02/12/2024 - Belgian director Wannes Destoop’s first work is named Best Film, while Chiara Fleischhacker’s Vena, Abdelhamid Bouchnack’s L’Aiguille and Jacob Møller’s Madame Ida also scoop trophies

Actress Daphne Agten and director Wannes Destoop with their award for Holy Rosita (© Torino Film Festival)

The 42nd edition of the Torino Film festival ended in victory for Wannes Destoop’s first work Holy Rosita [+see also:
film review
film profile]. The young Belgian director had developed the movie’s screenplay within the 2020 TorinoFilmLab, having made his name in 2011 with the short film Badpakje 46, which bagged the Jury Prize in the Cannes Film Festival. Produced by Flemish firm De Wereldvrede, his debut feature film opened the Ostand Festival at the end of January and was then released in Belgian cinemas on 14 February this year. The film takes a highly sensitive approach to tell the story of a woman (theatre actress Daphne Agten in her first film role) who is desperate to become a mother, but whose entourage disapprove of this because she can barely take care of herself. “My love for marginalised people is the main reason why I want to tell stories and make films”, the director explained. “I want to shed light on situations and on people who are too often left in the shadows and whom the average city-dweller tends to judge without really knowing their story. With Holy Rosita, I wanted to tell a moving story which was full of hope, a story about mothers and children, vulnerable souls who are labelled as marginalised by society but who still have the right to be happy”.

Both the Iwonderfull Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize went to Vena by German director Chiara Fleischhacker, which tells another dramatic story of hard-fought-for motherhood. The screenplay for Vena saw Fleischhacker win the Thomas Strittmatter Award in 2022.

The trophy for Best Screenplay was scooped by L’Aiguille by Tunisian filmmaker Abdelhamid Bouchnack, which is a movie on the sensitive subject of “intersexual” children in Arab society. Two Best Acting prizes were also awarded: one to the female protagonist trio of Madame Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Denmark’s Jacob Møller: Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, Christine Albeck Børge and Karen-Lise Mynster; and another to River Gallo, the Salvadoran-American director, actor, model and activist for intersexual rights, thanks to Ponyboi by Colombia’s Esteban Arango. A Special Mention was also awarded to Stanislav Gurenko and Andrii Alferov’s Ukrainian film Dissident [+see also:
film review
film profile].

The accolade of Best Documentary was bestowed upon French-German production The Return of the Projectionist [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which is Orkhan Aghazadeh’s first feature film, set in the Azerbaijani mountains, and, last but not least, the Special Jury Prize was awarded jointly to I'm Not Everything I Want to Be [+see also:
film review
interview: Klára Tasovská
film profile] by Czech director Klára Tasovská, which enjoyed its world premiere in the 2024 Berlinale’s Panorama section, and Egypt’s The Brink of Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir
film profile] by Ayman El Amir and Nada Riyadh, which was presented in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, where it bagged the Golden Eye.

The full list of awards is as follows:

Feature Film Competition

Best Film
Holy Rosita [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Wannes Destoop (Belgium)

IWONDERFULL Special Jury Prize
Vena - Chiara Fleischhacker (Germany)

Best Screenplay
L'Aiguille - Abdelhamid Bouchnack (Tunisia)

Best Acting Performance
Flora Ofelia Hofmann Lindahl, Christine Albeck Børge, Karen-Lise Mynster - Madame Ida [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Denmark)
River Gallo – Ponyboi (USA)

Special Mention
Dissident [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Stanislav Gurenko, Andrii Alferov (Ukraine)

Documentary Competition

Best Film
The Return of the Projectionist [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Orkhan Aghazadeh (France/Germany)

Special Jury Prize – Tie-break
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be [+see also:
film review
interview: Klára Tasovská
film profile] - Klára Tasovská (Czech Republic)
The Brink of Dreams [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nada Riyadh, Ayman El Amir
film profile] - Ayman El Amir, Nada Riyadh (Egypt)

Special Mention
Higher than Acidic Clouds - Ali Asgari (Iran)

Short Films Competition

Best Film
Walk In - Haneol Park (South Korea)

Special Jury Prize
Fire Drill - Maximilian Villwock (Germany)

Special Mention
Someone's Trying to Get In - Colin Nixon (Canada)

Other awards

International Federation of Film Journalists FIPRESCI Prize
Vena - Chiara Fleischhacker

(Translated from Italian)