17/08/2009

The prize-winners at the 62nd Locarno International Film Festival, which was held from August 5-15, for the last time under the artistic direction of Frédéric Maire, were announced on Saturday.

In international competition, the Golden Leopard was awarded to She, a Chinese [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by director-writer Xiaolu Guo. The Special Jury Prize and Best Director went to Alexei Mizgirev’s Buben. Baraban and the Leopard for Best Debut Film to Urszula Antoniak’s Nothing Personal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Urszula Antoniak
interview: Urszula Antoniak
film profile] (Netherlands/Ireland).

The latter work also received the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize and the Youth Jury First Prize. The film’s female star, Lotte Verbeek, won the Leopard for Best Actress.

Meanwhile, Antonis Kafetzopoulos picked up the Leopard for Best Actor for his performance in Plato’s Academy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Constantin Moriatis
interview: Filippos Tsitos
interview: Filippos Tsitos
film profile] by Filippos Tsitos. The film also scooped the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

In the Filmmakers of the Present section, C.W. Winter and Anders Edström took the Golden Leopard for The Anchorage, while the Special Jury Prize went to Italian director Stefano Savona’s Cast Lead.

The Critics’ Week jury honoured Pianomania [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Robert Cibis and Lilian Franck.

In the Piazza Grande section, the Audience Award went to Swiss director Christoph Schaub’s comedy Giulias Verschwinden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Schaub
film profile] and the Variety Piazza Grande Award to Detlev Buck’s Same Same But Different [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

Bernard Émond’s La Donation (“The Gift”, Canada) won the International Cine-Club Federation Prize and the Youth Jury Second Prize. Meanwhile, the NETPAC Award went to Ho Yuhang’s At the End of Daybreak and the CICAE Arthouse Prize to Antoniak’s Nothing Personal.

The festival saw a 12.7% drop in overall attendance (with a total of 157,057 viewers compared to 180,008 in 2008), due to the difficult economic situation in recent months. This trend is also reflected in the decrease in the total number of accredited visitors (12% fewer than in 2008). These results are nonetheless offset by an increase in Piazza Grande attendance.