The 6th edition of FIPADOC, which took place from 19 to 27 January in Biarritz and brought together a great number of international professionals, concluded with the unveiling of its winners.

The jury of the International Competition (Mo Scarpelli, Pawel Lozinski and Sigal Yehuda) crowned Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Anna Hints
scheda film] by Estonia’s Anna Hints (winner of the Best Director award in Sundance, of the European Film Award for Best Documentary, and still vying for the LUX Audience Award of the European Parliament).

The winner in the French competition was A Shepherd by Louis Hanquet, a film centred on Felix, a young melancholy and secretive shepherd, who lives in a mineral and inaccessible world where an invisible being prowls: the wolf. Solitude shrouds his days in the mountains, filled with caring for lambs, fencing and poetry… Produced by Little Big Story, this documentary will be broadcast by France 3 Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.

It is worth noting that the Audience Award went to Forced Labour, SOS From a Chinese Prisoner by French director Laetitia Moreau, a Dream Way and Arte France production. The starting point for this international investigation is the discovery of a handwritten letter written by a Chinese political prisoner describing the forced labour to which he is subjected. This SOS, the 21st century version of a message in a bottle, was concealed in a pregnancy test packed in China and finally purchased in a Parisian pharmacy. It’s a clash between the intimate and geopolitical realms, two dimensions that never usually meet… Two realities that tell us a lot about our worlds, about what we can glimpse at and what we do not want to see: the price of our low-cost consumerism… 

The full list of winner:

International Documentary Grand Prix
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Anna Hints
scheda film] - Anna Hints (Estonia/France/Iceland)

National Documentary Grand Prix
A Shepherd - Louis Hanquet (France)

Musical Documentary Grand Prix
Little Richard: I Am Everything - Lisa Cortés (USA)

Impact Documentary Grand Prix
Against the Tide - Sarvnik Kaur (India/France)

INA Madelen Audience Award
Forced Labour, SOS From a Chinese Prisoner - Laetitia Moreau (France)

Smart Prize
Spots of Life - Adam Weingrod (Canada, Israel)

Sacem Prize for Original Music
Julien Ribot - A Shepherd

Short Film Prize
Madeleine - Raquel Sancinetti (Canada/France)

Young Creation Prize (Best Graduation Film)
Fatmé - Diala Alhindawi (France)

Tënk Prize
Basia: Three Short Stories - Mateusz Pietrak (Poland)

Young Europeans Prize
Bon voyage - Karine Birgé (Belgium)

Mitrani Prize (first or second film)
Riverboom - Claude Baetchold (Switzerland)

Ciné+ Prize
20 Days in Mariupol [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Mstyslav Chernov
scheda film] - Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine)

Prize for Women in the Media
Hawar, Our Banished Children [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Pascale Bourgaux
scheda film] - Pascale Bourgeaux (Belgium/France/Switzerland)

Coup de cœur dans les murs Prize
Invincible Summer - Stéphanie Pillonca (France/Japan)