Wind Talk to Me triumphs at the tenth edition of Novos Cinemas
- The film by Serbia's Stefan Djordjevic has scooped Best Film and the Audience Award in a winners’ list dominated by European productions
The Novos Cinema Pontevedra International Film Festival (9-14 December) has just marked ten years of tireless work championing bold auteur cinema and exploring new voices that adopt innovative approaches, both national and international. As is now customary, the opening and closing screenings showcased Galician filmmakers: The Dashed Lines [+see also:
film review
film profile], the eagerly awaited second feature by Anxos Fazáns, opened the festival after its stint in competition at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and at the Gijón Film Festival, while And So the Night Fell [+see also:
film review
film profile], the new feature by Ángel Santos, the former artistic director of the Pontevedra event, which also recently premiered (and was rewarded) at Gijón, provided an emotional finale to this tenth edition.
In addition to the usual Official Selection and Latexos strands, which showcase a carefully curated slate of debut and sophomore works, the festival once again included its Ceres section, a non-competitive programme that promotes work developed in film and audiovisual schools and training centres in Spain and Portugal. This year, Novos Cinemas devoted its first European focus to Un Puma, a Buenos Aires-based Argentinian production company co-founded in 2015 by producer Victoria Marotta and producer-filmmaker-screenwriter Jerónimo Quevedo (The Human Surge [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], Riders [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]). Complementing the film programme, the Galician gathering strengthened its training and industry initiatives (the Terra#LAB and ÁGORA) with numerous meetings and workshops.
Saturday saw the awards ceremony, where the international jury, made up of Spanish researcher Germán Labrador, Ecuadorian filmmaker Jean-Jacques Martinod and Barcelona-based Bulgarian critic Mariana Hristova, presented the Novos Cinemas Award for Best Feature in the Official Section to Wind Talk to Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Đorđević
film profile], the debut feature by Serbia's Stefan Djordjevic. In the jury’s words, the movie is “a Balkan elegy whose frequencies resonate in a very particular way in a Galician context, yet whose human and aesthetic ramifications become radically comprehensible to any community-minded sensibility”. This powerful piece of docufiction, in which the auteur confronts the death of his mother, also picked up the Audience Award.
The other major winner at the gathering was the Iranian title The Crowd by Sahand Kabiri, which earned a Special Mention from the international jury and the Young Jury Award for Best Direction in the Official Section, for “its formal precision and the deep imprint of the context in which it unfolds, and for how all of its component parts (the cinematography, performances and sound design) reflect a narrative of urgent relevance”. The Young Jury members also decided to acknowledge the title The Anatomy of the Horses [+see also:
film review
interview: Daniel Vidal Toche
film profile] by Daniel Vidal Toche with a Special Mention.
Meanwhile, the Latexos Jury, composed of Spanish exhibitors Albert Triviño (Zumzeig), Manuel Asín (Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid) and Xan Gómez (NUMAX), decided to hand its section’s prize, which champions heterodox, risk-taking films, to Yrupê [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Candela Santos, “a seminal film that stands as a vindication of cinema’s pedagogical power and of the cinematographic image as an act of resistance against silence”.
The Critics’ Jury, composed of Elena del Olmo, Andrés González and Nacho Álvarez, bestowed its award upon the experimental essay Glass Bottom Ferry by Spain’s Chus Domínguez, “for its engagement with the present, using voice and image to question the hegemonic narrative on borders and migration, and for its firm commitment to re-signifying official images and exposing the cracks”. Additionally, the critics granted a Special Mention to Australia's Audrey Lam for her work Us and the Night. Finally, the prize in the Ceres section went to Cama de lavado by María Lima, “for its technical quality and its blend of languages, using animation as the main tool to build a universe of its own”. Moreover, the Ceres Jury awarded a Special Mention to Todo dicho by Nel González, “for its reinterpretation of the western genre and its critique of outdated masculinities through an original, carefully crafted visual language”.
Here is the full list of winners:
Novos Cinemas Award
Wind Talk to Me [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stefan Đorđević
film profile] – Stefan Djordjevic (Serbia/Slovenia/Croatia)
Special Mention
The Crowd – Sahand Kabiri (Iran)
Latexos Award
Yrupê [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – Candela Sotos (Spain)
Critics’ Award
Glass Bottom Ferry – Chus Domínguez (Spain)
Special Mention
Us and the Night – Audrey Lam (Australia)
Young Jury Award for Best Direction in the Official Section
The Crowd – Sahand Kabiri (Iran)
Special Mention
The Anatomy of the Horses [+see also:
film review
interview: Daniel Vidal Toche
film profile] – Daniel Vidal Toche (Spain/Peru/Colombia/France)
Ceres Award
Cama de lavado – María Lima (Portugal, short film)
Special Mention
Todo dicho – Nel González (Spain, short film)
Audience Award
Wind Talk to Me – Stefan Djordjevic
(Translated from Spanish)
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