And Their Children After Them receives multiple awards at the Seville Film Festival
- The film by the Boukherma brothers won Best Film and Best Actor at the event; winners also included Gints Zilbalodis' Flow and Magnus von Horn's The Girl with the Needle
The 21st Seville European Film Festival (held in the Andalusian city from 8 to 16 November) announced last Saturday that And Their Children After Them [+see also:
film review
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film profile], the fourth feature film by the French duo Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, was the winner of its top award, the Giraldillo de Oro for Best Film. The jury for the Official Section consisted of the legendary producer of The Mission and Midnight Express David Puttnam (chair), British actor Jeremy Irons, the artistic director of the Rome Film Festival Paola Malanga, French programmer Eva Rekettyei and the French-Algerian director Mounia Meddour. This film also received the Best Actor award for its young lead, Paul Kircher. The co-directors highlighted his introspective and movingly fragile performance in this story of social determinism.
Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis, meanwhile, won the Grand Jury Prize for his silent, animated film Flow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gints Zilbalodis
film profile], as well as the prize for best editing. The third triumph of the festival was The Girl with the Needle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile], which won four awards: Best Director for Swedish director Magnus von Horn, Best Actress for Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, Best Cinematography for Michał Dymek's black and white work, and Best Art Direction for Jagna Dobesz's post-World War I Copenhagen setting. The list of winners in the Official Selection is completed with the trophy for Best Screenplay for Santosh [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sandhya Suri
film profile], by British-Indian director Sandhya Suri.
This years’ festival has awarded the Puerta América Award for the first time, for films from the different sections of the festival that represent their respective countries in the candidacy for the next Oscar for best international film, which was also won by Flow: "because it moves us without words, with gestures and images, capable of transmitting hope in dark times," stated the jury.
The Flame of a Candle [+see also:
film review
film profile], by Portuguese director André Gil Mata, was chosen best film in the New Waves section: the jury notes "the subtle handling of the themes of life, death, memory and decadence through a radical cinematographic style that explores the limits of space and time, implying that places exist even without us, imbued with our personal stories and memories". A special mention was also awarded in this section to I'd Rather Be Condemned [+see also:
film review
film profile], by the Galician film-maker Margarita Ledo Andión.
Aitor Echeverría, who competed in the Official Selection with his debut feature film Dismantling an Elephant [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] won the prize for best director of a Spanish film, awarded by Acción Cultural Española, for "a moving film, with intimate direction and a sharp photographic gaze, all supported by an impeccable cast."
The jury of the Rampa section, another of this year’s novelties, recognised Drowning Dry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurynas Bareiša
film profile], by the Lithuanian Laurynas Bareiša, as the best film, for "its capacity to disturb with minimal elements, its use of sequence shots and off-camera, and because it is one of the sharpest and most perverse readings of toxic masculinity that we have seen in recent European cinema". The jury also included in its verdict a special mention for actress Valeria Bruni Tedeschi for "her stark yet tender performance, full of humour” in Somewhere in Love.
A final new addition is the Alumbramiento section, in which the FIPRESCI jury decided to award Lads, the first fiction film by French director Julien Menanteau, as best feature film, for "its solid and energetic narrative proposal that portrays, with great visual and plastic capacity, a singular world", as well as for "the dramatic strength provided by the performance of its actors". In this section, the jury awarded a special mention to The Fortunate Ones [+see also:
film review
film profile], by the Swiss (Portugal-based) Jeanne Waltz, for "its risky and symbolic proposal about a universe of interracial and interclass relations".
The CampUS Jury Prize for Best Director in the Rampa section went to Moroccan-French film maker Saïd Hamich Benlarbi for La mer au loin [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
film profile], "a film that shows us cinema and music unifying elements across the Mediterranean; with complex characters that move away from simplistic treatment, in the perspective of a very relevant theme on a social level in contemporary Europe."
The award winners:
Competition
Giraldillo de Oro for the best film
And Their Children After Them [+see also:
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film profile] - Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma (France)
Grand Jury Prize
Flow [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Gints Zilbalodis
film profile] - Gints Zilbalodis (Latvia/France/Belgium)
Best Director Award
Magnus von Horn - The Girl with the Needle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile] (Denmark/Poland/Sweden)
Best Screenplay Award
Sandhya Suri - Santosh [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sandhya Suri
film profile] (France/UK/Germany)
Best Actress Award
Trine Dyrholm - The Girl with the Needle
Best Actor Award
Paul Kircher – And Their Children After Them
Best Editing
Gints Zilbalodis - Flow
Best Photography
Michał Dymek - The Girl with the Needle
Best Art Director
Jagna Dobesz - The Girl with the Needle
New Waves
Best Film Award
The Flame of a Candle [+see also:
film review
film profile] - André Gil Mata (Portugal/France)
Special Mention
I'd Rather Be Condemned [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Margarita Ledo Andión (Spain)
Rampa
Best Film Award
Drowning Dry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laurynas Bareiša
film profile] - Laurynas Bareiša (Lithuania/Latvia)
CampUS Jury Prize for Best Direction
Saïd Hamich Benlarbi - Across the Sea [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
film profile] (France/Morocco/Belgium)
Special Mention
Valeria Bruni Tedeschi - Somewhere in Love (France/Belgium)
Alumbramiento
Best Film Award
Lads - Julien Menanteau (France/Belgium)
Special Mention
The Fortunate Ones [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Jeanne Waltz (Portugal/Switzerland)
Puerta America
Puerta América Award
Flow - Gints Zilbalodis
Andalusian Panorama
Juan Antonio Bermúdez Award for Best Film
The Trail Left by Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Luis (Soto) Muñoz and Alfredo Picazo
Special Mention
Resistance Reels - Concha Barquero Artés and Alejandro Alvarado Jódar
Rosario Valpuesta Award for Best Short Film
Tumbas vecinas - José Antonio Gutiérrez Bustos
Rosario Valpuesta Special Prize for artistic contribution
El cambio de rueda- Begoña Arostegui
Other Awards
AC/E Award for Best Director of a Spanish Film
Aitor Echeverría - Dismantling an Elephant [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] Spain/France)
AAMMA Women in Focus Award
This Life of Mine [+see also:
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film profile] - Sophie Fillières (France)
Queer Ocaña Freedom Award
Un Hombre Libre [+see also:
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film profile] - Laura Hojman (Spain)
Future Film Lovers’ Award
Young Hearts [+see also:
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interview: Anthony Schatteman
film profile] - Anthony Schatteman (Belgium/Netherlands)
Europe Junior Prize
Dunia and the Echo of the Drum - Marya Zarif and André Kadi (France/Canada) (medium-length film)
17th University of Seville European Film-Screenplay Award in the fiction category - First prize
Y ahora que duermes - Beatriz Hohenleiter Márquez and Mario Lerma
17th University of Seville European Film-Screenplay Award in the fiction category - Second prize
Madre puesta - Álvaro del Moral Otero
(Translated from Spanish by Alexandra Stephens)
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