20/10/2026 - French filmmaker Marine Atlan has won the Grand Prix for her first feature, while Alain Gomis’s Dao took home the Georges Delerue Award for best soundtrack

The 53rd edition of Film Fest Gent concluded on Saturday 17 October with the announcement of its winners' list, topped by La Gradiva, the first feature by French filmmaker and cinematographer Marine Atlan.

Unveiled at Cannes last May, where it won the Grand Prix in the Critics’ Week, this fiery film about adolescence won over the jury, comprising Sandra den Hamer (former director of IFFR and Amsterdam’s Eye Filmmuseum), Swiss filmmaker Nicole Vögele, Belgian-Congolese singer-songwriter Lous and the Yakuza, and Spanish filmmaker Jaume Claret Muxart, and chaired by Flemish filmmaker Felix Van Groeningen. The jury highlighted the power of this “brilliant portrayal of the experience of contemporary youth, capturing friendships, sexuality, desires, confusion and fears with profound authenticity. […] A hypnotic ballad that moves between a volcano on the verge of eruption, millennia-old frescoes and a city filmed with such vitality that we felt like we could smell it through the screen.” Featuring a young cast made up largely of non-professional actors, the movie, sold internationally by mk2 Films, is being released in France this Wednesday 21 October by Tandem Films, and in Belgian cinemas on 28 October by Cinéart.

The jury also chose to award a Special Mention to another debut feature, this time a documentary: Jean by Belgian filmmaker Jolke Van Aerde, “a new voice we definitely want to hear from again”, the jury noted.

Another distinctive feature of the festival is the particular attention it pays to film music. Every year, the Georges Delerue Award honours a film whose soundtrack stands out for its excellence. This year, Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis received the gong for Dao, unveiled at the Berlinale last February. The jury commented: “If we can agree that images are the body of a film, then music is its blood, its pulse. For this award, we chose the film that, in our eyes, best embodied this feeling: a love letter to freedom and jazz, like a gateway between different cultures and realities, filled with extraordinary pieces of music that guide the viewer throughout the journey.”

Finally, the Young Jury Prize, aka the Explore Award, presented by five young film enthusiasts aged from 18-26, went to Everytime by Austrian director Sandra Wollner, already a prizewinner at Cannes (winning the Un Certain Regard Prize). The Jo Röpcke Award, which celebrates a figure from Flemish cinema, went to screenwriter Angelo Tijssens, whose credits this year include Coward by Lukas Dhont and Dust by Anke Blonde, unveiled in competition at Berlin. The honorary Joseph Plateau Award went to British filmmaker Danny Boyle.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Grand Prix
La Gradiva – Marine Atlan (France/Italy)

Special Mention
Jean – Jolke Van Aerde (Belgium)

Georges Delerue Award
Gaspard Gomis, Keïta Janota, Space Dukes – Dao (France/Senegal/Guinea-Bissau)

Explore Award
Everytime – Sandra Wollner (Germany/Austria)

Jo Röpcke Award
Angelo Tijssens

Joseph Plateau Award
Danny Boyle

(Translated from French)