On Monday night, at the Industry Village of the tenth Les Arcs Film Festival, the jury (comprising Gaia Furrer, Trevor Groth and Alex Traila) in charge of weighing up the 15 features duking it out in Work in Progress handed out two awards, with two further prizes being given to projects from the Coproduction Village and the Talent Village.

In Work in Progress, the TitraFilm Award (worth €10,000 in image and sound post-production) was bestowed upon System Crasher [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nora Fingscheidt
scheda film], the first feature-length fiction film by Germany’s Nora Fingscheidt. The movie, produced by Weydemann Bros and Kineo Filmproduktion (Germany), and co-produced by Oma Inge Film, revolves around Benni, a nine-year-old girl who is gentle but highly aggressive. She is placed in every possible institution of the Child Protective Services, but wherever she is put, she is systematically kicked out again. There is only one thing she really wants: to live with her mum again. But Bianca is scared of her own daughter. Interestingly, this was also the film that saw the highest number of meetings being requested by distributors and international sales agents, following its presentation.

Still in Work in Progress, the Lab Project Award (courtesy of Eurimages and worth €50,000 in cash) singled out White on White [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Théo Court
scheda film] by Theo Court (a Chilean filmmaker who shot to fame at Rotterdam in 2011 with Ocaso). Produced by Spanish outfit El Viaje Films and co-produced by France’s Pomme Hurlante Films, Chile’s Don Quijote Films and Germany’s Kundschafter Films, this historical drama was shot at the “end of the world”, in Tierra del Fuego, a snow- and windswept landscape. There, a photographer in search of beauty is carried away by the violence of the colonists, of which he becomes an ambiguous and voluntary witness.

As for the projects in the Coproduction Village, the ArteKino Festival Award (worth a total of €4,000) was split between Poland’s Aleksandra Terpinska for Other People [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Aleksandra Terpińska
scheda film] (produced by Madants) and France’s Peter Dourountzis for Rascal [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Peter Dourountzis
scheda film] (10:15! Productions).

Lastly, the Best Project Award (which comes with €5,000, courtesy of BNP) in the brand-new Talent Village (which was established to help young filmmakers to make the leap to their feature debut) went to Israel’s Miki Polonski for Takotsubo (staged by KM Productions), while a Special Mention was bestowed upon Poland’s Dawid Bodzak for Episode.

Here is the full list of winners:

TitraFilm Award - Work in Progress
System Crasher [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Nora Fingscheidt
scheda film] - Nora Fingscheidt (Weydemann Bros, Kineo Filmproduktion, Oma Inge Film/Germany)

Eurimages Lab Project Award - Work in Progress
White On White [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Théo Court
scheda film] - Theo Court (El Viaje Films/Spain, Pomme Hurlante Films/France, Kundschafter Films/Germany, Don Quijote Films/Chile)

ArteKino Festival Award – Coproduction Village
Other People [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Aleksandra Terpińska
scheda film] - Aleksandra Terpinska (Madants/Poland)
Rascal - Peter Dourountzis (10:15! Productions/France)

BNP Paribas Award - Talent Village
Takotsubo - Miki Polonski (KM Productions/Israel)

Special Mention - Talent Village
Episode - Dawid Bodzak