2016 European Film Awards - Short Film Nominations

The European Film Academy and EFA Productions are proud to present this year's short film nominations.

At each of the 15 participating film festivals, an independent jury presented one European short film in competition with a nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards.

These are the fifteen (15) short film nominees.

9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo, Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen, Netherlands, 12' (documentary) Bristol Short Film Nominee
90 Grad Nord (90 Degrees North), Detsky Graffam, Germany, 21' Cork Short Film Nominee
A Man Returned, Mahdi Fleifel, UK, Denmark, Netherlands, 30' Berlin Short Film Nominee
Amalimbo, Juan Pablo Libossart, Sweden and Estonia, 15' (animation) Venice Short Film Nominee
Edmond, Nina Gantz, UK, 10' (animation) Upsala Short Film Nominee
El Adiós (The Goodbye), Clara Roquet, Spain, 15' Valladolid Short Film Nominee
Home, Daniel Mulloy, Kosovo and UK, 20' Vila do Conde Short Film Nominee
In the Distance, Florian Grolig, Germany, 7' (animation) Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Nominee
Le Mur (The Wall), Samuel Lampaert, Belgium, 7' Ghent Short Film Nominee
Limbo, Konstantina kotzamani, France and Greece, 30' Sarjevo Short Film Nominee
L'Immense Retour Romance (The Fullness of Time Romance), Manon Coubia, Belgium and France, 14' Locarno Short Film Nominee
Падаща звезда Padashta Zvezda (Shooting Star), Lyubo Yonchev, Bulgaria and Italy, 28' Drama Short Film Nominee
Small Talk, Even Hafnor and Lisa Brooke Hansen, Norway, 21' Tampere Short Film Nominee
Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer (We All Love the Sea Shore), Keina Espiñeira, Spain, 18' Rotterdam Short Film Nominee
Yo No Soy de Aquí (I'm Not From Here), Maite Alberdi and Giedrė Žickytė, Denmark, Chile and Lithuania 26' (documentary), Krakow Short Film Nominee



The nominated films will soon be submitted to the more than 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Short Film 2016 will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 10 December, in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016. Streamed live here.

9 Days - From My Window in Aleppo by Issa Touma, Thomas Vroege and Floor van der Meulen
Synopsis: One morning in August 2012, renowned Syrian photographer Issa Touma saw young men lugging sandbags into his street. It turned out to be the start of the Syrian uprising in the city of Aleppo. Touma grabbed his camera and spent nine days holed up in his apartment, recording what was happening outside. The result? An unprecedented glimpse into a war that has been raging for three years now.



90 Grad Nord (90 Degrees North) by Detsky Graffam
Synopsis: Germans wait at red traffic lights. But what happens when the green man simply won't appear? In the black comedy "90 Degrees North", Karl, businessman and young father, unwittingly stumbles upon a malicious traffic island in the middle of a forest and into an absurd urban fairytale that will turn his life upside down. "90 Degrees North" is a tale not only Germans can relate to, but everyone who has ever felt well and truly stuck in life.



A Man Returned by Mahdi Fleifel
Synopsis: “Are you busy?”, Reda asks his future wife on the phone. “I spend a lot of time thinking about our new life”, he says. “I mean, it might get really tough, our new life, and neither of us has tried it before. We’ll just have to make the impossible possible. With our love, our trust and our mutual understanding”. Reda is 26 years old. For the past three years he’s been living in Athens, hand-to-mouth and on petty crimes. He wanted to be recognised as a refugee in Europe. It didn’t work. Now he’s back at the place he originally fled from, Ain El-Helweh, the largest refugee camp in Lebanon. He is intent on creating a better life himself. The dream wedding will happen. The reality of the camp is the soil upon which the dreams are to sprout from. With drugs, or with drugs. With a war in Syria that can also be felt at the refugee camp. With confidence. For years now, director Mahdi Fleifel has been accompanying the men of his youth with a video camera in the style of Direct Cinema, thereby creating a proximity to his protagonists and their personal circumstances that could hardly be more immediate.



Amalimbo by Juan Pablo Libossart
Synopsis: the story of Tipuana, a five year-old girl who experiences the limbo when she tries to pass to ”the other side” in her desperate urge to meet again with her recently dead father. It is a short story that happens in an undefined place in an also undefined future.



