13/11/2017 - Jens Assur’s feature has come out on top, while Vahid Jalilvand and Hlynur Pálmason left with two of the main awards from the 58th Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Director Hlynur Pálmason with his Bronze Alexander for Best Director, for Winter Brothers (© Ververidis Vasilis/Motionteam)

Swedish director Jens Assur’s debut feature, Ravens [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jens Assur
film profile], has won the “Theo Angelopoulos” Golden Alexander for Best Feature Film at the 58^th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, which ran from 2-12 November. The prizes were given out yesterday at the closing-night ceremony, held in the Olympion Theatre.

The international jury, comprising Palestinian director-screenwriter-producer Annemarie Jacir, actor-screenwriter-director Payman Maadi, the artistic director of the Karlovy Vary IFF, Karel Och, French sound designer Bruno Tarrière and Greek actress Maria Nafpliotou, handed the €8,000 prize to the Swedish drama, which explores the eternal conflict between generations, and between tradition and modernity. The movie also picked up the Best Actor Award for the excellent performance by Reine Brynolfsson.

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The Venice Orizzonti-awarded Iranian drama No Date, No Signature by Vahid Jalilvand received the Special Jury Award – Silver Alexander and the Best International Film Award from the FIPRESCI jury, headed up by Ola Salwa, who was flanked by Thomas Abeltshauser and Theodor Giachoustidis.

The already well-travelled and award-festooned quirky Danish-Icelandic drama Winter Brothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] left Thessaloniki with the Special Jury Award for Best Director - Bronze Alexander for Hlynur Pálmason, a Special Mention for the Sound and the FIPRESCI Special Mention. Belgium’s Gilles Coulier and Tom Dupont received the Best Screenplay Award for the family drama Cargo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gilles Coulier
film profile].

The Best Actress Award was bestowed upon Darya Zhovner for her performance in Kantemir Balagov’s drama Closeness [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which also received the Human Values Award from the Hellenic Parliament TV channel. American actor Harry Dean Stanton posthumously received a Special Mention “for his last smile” in John Carroll Lynch’s Lucky, which was also voted Best Film in the Audience Awards.

In the Greek Film Festival 2017 section, the indie comedy Too Much Info Clouding Over My Head [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by debutant director Vasilis Christofilakis scooped the FIPRESCI Award, the Greek Film Centre Award (worth €5,000) and ERT’s second “New Cinema” Award (worth €2,000). Meanwhile, ERT’s first “New Cinema” Award (worth €3,000) went to Thorn by Gabriel Tzafka and the Greek Film Critics’ Association Award to Rosemarie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Adonis Florides.

In the Virtual Reality Films Competition section, which was organised for the first time, the jury, comprising Edinburgh Film Festival project manager Emma Boa, director of the Nitra Gallery Aliki Tsirliagou and editor-in-chief of the website Lifo.gr Aris Dimokidis, awarded Bloodless by Gina Kim from South Korea with the Film Centre Serbia Best Film Award, worth €3,000. The British-French co-production Notes on Blindness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: James Spinney, Peter Middle…
film profile] by James Spinney and Peter Middleton received the jury’s Special Mention.

Here is the complete list of winners at the 58^th Thessaloniki International Film Festival:

Best Feature Film Award - Golden Alexander “Theo Angelopoulos” 
Ravens [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jens Assur
film profile] - Jens Assur (Sweden)

Special Jury Award - Silver Alexander
No Date, No Signature - Vahid Jalilvand (Iran)

Special Jury Award for Best Director - Bronze Alexander
Hlynur Pálmason - Winter Brothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elliott Crosset Hove
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] (Denmark/Iceland)

Best Actor Award
Reine Brynolfsson - Ravens

Best Actress Award
Darya Zhovner - Closeness [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Russia)

Best Screenplay Award 
Gilles Coulier, Tom Dupont - Cargo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gilles Coulier
film profile] (Belgium/France/Netherlands)

Special Mention for an Actor
Harry Dean Stanton (posthumously) - Lucky (USA)

Special Mention for Sound
Winter Brothers - Hlynur Pálmason

Virtual Reality Films Competition

Best Film
Bloodless - Gina Kim (South Korea) 
Special Mention
Notes on Blindness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: James Spinney, Peter Middle…
film profile] - James Spinney, Peter Middleton (France/UK)

FIPRESCI awards

Best Film in the International Competition
No Date, No Signature - Vahid Jalilvand
Special Mention
Winter Brothers - Hlynur Pálmason

Best Film in the Greek Film Festival
Too Much Info Clouding Over My Head - Vassilis Christofilakis (Greece)

Greek Film Critics Association Award
Rosemarie [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Adonis Florides (Cyprus)

Human Values Award
Closeness - Kantemir Balagov

ERT SA (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation) awards

First “New Cinema” Award
Thorn - Gabriel Tzafka (Denmark/Greece)

Second “New Cinema” Award
Too Much Info Clouding Over My Head - Vassilis Christofilakis

Greek Film Centre Award
Too Much Info Clouding Over My Head - Vassilis Christofilakis

Youth Jury Awards

Best Feature Film Award
Polyxeni [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Dora Masklavanou (Greece)

Special Youth Jury Award
Do It Yourself [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Dimitris Tsilifonis (Greece)

Fischer Audience Awards

International Competition Award
Lucky - John Carroll Lynch

Greek Film Festival – Michael Cacoyannis Award
Timeless Stories - Vasilis Raisis (Greece)

Balkan Survey Award
Secret Ingredient [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Blagoj Veselinov
interview: Gjorce Stavreski
film profile] - Gjorce Stavreski (FYROM/Greece)

Open Horizons Award
Insyriated [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philippe Van Leeuw
film profile] - Philippe van Leeuw (Belgium/France/Lebanon)