Braunschweig announces prize-winners
The 22nd edition of the Braunschweig International Film Festival (November 4-9) – which is above all aimed at public audiences and has focused on European films since its creation in 1986 – closed this weekend with the awards ceremony. Honours went to the Italian film Concrete Romance [+see also:
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The Heinrich Award (created ten years ago) is presented by the audience to quality debut or second European films and worth €10,000 (part of which is intended to aid German distribution of the film). This year, the award went to Marco Martani’s Concrete Romance (sales: Visual Factory).
This story of an unequal encounter between a young man and a mafioso godfather outshone eight other contenders representing eight European countries (including Róbert Lakatos’ Hungarian title Good Luck! and Rene Vilbre’s Estonian film I Was Here [+see also:
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film profile]).
The festival’s other major award, the Europa – which recognises an actor’s outstanding contribution to European film – went to Ganz. Sometimes referred to as the most European of German actors, he has worked with Theo Angelopoulos and Silvio Soldini, among others, and is currently on screens in The Baader Meinhof Complex [+see also:
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Six debut and second films vied for the French-German Youth Kinema Award (sponsored by Hanna Schygulla and presented by a jury of young adults presided by the director Felix Randau). The award went to Anna Novion’s French title Grown Ups [+see also:
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Other contenders for the prize were Marc Fitoussi’s La Vie d'artiste [+see also:
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The Leo for Best Short Film Score went to Nicolas Martin for his work on Jéremy Clapin’s French film Skhizein.
The Braunschweig Film Festival hosted around 23,000 viewers and screened 165 shorts and features.
(Translated from French)
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