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GENEVA 2019 Awards

The 25th edition of the GIFF goes out with a bang

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- The razor-edged Beanpole by Russian cinema prodigy Kantemir Balagov receives the prestigious Golden Reflection award for Best Feature Film at the Geneva International Film Festival

The 25th edition of the GIFF goes out with a bang
Beanpole by Kantemir Balagov

The 2019 edition of the Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) closed on Sunday having achieved some rather promising results: record attendance levels of some 38,000 festival-goers who took Geneva by storm (from 1 to 10 November) in pursuit of innovative cinematic experiences.

One reason for the festival’s success can undoubtedly be attributed to the multitude of prestigious guests attending this 25th edition, which included the likes of Xavier Dolan, Park Chan-wook, Clotilde Courau, David Cronenberg, Rebecca Zlotowski and Costa-Gavras, not to mention Jean Dujardin. The anniversary edition of the event also offered a raft of exciting moments, such as the Swiss premiere of Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
in the presence of Jean Dujardin, a special evening dedicated to David Cronenberg where a restored 4k version of the legendary film Crash was screened, and an exceptional masterclass delivered by Xavier Dolan. The closing evening was marked by the screening of the latter’s highly anticipated, penultimate film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
(in a Swiss premiere), which walked away with the first Geneva Award.

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Aside from the prestigious Golden Reflection award for Best Feature Film which went to Russian director Kantemir Balagov’s magnificent Beanpole [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(previously recognised in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section, scooping the award for Best Direction), the list of winners for this 25th edition of the Genevan event also includes Danish filmmakers Marie Østerbye and Christian Torpe, who went home with the Golden Reflection for Best TV Series courtesy of the audacious Deliver US. Success by Macedonian director Marjan Alcevski, meanwhile, was awarded the jury’s Special Mention. As for the digital titles in competition, Qiu Yang’s captivating work O won the Golden Reflection for Best Immersive Work, while, in the same category, Battlescar - Punk Was Invented by Girls by Nico Casavecchia and Martin Allais was awarded a Special Mention. Last but not least, the SENSible Award was handed to the interactive and collective experience Eden by Cyril Teste, Hugo Arcier and Francis Kurkdjian of the MxM Collective.

By way of this 25th edition, the GIFF has shown that it is ready and waiting to take on any challenges which the future has in store.

The full list of winners is as follows:

International Feature Film Competition

Golden Reflection
Beanpole [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Kantemir Balagov (Russia)

International TV Series Competition

Golden Reflection
Deliver US - Marie Østerbye and Christian Torpe (Denmark)

Special Mention of the Jury
Success - Marjan Alcevski (Croatia)

International Immersive Works Competition

Golden Reflection
O - Qiu Yang (Taiwan)

Special Mention of the Jury
Battlescar - Punk Was Invented by Girls - Nico Casavecchia and Martin Allais (France/US)

Other Awards

SENSible Award
Eden - Cyril Teste, Hugo Arcier and Francis Kurkdjian of the MxM Collective (France)

Film & Beyond Honour Award (in association with O.ZBINDEN)
Park Chan-wook

Geneva Award
Xavier Dolan

Special 25th Edition Award
David Cronenberg

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(Translated from Italian)

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