All European winners at Visions du Réel

by Emmanuel Cuénod

30/04/2012 - It was an all-European line-up at the 18th Visions du Réel's awards ceremony last Saturday. Anna Glogowski, Simon Kilmurry, and Peter Liechti, who this year made up the jury for the international feature film competition, awarded their Grand Prize to Matthew’s Laws (photo) by Dutch filmmaker Marc Schmidt. They also awarded JP Passi and Jukka Kärikkäinen, the Finnish filmmakers of The Punk Syndrome, a special prize for the Most Innovative Feature Film in the international competition. The film’s main characters, members of Finnish punk rock band Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät, who all have mental disabilities, performed at Nyon’s Usine à Gaz during the festival.

In the same section, a special mention also went to Dutch filmmaker Jessica Gorter for her documentary 900 Days. The Kid by Louise Jaillette (France - Best Medium-length Film), Adulthood by Eve Duchemin (Belgium, France - Most Innovative Medium-length Film), Nos jours, absolument, doivent être illuminés (lit. “Our days, absolutely, must be illuminated”) by Jean-Gabriel Périot (France - Best Short Film), Spinach and sugar by Laura Laabs (Germany - Most Innovative Short Film), and 3 Days of Freedom by Lukasz Borowski (Poland - Special Mention for a Short Film) were also awarded in the various other categories. Finally, Manuel von Stürler this year won Best Swiss Feature Film for her first film Hiver Nomade (lit. “Nomadic winter”).

Italian festival director Luciano Barisone, whose second year it is managing the festival, can congratulate himself on having successfully opened up the festival’s doors to more of the general public to discover its “real films”. About 25,000 spectators came to Nyon, a small town outside Geneva, to attend the event, while the Doc Outlook International Market attracted over 800 professionals - clearly better figures than last year.

(Translated from French)