Las Acacias wins Bratislava

by Vladan Petkovic

11/11/2011 - Pablo Giorgelli’s Las Acacias [trailer] [pictured] won the main prize of the 13th International Film Festival Bratislava (November 4–9), in the competition of 10 other first or second feature films.

The Argentinian-Spanish co-production which had world-premiered in Cannes Critics’ Week and took three awards, including Camera d’Or, also won the FIPRESCI prize.

France’s Vincent Garenq received the best director award for Guilty [trailer], which earlier won Europa Cinemas Label prize in Venice. Best actress went to Sweden’s Iben Hjejle for her role in Simon Kaijser’s Stockholm East, and Slovakia’s Ivan Trojan won best actor for his performance in Peter Krištúfek’s Visible World.

Natalia Almada’s The Night Watchman (Mexico-US) received best documentary award, and Valéry Rosier’s Sundays (Belgium) got best short film.

The Student Jury opted for 17 Girls by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin (France).

The Viewers’ Choice award went to David Mackenzie’s Perfect Sense [trailer], and the Unicredit Bank prize for the best Slovak film, also chosen by audiences, was shared by Michaela Čopíková’s Dust and Glitter and Zuzana Liová’s The House.

As for honorary prizes, the Film Europe Award went to Slovak composer Michal Novinski, the IFF Bratislava Award for Artictic Excellence in World Cinema was given to Zdeněk and Jan Svěrák, and actor Jozef Adamovič received the Tile on the Movie Walk of Fame.

With a new programming team, led by Serbian film critic Nenad Dukić, and a new location, the festival had 18,200 viewers. Although the total number is lower than in 2010 when the festival lasted nine days, with a 30% bigger budget and screenings in Košice, the second largest city in Slovakia, this year the attendance per screening rose.