08/02/2016 - Other winners include Bodkin Ras, The Last Land and Land of Mine

The winners of the 2016 International Film Festival Rotterdam

Radio Dreams by Iranian-born director Babak Jalali has won the Hivos Tiger Awards Competition at the 45^th International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), as announced by the organisers on Friday evening. The €40,000 prize was shared by Jalali and his producer, Marjaneh Moghimi (of US outfit Butimar Productions).

Described by the jury as a “subtle and humorous reflection on the displacement and alienation of a group of misfits in a foreign culture”, Radio Dreams tells the story of an Iranian writer working at a radio station broadcasting in Persian from San Francisco, who has the dream of bringing together Metallica and Kabul Dreams – Afghanistan’s first rock band.

Radio Dreams is Jalali’s second feature. His debut, Frontier Blues [+see also:
trailer
film profile], premiered at Locarno in 2009.

The Special Jury Award (worth €10,000) went to The Last Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a co-production between Paraguay, the Netherlands, Chile and Qatar directed by Paraguay’s Pablo Lamar.

In addition, the FIPRESCI Award – given to the director of the best feature shown in the Bright Future section – went to Kaweh Modiri for Bodkin Ras [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. According to the FIPRESCI jury, the film is a “fascinating hybrid of documentary and fiction, filled with unforgettable characters, a strong sense of place and an urgency that turns the experiment into a thrilling and humanistic film”. Bodkin Ras is Iranian-born, Dutch-based Modiri’s feature debut.

Land of Mine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louis Hofmann
interview: Martin Zandvliet
film profile] by Danish director Martin Zandvliet pocketed both the Warsteiner Audience Award (€10,000) and the MovieZone Award, voted for by the MovieZone young people’s jury, from EYE. Set in the aftermath of World War II, the film is an intense drama focusing on a young group of captured German soldiers who are forced to neutralise the remaining landmines along the Danish coast.

Other winners include Ciro Guerra’s Embrace of the Serpent (Dioraphte Award – €10,000), Léa Fehner’s Les ogres [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (VPRO Big Screen Award – €30,000), Frank Scheffer’s The Perception (KNF Award), Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s The Plague at the Karatas Village (NETPAC Award) and Melisa Liebenthal’s Las lindas, which took home the inaugural Bright Future Award (€10,000 to be spent on developing the director’s next film project).

Bero Beyer, who chaired the IFFR for the first time this year, said while announcing the awards: “IFFR 2016 has been an edition with many inspiring, thought-provoking and engaging cinematic achievements from all over the world. I am grateful and excited that the selection really seemed to resonate with both industry guests and the audience.”

Here is the full list of winners:

Hivos Tiger Award
Radio Dreams – Babak Jalali

Special Jury Award
The Last Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Pablo Lamar

Warsteiner Audience Award
Land of Mine [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louis Hofmann
interview: Martin Zandvliet
film profile] – Martin Zandvliet

Hubert Bals Fund Dioraphte Award
Embrace of the Serpent – Ciro Guerra

MovieZone Award
Land of Mine – Martin Zandvliet

VPRO Big Screen Award
Les ogres – Léa Fehner

Bright Future Award
Las lindas – Melisa Liebenthal

FIPRESCI Award
Bodkin Ras [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Kaweh Modiri

NETPAC Award
The Plague at the Karatas Village – Adilkhan Yerzhanov

KNF Award
The Perception – Frank Scheffer

Canon Tiger Awards for Short Films
Dream English Kid 1964-1999 AD – Mark Leckey
Faux départ – Yto Barrada
Engram of Returning – Daïchi Saïto