email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

FESTIVALS Norway

After the Storm takes top prize at Oslo’s Films from the South

by 

- The biggest showcase in the Norwegian capital honoured Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda’s Cannes entry, giving the Honorary Silver Mirror Award to Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

After the Storm takes top prize at Oslo’s Films from the South
After the Storm by Hirokazu Koreeda

Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda’s After the Storm, which was launched in Un Certain Regard at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, took home top prize, the Silver Mirror, at Films from the South, the largest film festival in Oslo, Norway, which ended 16 October.

“We were impressed by this character who has not yet understood that you should grow up before you get old,” the jury said about Koreeda’s portrait of a former prize-winning author (Hiroshi Abe), now a private detective who wastes his money on gambling and barely can pay child support.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Honorary mentions were bestowed upon Iranian director Mani Haghighi’s A Dragon Arrives, which was also presented at the Berlinale, and Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(the festival featured a retrospective of his films in 2014).

Eritrean-born, Italian director Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile
]
, about the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, which was awarded the Golden Bear for Best Film at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, won the Dok:Sør Award for Best Documentary.

Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s fully-animated My Neighbor Totoro received the Audience Award, while the Silver Mirror Honorary Prize went to Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, to whom the festival dedicated a showcase featuring his latest title Hissein Habré, A Chadian Tragedy [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Abouna (2002), and A Screaming Man [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(2010).

Screening as many as 100 films from Asia, Africa and Latin America, Films from the South, now in its 26th year, started as a small film programme at the University of Oslo campus, but, following the demise of the Oslo International Film Festival, it has become the biggest film showcase in the Norwegian capital. Last year it registered approximately 25,000 admissions.

As well as Rosi and Haroun, the festival’s international guests included Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, Ghanian director Priscilla Anany, Iranian director Mina Keshavarz, Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro, Mexican director Amat Escalante, Pakistani director Mohammed Ali Naqvi, Russian director Vitaly Mansky and Nigerian director Taye Balogun, among others.

Here is a full list of the 2016 award winners:

Silver Mirror
After the Storm – Hirokazu Koreeda (Japan)

Honorary mentions
A Dragon Arrives – Mani Haghighi (Iran)
Endless Poetry [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Alejandro Jodorowsky (Chile/Japan/France)

Dok:Sør Award for Best Documentary
Fire at Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile
]
– Gianfranco Rosi (Italy/France)

Audience Award
My Neighbor Totoro – Hayao Miyazaki (Japan)

Honorary Silver Mirror Award
Mahamat-Saleh Haroun

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy