The 10th edition of the Cinéma Jeune Public Festival (running 20 – 24 November) proved a huge hit with audiences, recording ever-increasing viewer numbers, now reaching upwards of 6,000. The festival merrily filled the independent movie theatres of Lausanne and the surrounding area, offering screenings aimed at younger generations and adults. The five-day film event also welcomed forty or so special guests, including Klaudia Reynicke, Claude Barras, Bérénice Bocquillon and Miriam Vogt, who’s a programmer for the Berlinale’s Generation line-up, and Julia Granath, who’s director of the BUFF Malmö Festival, all of whom took part in the first ever edition of the Kids Film Forum, consisting of a day of meetings on creating movies for young audiences and dedicated to collaborative screenplay writing with and for young people.

Seven prizes were awarded by the audience and various juries over the course of the closing ceremony. As stressed in the festival’s press release, the juries "prided themselves on rewarding films which were engaged in social, political and ecological issues, films which speak courageously, films about solidarity, about taking on challenges and learning to live all together in this world, with a view to finding collective answers to the problems facing us today".

The big winners of this year’s edition are the New Zealand production The Mountain by Rachel House, which bagged the Feature Film Jury Prize having previously spent time in the Toronto Film Festival’s Centrepiece section, and Girls Will Be Girls [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] by Shuchi Talati, which was awarded a Special Mention in the same category after claiming a trophy in the Sundance Festival. These awards were handed out by a jury composed of three young Swiss filmmakers: Morgane Frund, Sarah Imsand and Mateo Ybarra. For its part, The Mountain paints a courageous and affectionate portrait of the relationship between the Māori people and their natural environment through a story shining a light on the often challenging transition to adulthood. Girls Will Be Girls also explores the transition to adulthood, but the story is set in an elite boarding school located in a small town in the Himalayas, in northern India.

The Youth and Children’s juries - the latter focusing on movies in the international short films competition - chose to honour Waking Up in Vegas by Michèle Flury, À mort le bikini ! by Justine Gauthier (Special Mention) Météore by Agnès Patron and Morgane Le Péchon, and Été 96 by Mathilde Bedouet (Special Mention).

Last but not least, the Audience Award was won by Marion Jamault’s Filante, while the Young Creation Prize for three young filmmakers went to Yasmine Bahechar for her short film Mal à la vie, to Leigh Jamarillo Lopez and Aurora Sebastian for Autantropos, l’humain-même, and to Milena Watzlawick for Where Have All the Shells Gone ? The aim of this award is to encourage young prize-winning filmmakers to persevere with their artistic endeavours.

The winners’ list is as follows:

Feature Films Jury Prize
The Mountain - Rachel House (New Zealand)
Special Mention
Girls Will Be Girls [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Shuchi Talati (India/France/USA/Norway)

Youth Jury Prize
Walking Up in Vegas - Michèle Flury (Switzerland) (short film)
Special Mention
À mort le bikini ! - Justine Gauthier (Canada) (short film)

Children’s Jury Prize
Météores - Agnès Patron and Morgane Le Péchon (France) (short film)
Special Mention
Été 96 - Mathilde Bedouet (France) (short film)

Audience Award
Filante - Marion Jamault (France) (short film)

Young Creation Competition Prize
Mal à la vie - Yasmine Bachelor with Association Odyssée13 (Switzerland) (short film)
Autantropos, l’humain-même - Leigh Jamarillo Lopez and Aurora Sebastian (Switzerland) (short film)
Where Have All the Shells Gone ? - Milena Watzlawick (Switzerland) (short film)