13/11/2015 - The Audience Award has gone to Mustang, with a Special Mention for Maryland and the Grand Jury Prize for the co-production Land and Shade

Mustang by Deniz Gamze Ergüven

The 2015 edition of the AFI FEST, which came to a close yesterday in Los Angeles, has smiled upon French film production and the country’s international sales agents. Mustang [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
film profile] by Turkish director Deniz Gamze Ergüven (produced by Paris-based outfit CG Cinéma together with Germany and Turkey) took home the Audience Award in the New Auteurs section, an accolade that bodes well for the feature, which has already been sold all around the world by Kinology and which is the French candidate in the race for the 2016 Oscar for Best Foreign-language Film.

Also on the New Auteurs programme, Alice Winocour’s Disorder [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alice Winocour
film profile] (produced by Dharamsala and Darius Films together with Belgium – and sold by Indie Sales) was singled out with a Special Mention for its directing, while the top prize went to Land and Shade [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by César Augusto Acevedo (produced by Colombia and co-produced by France via Ciné-Sud Promotion, the Netherlands, Chile and Brazil – sales by Pyramide International).

Also worth noting is the fact that the jury gave out a Special Mention for the screenplay of From Afar by Venezuelan director Lorenzo Vigas, which is being sold abroad by Paris-based company Celluloid Dreams, while the Audience Award in the American Independents section fell to James White by Josh Mond, sold by Memento films International.

(Translated from French)