07/10/2019 - Arnaud Desplechin’s film wins the highest honour, while Belgian film By The Name of Tania leaves the festival with two awards

The winners of the 34th Namur International French-Language Film Festival (© Fabrice Mertens / FIFF)

During the closing ceremony of the 34th Namur International French-Language Film Festival on Friday, the Jury presided by André Techiné chose to hand out the Bayard d’or to the French film Oh Mercy! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile] directed by Arnaud Desplechin, and to reward twice the work of Mary Jimenez and Bénédicte Liénard on the film By The Name of Tania [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mary Jimenez, Bénédicte Lié…
film profile], discovered at the last Berlin International Film Festival.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The highest honour of the festival thus goes to the latest work by the French filmmaker, which premiered in Cannes and focuses on a police investigation in a (very) working-class district of Roubaix, a film which to this day does not have distribution in Belgium. This award could change that. Winner of two awards, By The Name of Tania will be released by MOOOV in Belgian cinemas on 23 October. This hybrid film, which makes categories of fiction and documentary appear almost obsolete, won the Special Jury Prize,as well as the award of Best Photography for the beautiful work of Belgian cinematographer Virginie Surdej.

Another Belgian film was honoured: the new film from Fabrice du Welz, Adoration [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile], went home with the Best Performance Award, given to its two young stars Fantine Harduin and Thomas Gioria. It is also worth noting that the Jury gave the Best Screenplay award to Boris Lojkine and Bojina Panayotova for Camille [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] (directed by Boris Lojkine), and a Special Mention to Canadian film Kuessipan by Myriam Verreault.

The young jury, which focused on feature debuts, gave its biggest award to Erwan Le Duc’s The Bare Necessity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erwan Le Duc
film profile], while the Junior Jury handed out its prize to Pierre François Martin-Laval’s Fahim [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The audience, meanwhile, rewarded Mehdi M. Barsaoui’s moving film, A Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehdi M Barsaoui and Sami B…
film profile]. From the Special awards given by partners of the festival, the standouts are the Critics’ Award given to Cesar Diaz’s Our Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cesar Diaz
film profile] (winners of the Caméra d’or award this year in Cannes), and the Cinevox award given to the second feature from Belgian director Laurent Micheli, Lola [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Micheli
film profile].

The list of awards:

Official Competition

Bayard d’or
Oh Mercy! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Arnaud Desplechin
film profile] - Arnaud Desplechin (France)

Special Jury Prize
By The Name of Tania [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mary Jimenez, Bénédicte Lié…
film profile] - Bénédicte Liénard, Mary Jiménez (Belgium/Netherlands)

Special Jury Mention
Kuessipan - Myriam Verreault (Canada)

Bayard for Best Screenplay
Boris Lojkine, Bojina Panayotova - Camille [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Boris Lojkine
film profile] (France)

Bayard for Best Photography
Virginie Surdej - By the Name of Tania

Bayard for Best Performance
Fantine Harduin, Thomas Gioria - Adoration [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabrice du Welz
film profile] (Belgium/France)

Bayard for Best First Fiction Film
The Bare Necessity [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erwan Le Duc
film profile] - Erwan Le Duc (France)

Discovery Award
Le Père de Nafi - Mamadou Dia (Senegal)

Best Performance Award
Adèle Haenel, Jonathan Couzinié - Heroes Don't Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aude Léa Rapin
film profile] (France/Belgium/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Agnès Award
Adam [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Maryam Touzani (Morrocco/France)

Jury Junior Prize
Fahim [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Pierre Francois Martin-Laval (France)

Audience Award for Best Feature Fiction Film
A Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehdi M Barsaoui and Sami B…
film profile] - Mehdi M. Barsaoui (Tunisia/France/Lebanon/Qatar)

Audience Award for Best Documentary
Le Temps long - Lou Colpé (Belgium) (medium-length film)

Bayard for Best Short Film
La Musique - Jean-Benoit Ugeux (Belgium)

Jury Prize
Sous l’écorce - Ève-Chems De Brouwer (France)

Best Director Award
Cadeau de Noël - Bogdan Muresanu (Romania/Spain)

Mention
Postcards from the End of the World - Konstantinos Antonopoulos (Greece)

Jury Prize
Akram - Adrien Berlandi, Mickey Broothaerts (Belgium)

Best Director Award
Thibault Wolfhart, Samir Youssef - Bruxelles-Beyrouth (Belgium)

Best Photography Award
Charlotte Muller - L’Isola Dei Sogni (Belgium)

Best Performance Award
Jean-Benoît Ugeux - La Musique

Mention
Détours - Christopher Yates (Belgium)

Audience Award for Best Short Film
Désirée - Victoria Jadot (Belgium)

ARTE award – Short Film
Miss Chazelles - Thomas Vernay (France)

BeTV Award – Belgian Short Film
Plaqué or - Chloé Léonil (Belgium)

RTBF Award – Belgian Short Film
Le Dragon à deux têtes - Páris Cannes (Belgium)

University of Namur Award
Le Dragon à deux têtes - Páris Cannes

BeTV Award – Feature Film
Camille - Boris Lojkine

Critics’ Award – Belgian Feature Film
Our Mothers [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cesar Diaz
film profile] - César Diaz

Cinevox Award – Belgian Feature Film
Lola [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurent Micheli
film profile] - Laurent Micheli (Belgium/France)

Cinevox Mention
Loups tendres et loufoques - Arnaud Demuynck, Rémi Durin, Hugo Frassetto, Pascale Hecquet et Anaïs Sorrentino (France/Belgium) (medium-length film)

(Translated from French)