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MOVIES THAT MATTER 2022 Awards

Erasing Frank and Writing With Fire win the top prizes at Movies that Matter

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- Gábor Fabricius’ drama has scooped the Grand Jury Fiction Award, while Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh were the winners of the Grand Jury Documentary Award

Erasing Frank and Writing With Fire win the top prizes at Movies that Matter
The presentation of the Grand Jury Fiction Award to the team behind Erasing Frank

The winners of the 14th edition of the Movies That Matter Festival were announced yesterday during the awards ceremony at the Pathé Buitenhof cinema in The Hague. The international film festival homing in on human rights started on 8 April and will continue in The Hague, online and in cities across the Netherlands until Saturday 16 April.

Starting with the Grand Jury Fiction Award, this was handed to the Hungarian drama Erasing Frank [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gábor Fabricius
film profile
]
, directed by Gábor Fabricius, as decided by the international jury headed up by Dutch actress Monique van de Ven, which also included Afghan filmmaker Aboozar Amini and Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, who were “totally in awe” and called it a “more than urgent film”. The movie follows punk singer Frank, who is placed in a psychiatric institution in communist Hungary in 1983.

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As for the Grand Jury Documentary Award, this was bestowed upon Writing With Fire by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, about the all-female staff of the Dalit newspaper Khabar Lahariya. The jury, chaired by Ryan Harrington (Film for Kinema), and also comprising filmmaker Sahra Mani and producer Toni Kamau, mentioned that it is “a piece of cinema that speaks truth to power, brings a voice to the voiceless and highlights important issues around marginalised communities – all while inspiring audiences and creating actual change”. The film also received a Special Mention in the Activist Competition. Director Daniel Roher received a Special Mention from the jury for the documentary Navalny. The filmmaker followed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in his search for the perpetrators behind the failed attempt on his life. Furthermore, Eternal Spring by Jason Loftus also received a Special Mention from the jury for the thrilling and emotional story of a group of Falun Gong practitioners who managed to take over Chinese state TV.

The Activist Documentary Award went to Alex Pritz for The Territory [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, which follows a young, indigenous leader fighting back against farmers who are occupying a protected area of the Amazon rainforest. The jury praised both the urgency of the film as well as the cinematic experience and called it “a wakeup call to take action and stop this environmental crisis”.

The Berlinale winner Myanmar Diaries [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by the Myanmar Film Collective, about life in the aftermath of the February 2021 military coup, received the Camera Justitia Award in a programme section that trains the spotlight on people who stand up against corruption, inequality and discrimination in their fight for justice. The jury called it “a cinematic experience of unparalleled beauty”, which “deserves the widest audience possible”.

Finally, Hany Abu-Assad received the Dutch Movies Matter Award for Huda's Salon [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, in which two women fight for their freedom. The jury stated, “Dutch cinema has a long tradition of films about resistance and – more recently – collaboration.” The medium-length documentary Ik ben een bastaard by Ahmet Polat, which had its world premiere at the festival, received a Special Mention.

Here is the complete list of winners at the 14th Movies That Matter Festival:

Grand Jury Fiction Award
Erasing Frank [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gábor Fabricius
film profile
]
 - Gábor Fabricius (Hungary)

Grand Jury Documentary Award
Writing With Fire - Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh (India)
Special Mentions
Navalny - Daniel Roher (USA)
Eternal Spring - Jason Loftus (Canada)

Activist Competition Award
The Territory [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Alex Pritz (Brazil/Denmark/USA)
Special Mention
Writing With Fire - Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh

Camera Justitia Award
Myanmar Diaries [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
 - Myanmar Film Collective (Netherlands/Myanmar/Norway)

Dutch Movies Matter Award
Huda's Salon [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Hany Abu-Assad (Palestine/Egypt/Netherlands/Qatar)
Special Mention
Ik ben een bastaard - Ahmet Polat (Netherlands/Belgium/Morocco/France)

Shorts Award
My Uncle Tudor - Olga Lucovnicova (Belgium/Portugal/Hungary/Moldova)
Special Mentions
Freedom Swimmer - Olivia Martin McGuire (France)
Techno, Mama - Saulius Baradinskas (Lithuania)

Students’ Choice Award
Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Abdallah Al-Khatib (Lebanon/France/Qatar)

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