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AWARDS France

The Jean Vigo Award goes to Jean-Bernard Marlin and Yann Gonzalez

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- Thanks to Shéhérazade and Knife + Heart, the two filmmakers have split the award, thus joining the winning ranks of a prize that rewards originality

The Jean Vigo Award goes to Jean-Bernard Marlin and Yann Gonzalez
Yann Gonzalez, Agnès Varda and Jean-Bernard Marlin during the Jean Vigo Award ceremony (© Alain Keit)

Intended to highlight a filmmaker’s independent mind-set and originality, and the quality of their work, the 66th Jean Vigo Award has just been handed out, and this year it was split between Jean-Bernard Marlin for Shéhérazade [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 (revealed as a special screening in the Critics’ Week at the recent Cannes Film Festival) and Yann Gonzalez for Knife + Heart [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicolas Maury
interview: Yann Gonzalez
film profile
]
 (launched in the official competition on the Croisette). The two directors thus join a list of names including Jean-Luc GodardMaurice PialatAlain ResnaisClaude ChabrolPhilippe GarrelOlivier AssayasBruno DumontLaurent CantetXavier BeauvoisAlain Guiraudie and Mathieu Amalric (who was victorious last year).

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Shéhérazade, the feature debut by Jean-Bernard Marlin, was singled out by the Jean Vigo Award jury “for the exceptional direction of its actors, and for the understated but sustained lyricism that it injects into the gritty realism of its lovers in the Marseille night”. Produced by Grégoire Debailly for Geko Films and co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, the film will be distributed in France from 5 September by Ad Vitam and is being sold abroad by Films Boutique.

The second feature by Yann GonzalezKnife + Heart, was rewarded “for the attentive and tender way it turns its gaze upon the antiquated and delicate charm of genre cinema, and the artful way it manages to portray its visual and poetic power”. The feature, produced by Charles Gillibert for CG Cinéma together with Mexico’s Piano and Switzerland’s Garidi Films, and co-produced by Arte France Cinéma, Le Fresnoy and RTS, will be released in France on 27 June by Memento Films DistributionKinology is in charge of its international sales.

The 2018 Jean Vigo Award for a Short Film was handed to Guillaume Brac for L’ami du dimanche (34 minutes), the first part of July Tales [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Production duties were entrusted to Nicolas Anthomé (a European Film Promotion Producer on the Move – read the interview) for bathysphère.

Lastly, an Honorary Jean Vigo Award was bestowed upon Jean-François Stévenin, who, “alongside his very rich acting career, has demonstrated, in the space of just three movies, that he is a great filmmaker, free-spirited and adventurous like so few others”.

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(Translated from French)

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