20/11/2023 - French director Léa Fehner’s movie is named Best Film, with prizes also won by Légua, Woman on the Roof and Remember to Blink, and the Cineuropa Prize awarded to Vasil

Jury chair Stefan Kitanov (centre) with the Golden Olive for Léa Fehner

“An original and profound examination of motherhood, highlighting secrets we don’t often talk about” in which “the director disappears behind the camera, leaving people free to express their feelings in a variety of private contexts”. This was the reasoning given by the jury of the 24th Lecce European Film Festival – presided over by Stefan Kitanov and composed of Gentian Koçi, Wilma Labate, Ales Pavlin and Angela Prudenzi – for naming Léa Fehner’s French title Midwives [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Léa Fehner
film profile] Best Film in the European feature films “Golden Olive” competition, at the end of a week (11 - 18 November) which shone a light on the best of high-quality European cinema in Salento’s capital city.

The jury handed its Special Prize to Légua [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Filipa Reis, João Miller Gu…
film profile] by Filipa Reis and João Miller Guerra, for its “capacity to combine a storytelling and documentarian approach, and its sensitive depiction of three different generations of female characters”, while Best Photography went to Polish D.o.P. Ita Zbroniec-Zajt for Woman on the Roof [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Jadowska
film profile] by Anna Jadowska (thanks to their “precise and structured visual approach”) and Best Screenplay was won by Lithuanian director Austèja Urbajté’s Remember to Blink [+see also:
film review
interview: Austėja Urbaitė
film profile] (in the words of the jury, “simple, astute, profound and clear, bringing together different cultures and languages”).

The award winners of this year’s event were almost exclusively female, taking into account the three trophies also bagged by Avelina Prat’s Vasil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Avelina Prat
film profile]: the Spanish-Bulgarian effort earned itself the Audience Award, a Special Mention for actor Ivan Barnev (who “confidently creates a vigorous, energetic, warm and emotional character”) and the Cineuropa Prize, handed over by the organisation’s director Valerio Caruso, who described the film as “an intelligent critique of Spanish society, denouncing a closed-mindedness and limited vision of the world, especially among the middle classes”.

Two prizes were won, meanwhile, by Copenhagen Does Not Exist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Skovbjerg
film profile], directed by Denmark’s Martin Skovbjerg: the trophy for Best European Actor/Actress, awarded by the SNGCI – National Association of Italian Film Journalists to Angela Bundalovic (“for her intense and unconventional performance in line with this love story which refuses all rules”), and the FIPRESCI Prize (“for a film which is at once a complex love story, an enigmatic psychological drama and a pacy thriller”).

For its part, Disco Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giacomo Abbruzzese
film profile] by Giacomo Abbruzzese proved the winner of the Mario Verdone Prize, as selected by siblings Carlo, Luca and Silvia Verdone, “for its capacity to marry expressive rigour and an ideal measure of freedom to speak of the loss and rebirth of a modern-day hero”. Last but not least, the Emidio Greco Prize for Best Short Film was won by Lorenzo Tardella’s Le variabili dipendenti, while the Cinecittà News Special Mention for Best Documentary was bagged by Renato Chiocca’s Tutto quello che sarà.

The full list of winners from the 24th Lecce European Film Festival is as follows:

“Golden Olive” Competition

Best Film
Midwives [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Léa Fehner
film profile] - Léa Fehner (France)

Special Jury Prize
Légua [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Filipa Reis, João Miller Gu…
film profile] - Filipa Reis, João Miller Guerra (Portugal/France/Italy)

Best Cinematography
Ita Zbroniec-Zajt - Woman on the Roof [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Jadowska
film profile] (Poland/Sweden/France)

Best Screenplay
Remember to Blink [+see also:
film review
interview: Austėja Urbaitė
film profile] - Austeja Urbajte (Lithuania)

Special Mention
Ivan Barnev - Vasil [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Avelina Prat
film profile] (Spain/Bulgaria)

Audience Award
Vasil - Avelina Prat

SNGCI Prize for Best European Actor/Actress
Angela Bundalovic - Copenhagen Does Not Exist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martin Skovbjerg
film profile] (Denmark)

FIPRESCI Prize
Copenhagen Does Not Exist - Martin Skovbjerg

Cineuropa Prize
Vasil - Avelina Prat

PUGLIA SHOW Prize

Best Short Film
Paramore - Andrea Lamedica, Francesco Mastroleo (Italy – short film)
Special Mention
La mia escort - Alessandro Porzio (Italy – short film)

RAI Cinema Channel Prize
La piccola estate - Sara Scalera (Italy – short film)

Unisalento Prize
Tart - Federico Emilio Cornacchia (Italy – short film)

Mario Verdone Prize
Disco Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giacomo Abbruzzese
film profile] - Giacomo Abbruzzese (France/Belgium/Italy/Poland)

Emidio Greco Prize
Le variabili dipendenti - Lorenzo Tardella (Italy – short film)

Cinecittà News Special Mention for the Cinema&Realtà Section
Tutto quello che sarà - Renato Chiocca (Italy)

(Translated from Italian)