spain)

Portuguese and Short Film Competitions

HBO Max Award for Best Portuguese Competition Film (ex aequo)
The Visit and a Secret Garden [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] - Irene M Borrego (Spain/Portugal)
Vexations - Leonardo Mouramateus (Portugal)

Portuguese Authors Society - Portuguese Competition Jury Award
Calling Cabral - Welket Bungué (Brazil/Guinea-Bissau/Portugal)

Schools Award - ETIC Award for Best Portuguese Competition Film
The Visit and a Secret Garden - Irene M Borrego

Cross-sectional Competition

New Talent Award – TVCine Channels Award for Best First Feature-length Film
It’s Party Time - Léo Liotard (Belgium)
Special Mention
Moto - Gastón Sahajdacny (Argentina)

Award for Best Short Film
May the Earth Become the Sky - Ana Vîjdea (Belgium/Hungary/Portugal/Romania)

Healthy Workplaces Film Award - European Agency for Safety and Health at Work Award for Best Feature-length Film Dealing with Work
The Beach of Enchaquirados - Iván Mora Manzano (Ecuador)

Practice, Tradition and Heritage Award - INATEL Foundation Award for Best Film Dealing with Cultural and Traditional Practices as well as Intangible Cultural Heritage
Goodbye, Captain - Tatiana Almeida, Vincent Carelli (Brazil)
Special Mention
Yarokamena - Andrés Jurado (Colombia)

Fernando Lopes Award – Midas Filmes and Doclisboa Award for Best Portuguese First Film
Home, Revised - Inês Pedrosa e Melo (Portugal)

Audience Award – Público Newspaper Award for Best Portuguese Film
What Words Can Do - Luísa Marinho, Luísa Sequeira (Portugal)

Green Years Competition

Le Fresnoy Award for Best Green Years Film
Picnic at Hanging Rock - Naama Heiman (Germany)

Pedro Fortes Award for Best Green Years Portuguese Film
Bentuguês - Daniel Borga (Portugal)