01/02/2023 - The Geneva festival has made a successful post-pandemic comeback with a number of highlights that attracted an enthusiastic audience hungry for independent cinema

The International Black Movie Independent Film Festival in Geneva, directed by Maria Watzlawick, was able to count on an attendance of nearly 30,000 festival-goers from around the world attracted by a rich and demanding programme but also by a series of round tables and very festive events.

This year, Black Movie offered its audience 91 films from more than 50 countries, accompanied by more than twenty guests. At the top of the podium of this 24th edition (20-29 January) are several independent cinematographic nuggets, among which, on the highest step, Have You Seen This Woman? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluš…
film profile] by filmmakers Matija Gluščević and Dušan Zorić, with the Critics' Prize. Have You Seen This Woman? is an intense and surprising cinematographic adventure inhabited by musical scenes that transcribe into images the inner world of a poetic and melancholic character searching for her place in the world. The jury for the Critics' Prize, consisting of Jacqueline Maurer (Filmbulletin), Silvia Posavec (NZZ am Sonntag) and Clea Wanner (ProgrammZeitung), noted that the film "gives a voice to a woman in her fifties, who is usually marginalized in our society. The directors create a grotesque environment in which they place Draginja, played sensually and touchingly by Ksenija Marinković", adding that "this multifaceted character frees herself from the roles and conventions that have been assigned to her, and the film reflects her choices through a deliberately deconstructed narrative.” A special mention went to the Rwandan film Father's Day by Kivu Ruhorahoza.

The Youth Prize was awarded to the Vietnamese film Children of the Mist by Hà Lệ Diễm, whose jury praises "the beauty of its images and the power of its message," adding that "in this film, we discover the raw reality of traditions when they catch up with children forced to grow up too fast. The director, close to her character, has used her camera as a weapon to expose an unjust and patriarchal system to the general public.” Finally, among the short film prizes, Ice Merchants by Portuguese director João Gonzalez won the Payot Petit Black Movie Prize.

This year's edition of the Black Movie Festival has charmed its audience with the best of independent cinema, an aesthetically and thematically powerful cinema that attracts an ever-growing fan base.

The awards:

Critics’ Prize
Have You Seen This Woman? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Dušan Zorić and Matija Gluš…
film profile] - Matija Gluščević, Dušan Zorić (Serbia/Croatia)
Special Mention
Father’s Day - Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda)

Youth Prize
Children of the Mist - Hà Lệ Diễm (Vietnam)

Children’s Prize
Beyond the Frog - Xue Feng et Han Xu (China) (short film)

Payot Petit Black Movie Prize
Ice Merchants - João Gonzalez (Portugal) (short film)
Special Mention
A White Day - Vasily Tchirkov (Russia/Canada) (short film)

(Translated from French)