Edmond by Nina Gantz
Synopsis: tells the story of an oddball character whose desire to be close to those around him reaches cannibalistic extreme.



El Adiós (The Goodbye) by Clara Roquet
Synopsis: A Bolivian maid attempts to honor the last wishes of her late mistress.



Home by Daniel Mulloy
Synopsis: As thousands of men, women and children attempt to get into Europe, a comfortable English family experience a life-changing journey of their own.



In the Distance by Florian Grolig
Synopsis: It's calm and peaceful above the clouds. But chaos lurks in the distance and each night, it draws closer.



Le Mur (The Wall) by Samuel Lampaert
Synopsis: Hong-Kong. A multitude of high-rise concrete buildings without personality. Inside, close studios where people live withdrawn into themselves. Until the day where Chung; a bachelor, decides to hang a picture on the wall.



Limbo by Konstantina kotzamani
Synopsis: The leopard shall lie down with the goat. The wolves shall live with the lambs. And the young boy will lead them. 12+1 kids and the carcass of a whale washed ashore…



L'Immense Retour (Romance) (The Fullness of Time Romance) by Manon Coubia
Synopsis: Sitting on the edge of the yawning rift, she has waited too long, far too long, for the mountain to give her back her lover, trapped in the ice.

Падаща звезда Padashta Zvezda (Shooting Star) by Lyubo Yonchev
Synopsis: Lilly is a divorced mother of two. Martin, who has recently come of age, and the little 5 years old Alexandra. One cold winter evening Martin takes Alexandra from kindergarten. In the dark streets of the neighborhood they become a part of a tragic accident that hardly can be forgotten or erased.



Small Talk by Even Hafnor and Lisa Brooke Hansen
Synopsis: Welcome to the Dvergsnes family! In this short film we follow the Dvergsnes family from Kristiansand, Norway, through three events that took place during the fall and winter of 2014.

Tout le monde aime le bord de la mer (We All Love the Sea Shore) by Keina Espiñeira
Synopsis: A group of men are waiting at the fringes of a coastal woodland for the journey to Europe, in limbo between time and place. A film is shot there with the men playing themselves. Fiction and documentary constantly intertwine. Myths from the colonial past collide with dreams of a better future in the former oppressor’s country.



Yo No Soy de Aquí (I'm Not From Here) by Maite Alberdi and Giedrė Žickytė
Synopsis: A Basque Country native among Chileans, Josebe struggles to share her memories and mother tongue with disinterested, somnolent men. As an eighty-eight year-old with a fading short-term memory and equally elderly company, time dissolves.



To check announcement at official site go here.

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64th San Sebastian International Film Festival Award Winners

With a straight forward to reading/giving awards the festival has closed an edition that will be recall for giving top awards to Asian Cinema and YES, to female filmmakers!

Will not deny that is a great surprise that precisely this festival is the one that honors that many female directors, but the most unexpected situations come from the least likely players.   Yes, also believe is the first non-LGBT film festival that gives so many awards to lesbian-interest films! Great!

Usually the only thing that stays on-top-of-mind from this festival are the Horizontes Latinos winners but this year believe there will be more films as, of course, I'm curious about the two Asian Cinema films as well as that film with the actor that won the Best Actor award and the Argentinean film winner of the Best Cinematography.

Already mentioned in another post but will repeat, Rara by Pepa San Martin is Must-Be-Seen for me and now I'm very curious about the film about three women that suspect will not be easy-to-watch but now know that will have to watch as won too-many awards, congratulations to Maysaloun Hamoud for the multiple honors her film collected in San Sebastian.

So, this is it.  See you next year. Adiós #64SSIFF.

Official Selection

Golden Shell for Best Film:  我不是潘金莲 Wo Bu Shi Pan Jinlian (I Am Not Madame Bovary), Xiaogang Feng, China

Silver Shell for Best Director: Hong Sang-soo for 당신 자신과 당신의 것 Dangsinjasingwa dangsinui geot (Yourself and Yours), South Korea

Silver Shell for Best Actress: Bingbing Fan in 我不是潘金莲 Wo Bu Shi Pan Jinlian (I Am Not Madame Bovary), Xiaogang Feng, China
Silver Shell for Best Actor: Eduard Fernandez for El Hombre de las Mil Caras, Alberto Rodriguez, Spain

