VENICE 2023 Giornate degli Autori / Awards

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person scoops the GdA Director’s Award

08/09/2023 - VENICE 2023: French-Canadian filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize wins the Giornate degli Autori award; the Europa Cinemas Label goes to Photophobia and the Audience Award to Through The Night

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person director Ariane Louis-Seize with the GdA Director’s Award

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person by Ariane Louis-Seize has scooped the 2023 GdA Director’s Award, which is decided upon by a jury composed of European youngsters taking part in the 27 Times Cinema project, and whose victor was selected from among the ten films competing in the 20th edition of the Venice Film Festival’s Giornate degli Autori line-up.

This debut feature film by the French-Canadian director was crowned victorious by a jury presided over by Portuguese director and screenwriter João Pedro Rodrigues and co-ordinated by Karlovy Vary festival director Karel Och, with the following explanation: “This film deserves to be celebrated for its strong creative vision and its stylistic coherence in various respects, including its photography, acting, editing, costumes and set design. The film explores profound and complex themes, such as depression, mental wellbeing, euthanasia and neurodivergence, using a seemingly light-hearted yet moving and radical language. It suggests that it’s possible to find alternative ways of being ourselves in a normalising society. Wielding a unique style and language, the film should have wide appeal thanks to its tender and emotionally involving nature”.

The GdA Director’s Award consists of €20,000, half of which goes to the director and the other half to the film’s international sales agent with a view to enhancing circulation. The jury of the 27 Times Cinema project - initiated by Giornate degli Autori, the European Parliament’s LUX Audience Award and Europa Cinemas, in collaboration with Cineuropa - announced the winner of the GdA Director’s Award during their traditional plenary meeting, which was streamed on the Giornate degli Autori’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.

The Europa Cinemas Label for this year’s best European film went to Photophobia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pe…
film profile], by Slovak filmmakers Ivan Ostrochovský and Pavol Pekarčik. According to the jury comprising four traders of the Europa Cinemas Network, “Photophobia is an original and wonderfully observational film. The setting is contemporary, in an underground subway station in Kharkiv, at the height of the war in Ukraine. But this isn’t a stereotypical war story that wallows in despair. We see the way in which human beings – and children in particular – learn to create a new way of life [...]”.

Receiving the Label, Photophobia will benefit from the promotional support of Europa Cinemas and from better distribution thanks to a financial incentive for cinemas in the network that will include it in their programming.

The Audience award of the Giornate went to Through the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Delphine Girard
film profile] by Delphine Girard, a film that was preferred by 64% of the spectators who voted each day at the end of the competition film screenings.

Finally, the SIAE award for creative talent went to actor Alessandro Roia, who got his start directing and writing with the film With the Grace of a God [+see also:
interview: Alessandro Roia
film profile], and the Andrea Purgatori SIAE career award went to writer-director Luca Guadagnino.

The awards of the 2023 Giornate degli Autori:

GdA Director’s Award
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person - Ariane Louis-Seize (Canada)

Audience Award
Through the Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Delphine Girard
film profile] - Delphine Girard (Belgium/Canada/France)

Europa Cinemas Label
Photophobia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pe…
film profile] - Ivan Ostrochovský, Pavol Pekarčík (Slovakia/Czech Republic/Ukraine)

SIAE Career Award
Luca Guadagnino

Creative Talent Award
Alessandro Roia