09/12/2003

There’ve been some early Christmas presents for some promising young talents in European cinema, who have just been awarded at the Vendôme Images en Région Festival and at the Tous Courts event in Aix-en-Provence. The winners come from France, Germany, Norway, Belgium and Switzerland.

The 12th edition of the "Images en Région" festival, which ended at the weekend, gave the European Competition Grand Prize to the Belgium director John Shankuffat, and his film Les mains froides. The jury also gave a special prize and the director’s award to the film Der Komplex by the Swiss filmmaker Fabienne Boesch. Another Swiss film won the prize for Best Actress, which was awarded to Nina Meurisse for the film L'escalier by Frédéric Mermoud.
The Youth Prize was shared by the German director Birthe Templin for Lübbos Frau wartet and the French filmmaker Stéphane Elmadjian for Freedub 1. Thomas Salvador won the Grand Prize for the French film competition.

As for the short films awarded at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Scandinavia fared well after its strong performance at Brest. The Norwegian short film De Beste Gar Forst (United we stand), by Hans Petter Moland, won the Grand Prize of this 21st edition of the "Tous Courts" Festival. There was also an award for the Ukrainian Stepan Koval for The tram n°9 goes.

(Translated from French)