Success has many fathers: The Act of Killing wins in Grimstad and Sheffield
- At the Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad, US director Joshua Oppenheimer’s film won as Norwegian, while at the Sheffield Doc/Fest it took the prize as being mainly Danish
US director Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2011) was produced by Denmark’s Final Cut for Real, but with a Norwegian co-producer – Piraya Film – it qualified to win a top prize, the Golden Chair for Best Norwegian Documentary, at the 36th Norwegian Short Film Festival in Grimstad, which ended yesterday (June 16).
The depiction of an often overlookedgenocide in recent history - the killing of more than one million Indonesians who were condemned as Communists after the 1965 military coup – was also competing in the UK’s 20th Sheffield Doc/Fest, where it received the Special Jury Award as a mainly Danish film.
Directed with UK’s Christine Cynn and Anonymous (Indonesian filmmaker), and produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen, The Act of Killing has previously won the CPH:DOX-the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival 2012 and left this year’s Berlinale with the Ecumenical and the Audience awards.
Norwegian-Macedonian director Izer Aliu’s To Guard a Mountain, which was his graduation film from the Norwegian National Film School, was given the Golden Chair for Best Norwegian Short – its third domestic kudo, after its first prize at the Bergen International Film Festival and the Amanda, Norway’s national film prize.
Based on a story from Aliu’s grandmother, and filmed with local in Raudsha near Skopje in Macedonia, To Guard a Mountain follows 12-year-old Isa who has a problem: he has lost one of the poor family’s lambs, and he and his little brother Hamid are sent out with strict orders to bring it back. On the top of the mountain Hamid is seriously wounded.
99 films competed for the 11 prizes, which were presented at a ceremony in Grimstad Kulturhus. The Terje Vigen Award went to Norwegian directors Tuva Hennum and Gunleik Groven’s Sanctuary; Norwegian director André Chocron’s Cold Mailman – My Recurring Dream was named Best Music Video; Italian director Caroline Poggi’s Dogs won the Golden Chair for Best International Short; the Critics’ Prize went to Norwegian director Andreas J Riiser’s Vi har alle vårt.
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