The 7th edition of the Brussels International Film Festival (BRIFF) wrapped on Wednesday with the unveiling of its victors, the biggest of which being Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu’s movie, Jim’s Story [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arnaud e Jean-Marie Larrieu
scheda film], which was first unveiled in the Cannes Première section of the most recent Cannes Film Festival. The brothers’ nineth fiction feature film, which is adapted from Pierric Bailly’s novel of the same name - which caused a stir when published in 2021 - and buoyed by a first-class cast led by Karim Leklou, is due for release on 14 August both in France and in Belgium. The International Competition jury, composed of Michel Leclerc, Anne Coesens, Fabrizio Rongione and Stéphan Castang, then chose to award its Jury Prize to María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat’s Argentine film Puan [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Benjamín Naishtat e María …
scheda film], falling somewhere between a university comedy and a social chronicle, as well as a Special Mention to actresses Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Arienne Mando for their performance in Tatami [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which is directed by Zar Amir Ebrahimi herself alongside Guy Nattiv.

The National Competition is also a highly anticipated feature of the festival line-up. Composed of Fabien Hagège, Johanna Nahon and Arnaud Godard, the jury of this section awarded its Grand Prize to filmmaker Alexe Poukine’s new documentary, Who Cares? [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexe Poukine
scheda film], which invites us to accompany nurses on their rounds and asks the question: can nurses carry out their roles with kindness when working within an abusive system? The movie also bagged the Audience Award courtesy of this competition. The other big winner was For Night Will Come [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Céline Rouzet
scheda film] by Céline Rouzet, discovered in Venice’s Orizzonti section, which won the Jury Prize as well as earning Best Actor and Best Actress trophies for Elodie Bouchez and Mathias Legoût-Hammond. For their part, Grégory Le Maître, Corinne Dubien and Aymeric Dupas walked away with Best Sound for the same film, courtesy of a professional jury who also handed the Best Editing trophy to Lenka Fillnerova on account of Samira El Mouzghibati’s (Y)Our Mother [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Samira El Mouzghibati
scheda film], and the Best Photography Prize to Nastasja Saerens for Michèle Jacob’s Lost Children [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michèle Jacob
scheda film].

The Grand Prize in Directors’ Week, meanwhile, decided upon by a jury composed of Babetida Sadjo, Ann Sirot, Teona Strugar Mitevska and Vincent Lannoo, was awarded to Christian Einshøj for his documentary The Mountains [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which is a family and grief-focused film originally discovered in the Visions du Réel Festival, which also nabbed the Audience Award in the same section. Another victorious family and heritage film comes in the form of Je’vida [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Katja Gauriloff, which scooped the Jury Prize. All the films participating in Directors’ Week also came under the scrutiny of the Young European Jury and the FIPRESCI Jury, with the former handing their award to Riverboom, a Swiss documentary by Claude Baechtold, and the latter to The Permanent Picture [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laura Ferrés
scheda film], by Spanish director Laura Ferrés.

The full list of winners is as follows:

International Competition

Grand Prize
Jim’s Story [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Arnaud e Jean-Marie Larrieu
scheda film] - Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu (France)

Jury Prize
Puan [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Benjamín Naishtat e María …
scheda film] - Benjamin Naishtat (Argentina/Italy/Germany/France/Brazil)

Special Mention
Zar Amir Ebrahimi & Arienne Mando - Tatami [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (USA/Georgia)

National Competition

Grand Prize
Who Cares? [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alexe Poukine
scheda film]  - Alexe Poukine (Belgium/France/Switzerland)

Jury Prize
For Night Will Come [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Céline Rouzet
scheda film] - Céline Rouzet (France/Belgium)

Best Actress
Elodie Bouchez – For Night Will Come

Best Actor
Mathias Legoût-Hammond – For Night Will Come

Technical Jury Prize for Sound
Grégory Le Maître, Corinne Dubien and Aymeric Dupas – For Night Will Come

Technical Jury Prize for Editing
Lenka Fillnerova – (Y)Our Mother [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Samira El Mouzghibati
scheda film] (Belgium/France)

Technical Jury Prize for Photography
Nastasja Saerens – Lost Children [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michèle Jacob
scheda film] (Belgium)

Directors’ Week

Grand Prize
The Mountains [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Christian Einshoj (Denmark)

Jury Prize
Je’vida [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Katja Gauriloff (Finland)

Other awards

National Competition Audience Award
Who Cares? - Alexe Poukine

Directors’ Week Audience Award
The Mountains - Christian Einshoj

FIPRESCI Prize
The Permanent Picture [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laura Ferrés
scheda film] - Laura Ferrés (Spain/France)

Young European Jury Prize
Riverboom - Claude Baechtold (Switzerland)