The international jury of the nineteenth edition of the Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival of Navarra (held between 24 February and 1 March in Pamplona), composed of Cyril Neyrat, Boris Nelepo and Mònica Rovira, awarded the Punto de Vista Grand Prize for Best Film, worth 10, 000 euros, to Cuadro negro, a Chilean film directed by José Luis Sepúlveda and Carolina Adriazola. According to the jury, “following a journalist with a small camera and a tripod, this film takes us on a satirical guerrilla mission against all forms of power and domination: those that govern our societies, those that dictate the ways of making films. In the gap between the person and the character, between reality and representation, destabilising all roles and habits of thought, and facing catastrophe with a ferocious sense of humour, the directors revive the immanent anarchy of cinema.”

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The Jean Vigo Award for Best Director, with a cash prize of 5,000 euros, was awarded to the French medium-length film La limace et l'escargot, by Anne Benhaïem. The jury stated: “Two people meet, they stand up, they start to talk, to drink, to live together. A woman meets up with two friends. They start talking and begin a story of friendship and ageing.”

The Best Short Film Award, sponsored by EITB and worth 3,000 euros, was awarded to Writing Poems at the End of the World, by Korean director Wonwoo Kim. According to the verdict, “he wanders through life compiling a vocabulary of sounds and images. The filmmaker finds in what happens to him and in his environment the material to experiment with language and to write a sonnet every day. Filming as a ritual, the rhythm of dry petals falling from a plastic container as an offering.”

The jury also decided to award two special mentions: one to the French medium-length film La prunelle rouge by Pierre Louapre, for its exploration of “neglected parts of our environment, spaces that we pass through every day but refuse to see. He does so in the most subjective way, driven by an inner need and vision that transform the simplest mundane elements into poetry. Poetry as a way of finding some kind of order in the disorder itself, constructing a film as a home when houses are falling apart”; and another to the short film A., by the Spaniard Ramón Balcells, for “voices are heard in an empty apartment. As the camera describes it, a past life approaches, content within its walls. We don't see much, we don't hear much. Through the minimal use of its means, almost in a whisper, cinema gives us the presence of what is no longer there.”

The Special Audience Award for Best Film, worth 1,650 euros, was awarded to the medium-length film Cambium by Marina Lameiro and Maddi Barber, also from Spain. Meanwhile, the Youth Award for Best Film, worth €1,500 and in collaboration with the Navarra Youth Institute, went to the aforementioned feature film Cuadro negro, for which according to the awarding body stated: “it stands out due to its use of performativity and lies as devices in documentary film, to rewrite the political, historical and cultural discourse of the institutions of power.”

Awards:

Punto de Vista Grand Prize for Best Film
Cuadro negro - José Luis Sepúlveda and Carolina Adriazola (Chile)

Jean Vigo Award for Best Director
La limace et l’escargot - Anne Benhaïem (France) (medium-length film)

Best Short Film Award
Writing Poems at the End of the World - Wonwoo Kim (South Korea)

Special Jury Mentions
La prunelle rouge - Pierre Louapre (France) (medium-length film)
A. - Ramón Balcells (Spain) (short film)

Other Awards

Special Audience Award for Best Film
Cambium - Marina Lameiro, Maddi Barber (Spain) (medium-length film)

Youth Award for Best Film
Cuadro negro - José Luis Sepúlveda and Carolina Adriazola