Traffic and In Good Faith triumph at the 40th Warsaw Film Festival
- Teodora Ana Mihai’s second fiction feature has won the Grand Prize in the International Competition, while Frauke Lodders’s new film was victorious in the 1-2 Competition
On 19 October, the 40th edition of the Warsaw Film Festival concluded with an awards ceremony where the various juries announced their choices.
In the International Competition, the Grand Prize, which comes with a 100,000 zlotys (approximately €23,000) cash award funded by the Mayor of Warsaw, was given to Traffic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Romanian director Teodora Ana Mihai. Penned by Cristian Mungiu, the film follows a group of Romanian villagers emigrating to the Netherlands for work, where the exploitation they suffer pushes them to steal priceless paintings, a situation that soon spirals out of control. The Best Director Award went to German filmmaker Anatol Schuster for Chaos and Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], in which the mysterious breakdown of their landlady intertwines with the changing lives of a young couple who are becoming parents. The Special Jury Prize for Best Screenwriter went to Estonian filmmaker Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo for Lioness [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the story of a mother struggling to care for her daughter.
The 1-2 Competition, dedicated to first and second features, rewarded German director Frauke Lodders for In Good Faith, which follows two teenage siblings growing up in a strict evangelical family, who discover that their emerging identities clash with their community’s values. Hungarian filmmaker Nikol Cibulya received a Special Mention for her ghost story Tomorrow I Die [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
The Crème de la Crème Competition rewarded Chinese filmmaker Guan Hu’s Black Dog, winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, and gave a Special Mention to Lotfi Achour for Red Path [+see also:
film review
film profile], which previously competed in the Cineasti del Presente competition at Locarno.
The winner of the Free Spirit Competition, dedicated to “independent, innovative, rebellious” films, was Estonian filmmaker Moonika Siimets’s The Black Hole [+see also:
interview: Moonika Siimets
film profile], while a Special Mention went to US director Alexandre Rockwell’s Lump.
The Documentary Competition jury gave the Best Documentary Feature Award to War Correspondent by Benjamin Tuček and David Čálek, which follows one of the Czech Republic's most experienced war reporters, Martin Dorazín. It also awarded two Special Mentions, to Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan’s debut, Made in Ethiopia, and to Hungarian filmmaker Ádám Miklós’s Beyond Rock Bottom.
The Short Film Competition gave out Oscar-qualifying awards to Service by Michał Edelman (Poland), All That Remains by Andrei Redinciuc (Romania), Mautini by Tabarak Allah Abbas (Switzerland) and Run Monnie, Run by Karolina Biesiacka (Poland).
Here is the full list of award winners:
International Competition
Warsaw Grand Prix
Traffic [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Teodora Ana Mihai (Romania/Belgium/Netherlands)
Best Director Award
Anatol Schuster - Chaos and Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Germany)
Special Jury Award for Best Screenwriter
Liina Trishkina-Vanhatalo - Lioness [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Estonia/Germany/Latvia)
1-2 Competition
Best Film
In Good Faith - Frauke Lodders (Germany)
Special Mention
Tomorrow I Die [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Nikol Cibulya (Hungary)
Crème de la Crème Competition
Best Film
Black Dog - Guan Hu (China)
Special Mention
Red Path [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Lotfi Achour (Tunisia/France/Belgium/Poland)
Free Spirit Competition
Best Film
The Black Hole [+see also:
interview: Moonika Siimets
film profile] - Moonika Siimets (Estonia/Finland)
Special Mention
Lump - Alexandre Rockwell (USA)
Documentary Competition
Best Documentary Feature Award
War Correspondent - Benjamin Tuček, David Čálek (Czech Republic/Ukraine/Slovakia)
Special Mentions
Made in Ethiopia - Xinyan Yu, Max Duncan (Canada/Ethiopia/USA/UK)
Beyond Rock Bottom - Ádám Miklós (Hungary)
Short Film Competition
Short Grand Prize
Service - Michał Edelman (Poland)
Best Live-action Short
All That Remains - Andrei Redinciuc (Romania)
Best Animated Short
Mautini - Tabarak Allah Abbas (Switzerland)
Best Documentary Short
Run Monnie, Run - Karolina Biesiacka (Poland)
Special Mention Live Action
Amos, Vogel - Iñaki Salvador García Miranda (Mexico)
Other awards
FIPRESCI Award for Best Debut from Eastern Europe
Ink Wash [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Sarra Tsorakidis (Romania/Greece/Denmark)
Young FIPRESCI Award for Best Debut from Eastern Europe
The Crossroads - Dominika Montean-Pańków (Poland)
Ecumenical Jury Award
Bitter Gold - Juan Francisco Olea (Chile/Mexico/Uruguay/Germany)
Honourable Mention
My Late Summer [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Danis Tanović (Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/Romania/Slovenia/Serbia)
NETPAC Award for Best Asian/Pacific Film
Black Dog - Guan Hu (China)
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