31/08/2022 - This year’s big winners were Raitis and Lauris Abele’s Troubled Minds, crowned Best Fiction Feature, and Hermann Vaske’s Why Are We (Not) Creative, which scooped Best Documentary

It’s a wrap for the fifth edition of Santarcangelo di Romagna’s Nòt Film Fest, which ran from 23-28 August. This year, the gathering showcased 100 works from 39 different countries, including 92 premieres.

The main prize, the Award for Best Fiction Feature in the Moonwalker Features competition, was bestowed upon Raitis and Lauris Abele’s Troubled Minds [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele …
film profile], a Latvian dramedy. World-premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival last year, and inspired by real-life events that happened to a close, bipolar friend of the two helmers, the picture follows Robert (Toms Auniņš) and Martin (Mārcis Lācis), two brothers and provocative visual artists working on their biggest exhibition. The jury was made up of filmmaker Greta Bellamacina, Mammoth Lakes Film Festival director Paul Sbrizzi and journalist Jader Liberatore.

Meanwhile, the Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Hermann Vaske’s Why Are We (Not) Creative (Germany). In it, Vaske and his sidekick Michael Madsen embark on a mission to unmask and identify the idea killers. Together, they analyse the oppositional forces that act as beta-blockers to creative energy – censorship, self-censorship, bureaucracy, compromise, distraction and the gatekeepers.

This year’s edition of the gathering also hosted the MovieMaker Pitching Sessions, organised by the US magazine of the same name. The pitched projects have the chance to benefit from the MovieMaker Production Services programme, which aims to double the value of the initial investment for almost anything that is needed to get the movie to market (for example, camera, editing, effects, DCP, colour correction, festival consultancies and publicity). Eligible projects have to enter principal photography within the next 24 months or should be ready for post-production. The ideal budget range for participating films was between $100,000 and $2 million, with some of the production or post-production planned in North America and producers demonstrating that they have at least $10,000 on hand to invest in the programme.

Past beneficiaries of the MovieMaker Production Services programme include Jessica Hester and Derek Schweickart’s Coast, Quinn Armstrong’s Survival Skills and Waheed AlQawasmi’s Jacir.

The details of the pitched projects are being kept under wraps, but MovieMaker Magazine journalist Caleb Hammond told Cineuropa: “The session went well. I presented the programme to everyone up top, and then met with filmmakers individually after that. Overall, I received pitches from projects being developed in Italy, the UK, Poland and Finland. MovieMaker Production Services has only operated in the USA and Canada thus far. We see the European film production landscape as a big opportunity for the programme. We’re looking at potential partnerships with production companies based in these countries to help shepherd us into a new landscape.”

Here is the list of this year’s main award winners:

Moonwalker Features

Best Fiction Feature
Troubled Minds [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lauris Abele, Raitis Abele …
film profile] – Raitis and Lauris Abele (Latvia)

Best Performance
Natasha Petrovic – Only Human [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Igor Ivanov
film profile] (North Macedonia)

Best Direction
Sarah Carter – In Her Name (USA)
Special Mentions
Samuel Ríos y Valles – The Days I Lost (Mexico)
Raitis and Lauris Abele – Troubled Minds

Shooting Star Features

Best Direction
Clay Tatum – The Civil Dead (USA)

Best Performance
Madaline Coghlan – We Burn Like This (USA)
Special Mention
Theodore Schaefer (DoP) – Giving Birth to a Butterfly (USA)

Storytime Shorts

Best Short
Lie Still – Ida Marie Meurs-Gerken (Denmark)

Best Performance
Simon Dietersdorfer – Nobody (Austria)

Best Direction
Aglaja Filipovic – Alone Together (Serbia)

Superdocs Features

Best Documentary Feature
Why Are We (Not) Creative – Hermann Vaske (Germany)

Superdocs Shorts

Best Documentary Short
Victory – Eloisa Diez (Mexico)