Jury Prize for Best Screenplay: Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen for Que Dios Nos Perdone, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain
Jury Prize for Best Cinematography: Ramiro Civita for El Invierno (The Winter), Emiliano Torres, Argentina and France

Jury Special Award (tie)
El Invierno (The Winter), Emiliano Torres, Argentina and France
Jätten (The Giant), Johannes Nyholm, Sweden and Denmark

Kuxta-New Directors Award: Park, Sofia Exarchou, Greece and Poland
Special Mention: Compte tes blessures (A Taste of Ink), Morgan Simon, France

Horizontes Latinos
Best Film: Rara, Pepa San Martín, Chile and Argentina
Special Mention: Alba, Ana Cristina Barragán, Ecuador, Mexico and Greece

Zabaltegi Award 
Best Film: Eat That Question: Frank Zappa In His Own Word, Thorsten Schütte, France and Germany
Special Mention: La disco resplandece, Chema García Ibarra, Turkey

Other Awards

FIPRESCI Award: Lady Macbeth, William Oldroyd, Uk

Signis Award: Nocturama, Bertrand Bonello, France, Germany and Belgium
Special Mention: A Monster Calls, J. A. Bayona, Spain

Eroski Youth Award: Bar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France

5th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum EGEDA
Best Project Award: 7:35 AM, Javier van de Couter, Argentina
Special Mention: Hogar, Marua Delpero, Italy and Argentina
EFADs-CACI Europe-Latin America Co-Production Grant: Los Días Según Ellos (Malambo King), Juan Pablo Félix, Argentina, Spain and France
Arte International Prize: Hogar, Marua Delpero, Italy and Argentina

Feroz Zinemaldia Award: El Hombre de Las Mil Caras, Alberto Rodríguez, Spain

Films in Progress 30 Industry Award: La Educación del Rey (Rey's Education), Santiago Esteves, Argentina
CACI/Ibermedia TV Films in Progress Award:  La Educación del Rey (Rey's Education), Santiago Esteves, Argentina

Greepeace Award: L'odyssée (The Odyssey), Jérôme Salle, France

Irizar Basque Film Award: Pedaló, Juan Palacios, Spain
Basque Best Screenplay: New York. Quinta Planta, Mikel Rueda, Spain

Spanish Cooperation Award: Oscuro Animal, Felipe Guerrero, Colombia, Argentina, Netherlands, Germany and Greece
Special Mentions
Era o Hotel Cambridge, Eliane Caffé, Brazil, France and Spain
Viejo Calavera (Dark Skull), Kiro Russo, Bolivia and Qatar

Sebastiane Award:  Bar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France
Sebastiane Latino Award: Rara, Pepa San Martín, Chile and Argentina

Solidarity Award: La Fille de Brest (150 Milligrams), Emmanuele Bercot, France

TVE Another Look Award:  Bar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France
Tokyo Goham Award: Theater of Life, Peter Svatek, Canada

Audience Award: I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach, UK, France and Belgium
European Film Audience Award: Ma Vie de Courgette (My Life as a Courgette), Claude Barras, Switzerland and France

15th International Film Student Meetings Awards - Short Films
Panavision Award: Étage X (Floor X),Francy Fabritz, DFFB–Berlin Film Conservatory, Germany
Special Mention: Umpire, Leonardo van Dilj, LUCA School of Arts, Belgium
Orona Award: 24º 51’ Latitud Norte, Carlos Lenin Treviño, Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos CUEC-UNAM, Mexico
Special Mention: A quien corresponda, Valeria Fernández, Universidad del Cine, Argentina

Donostia Award: Sigourney Weaver and Ethan Hawke
Jaeger-LeCoultre Latin Cinema Award: Gael García Bernal
Zinemira Award: Ramón Barea

To check winners at official site go here.

Closing Ceremony

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17th Sebastiane Award Winner

Gehitu, the Basque Association of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transexuals, and, on behalf of Gehitu, the Sebastiane Award’s Jury has decided to grant the XVII Sebastiane award to In Between by Maysaloun Hamoud.



Bar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France (L)

Jury Statement
For showing the reality of three women who pay a high price for conquering a slot of liberty where they may be themselves, in a society where whatever they do, they seem not to fit. For reflecting as well the struggle from everyday life against the “ism”s and phobias such as machismo and fundamentalism towards homo/lesbo phobias.

