After 13 days packed with feature fiction films, documentaries, shorts and panels, the 62nd Viennale came to a close and gave out its awards on 29 October. Staying in tune with the short runtime of the opening film, C’est Pas Moi by Leos Carax, the final screening of the evening was the Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop. “It is a rebellion against violation”, said festival director Eva Sangiorgi to explain this decision. The anti-colonial experimental documentary fits right in with Sangiorgi’s declaration that Vienna is "a leading city and a community that continues to foster film culture and rebels against economic interest."

This tendency to look to communities and reject economic exploitation is also reflected in the awarded films. The Vienna Film Award for Best Austrian Film went to the Austrian-French-Somalian feature film debut by Mo Harawe, The Village Next To Paradise [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]. The film, which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes, tells the story of a Somalian jack-of-all-trades who is trying to give his son a better life in a region marked by conflict, natural disasters and US drone strikes. The jury applauded the film's "impressive openness in showing a reality that often remains abstract from a European perspective or is reduced to a headline in the form of news reports." They called Harawe’s debut "cinema in the truest sense of the word", which leaves one "with a lasting impression". 

The Special Jury Prize went to Austria-produced Favoriten [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ruth Beckermann
ficha de la película] by Ruth Beckermann. The documentary, which premiered at this year’s Berlinale and took home the Peace Film Prize, follows a Viennese elementary school class made up entirely of second-generation migrant children. Making a strong statement to invest more into the educational sector and enable equal opportunities, the Jury stated that Beckerman’s "patient observation in a Viennese primary school over several years is a true documentary stroke of luck" and that it "shows that the commitment of a single person - embodied in the film by the dedicated, caring and humanly involved teacher Ilkay Idiskut - can make all the difference for so many."

Unlike in prior years, the Erste Bank MehrWERT Award was awarded to only one film, the Czech-Slovak-Austrian co-production I'm Not Everything I Want to Be [+lee también:
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entrevista: Klára Tasovská
ficha de la película] by Klára Tasovská. The documentary chronicles the moving and varied life of Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková, who resisted repression, travelled to Japan despite a ban, and entered into a fictitious marriage to start a new life in West Berlin. The jury called it "simply great cinema" and applauded Tasovská for creating a "rhythmic montage that combines marvellous black-and-white photographs, diary entries and an outstanding soundtrack."

The DER STANDARD Reader Jury selected the French film Fario [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Lucie Prost as their winner. It centres on a brilliant young engineer who has to return to his French hometown, debating whether he should sell his father's farm to a drilling company. The jury singled out Prost’s "visuality, showing profound insights into the inner life of a young man against the backdrop of current problems." The jury also gave honourable mentions to French-Canadian film Who By Fire [+lee también:
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entrevista: Philippe Lesage
ficha de la película] by Philippe Lesage, to British-Irish-Sambian feature On Becoming a Guinea Fowl [+lee también:
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entrevista: Rungano Nyoni, Susan Chardy
ficha de la película] by Rungano Nyoni, and to the French-German-Italian-Belgian-Portuguese co-production The [+lee también:
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entrevista: Bruno Dumont
ficha de la película] Empire [+lee también:
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entrevista: Bruno Dumont
ficha de la película] by Bruno Dumont.

The FIPRESCI Award went to Canadian film Universal Language by Matthew Rankin. The surreal comedy follows several inhabitants of the city of Winnipeg as they deal with life’s challenges and disappointments. For the jury, it touched upon "relevant topics such as migration and displacement in an original way," and Rankin has crafted "not only a declaration of love to the Iranian cinema of the 1980s and 1990s but also to the dry humour usually associated with Nordic countries."

The festival can again report a very well-attended edition, with 75,800 people at screenings. There were six talks and masterclasses with, amongst others, Joshua Oppenheimer, Albert Serra and Bruno Dumont, which took place in the new festival space Zentralino at Metro Kino Kulturhaus. "It was a wonderful edition, which of course had to deal with the political climate of uncertainty and concern and the conflict situations on so many fronts internationally," summarised Sangiorgi. There is a feeling "of being part of a community that does not want to adapt to violence, but opposes it through the many languages of cinema."

Here is the full list of winners:

Vienna Film Award for Best Austrian Film
The Village Next To Paradise [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Mo Harawe (Austria/France/Germany/Somalia)

Special Award of the Jury
Favoriten [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ruth Beckermann
ficha de la película] - Ruth Beckermann (Austria)

Viennale Award of the DER STANDARD Reader Jury
Fario [+lee también:
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entrevista: Lucie Prost
ficha de la película] - Lucie Prost (France)  

FIPRESCI Award
Universal Language - Matthew Rankin (Canada)

Erste Bank MehrWERT Award
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be [+lee también:
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entrevista: Klára Tasovská
ficha de la película] - Klára Tasovská (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Austria)