The movie denounces the ways to keep prejudices and power positions we shield behind tradition, familiar and religious values; opposing the stifling reality from the rural environment to the “island of freedom” represented by Tel-Aviv. And for expressing it all in a high-spirited story, with a fresh and courageous rhythm which helps the viewer to identify himself/herself with the characters.

2016 will be remembered as the milestone year where two female directors won both Sebastiane awards as remember Pepa San Martin won the Sebastiane Latino for Rara.



To check info about the award at the official site go here.

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9/9/16
Next September 23, the NGO Gehitu will present the Sebastiane award to the film production which best reflects the reality, freedom and social progress of the LGBT group. Celebrating its 17th edition this year, the award will be presented within the San Sebastian Film Festival which will take place between September 16th to 24th.

There are eleven (11) films that will compete for the 2016 award, films that come from San Sebastian festival Official Selection, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi and New Directors sections. To complete the lineup there are three (3) short films that are Out of Competition.

Also worth mentioning is the screening on the Horizontes Latinos section of the winning film of the Sebastiane Latino Award, Rara by Pepa San Martín. On September 19th to 21th, the 2nd International LGBTI Film Festivals Conference will take place with participating countries from Latin America and Spain. The event, brought together by San Sebastian Film Festival and Spain’s Public Agency for Culture Action, tries to build links between the two continents as well as become a framework for reflection about the reality of this kind of festivals.

Will try to identify the LGBT interest of each movie, at least as much as available info allows to infer.

Official Selection

As You Are, Miles Joris Peyrafitte, USA (G)

Synopsis: Jack is a high school student who lives with his single mother Karen in a nondescript suburban town. Considered a social outcast and loner, Jack is friendless until Karen’s new boyfriend Tom moves in and brings his son Mark into their lives. The two outsiders quickly bond and form a tight friendship and, after a chance encounter at a diner, bring fellow student Sarah into their group. The three teens become each other saving grace until changing relationships and emerging secrets force them to look at themselves and see how far they are willing to go to live the lives they choose.



怒り Ikari (Rage), Lee Sang-il, Japan (G)

Synopsis: A man brutally murders a married couple and leaves behind the words "Ikari" ("Anger") written with their blood. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees. At 3 different locations in Japan, a male stranger appear. People there suspect that the stranger might be the murderer. At a fishing harbor in Chiba, Yohei Maki (Ken Watanabe) works at the harbor and he has a daughter, Aiko (Aoi Miyazaki). Aiko begins to date Tetsuya Tashiro (Kenichi Matsuyama). Yohei begins to suspect that his daughter's boyfriend might be the killer, because he is using a fake name.
In downtown Tokyo, gay male Yuma Fujita (Satoshi Tsumabuki) works at an advertising agency. He meets Naoto Onishi (Gou Ayano) and they begin to live together. While getting Naoto to open his mind, Yuma begins to suspect Naoto as the killer. In Okinawa, Izumi Komiya (Suzu Hirose) and her mother move to an isolated island there. One day, she takes a walk and meets Shingo Tanaka (Mirai Moriyama). The young is backpacking alone. Izumi gets close to Shingo, but Shingo asks Izumi to not to tell others about him.



Jesús, Fernando Guzzoni, Chile, France, Germany and Greece

Synopsis: Santiago, Chile. Jesús, 18, lives alone with his father Hector in a flat where the TV covers up their inability to communicate. The rest of the time, he dances in a K-pop band, hangs out with friends and does drugs, watches trashy clips and has sex in public places, looking for a thrill. One night, he finds it with his friends, being involved in an irreversible misadventure.



Orpheline (Orphan), Arnaud Des Pallières, France (L)

Synopsis: Four moments in the lives of four female characters. A little girl from the countryside, playing a game of hide and seek that turns to tragedy. A teenager, caught in an endless succession of runaways, men and mishaps, because anything is better than her desolate family home. A young woman who moves to Paris and has a brush with disaster. The grown-up at last, an accomplished woman, who thought she was safe from her own past. Gradually, these characters come together to form a single heroine.



New Directors

Bar Bahar (In Between), Maysaloun Hamoud, Israel and France (L)

Synopsis: Salma, Laila and Nur will never fit in. Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, they choose to live a life of freedom in Tel Aviv, away from their home villages. Each is looking for love, but as young Palestinian women they learn that a relationship of their choosing is not easy to fulfill. They have to choose their place, either in the city or in the village.



Yeon-ae-dam (Our Love Story), Lee Hyun-ju, South Korea (L)

Synopsis: Yoon-ju is a graduate student of fine arts, who works petty part-time jobs to make ends meet and lives at her friend Young-eun’s place for a very small rent. Unlike Young-eun who enjoys having no-strings-attached relationships, Yoon-ju is just not into dating. One day, while she is searching materials for her project, she runs into Ji-soo at a junk shop. Watching Ji-soo in an odd place, Yoon-ju finds herself drawn to her.



Horizontes Latinos

La Región Salvaje (The Untamed), Amat Escalante. Mexico, Denmak, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland (G)

Synopsis: Young mother Alejandra is a working housewife, raising two boys with her husband Angel in a small city. Her brother Fabien works as a nurse in a local hospital. Their provincial lives are upset with the arrival of the mysterious Veronica. Sex and love can be fragile in certain regions where strong family values, hypocrisy, homophobia and male chauvinism exist. Veronica convinces them that in the nearby woods, inside an isolated cabin, dwells something not of this world that could be the answer to all of their problems



Rara, Pepa San Martín, Chile and Argentina (L)

Synopsis: Since their parents split up, Sara and her younger sister live with their mother, whose new partner is a woman. Everyday life for the four of them is very similar to that of other families. But not everyone sees it that way. Her father in particular has his doubts.



Santa y Andrés, Carlos Lechuga, Cuba, France and Colombia (G)

Synopsis: Cuba, 1983. Santa, a lonely country girl, is sent to keep an eye on Andrés, a gay writer in whom the Revolution has little “confidence”. Gradually these two people, apparently so very different from one another, realize that the things that bring them together are more important than those that separate them.



Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

O Ornitólogo (The Ornithologist), Joao Pedro Rodrigues. Portugal, France and Brazil (G)

Synopsis: Fernando, a solitary ornithologist, is looking for endangered black storks along a remote river in northern Portugal, when he is swept away by the rapids. Rescued by a couple of Chinese pilgrim girls on their way to Santiago de Compostela, he plunges into a dark, eerie forest, trying to get back on track. But as he encounters unexpected and uncanny obstacles and people who put him to the test, Fernando is driven to extreme, transformative actions. Gradually he becomes a different man: inspired, multifaceted, and finally enlightened.



Uncle Howard, Aaron Brookner, UK (G)

Synopsis: Howard Brookner’s first film, Burroughs: The Movie, captured the cultural revolution of downtown New York City in the early ‘80s. Now in a personal journey, his nephew Aaron unearths Howard’s filmmaking legacy and the memory of everything he was.



Out of Competition - Short Films

Velodrome

Kalebegiak (Narciso), Koldo Almandoz. Spain

Short film inside Kalebekiak. Kalebegiak integrates different short films, made by famous bask film makers, all of them dedicated to the city of San Sebastian. Koldo Almandoz, the film director with the highest presence in the short films folder in the history of Kimuak, proposes with “Narciso” a (self)critical look about the city of San Sebastián in a fantasy-science fiction genre story with a touch of humor. In the movie, a man from the future travels to a radiant and lush San Sebastián on year 2016 with a curious purpose which will not be revealed till the end of the film.



International Film Students Meeting

Gabber Lover, Anna Cazenave-Cambet, France (L)

Synopsis: Nérac in the early 2000s. Laurie and Mila, 13 years old, dance on Gabber music, on the shores of a remote lake. Mila is in love with Laurie and she wants to tell her.



O noapte in Tokoriki (A Night in Tokoriki), Roxana Stroe, Romania

Synopsis: In an improvised night club called “Tokoriki” the whole village celebrates Geanina’s 18th birthday. Her boyfriend and Alin will give her a most surprising gift, one that nobody will ever forget.



To check films at San Sebastian official site go here.

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2016 European Discovery - Prix FIPRESCI Nominations

At the Oldenburg International Film Festival in Germany, the European Film Academy has announced this year’s nominations for the European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI, an award presented annually in co-operation with the International Federation of Film Critics to a young and upcoming director for a first full-length feature film.

This year’s nominations were determined by a committee comprised of EFA Board Members Dagmar Jacobsen (Germany) and Angeles González-Sinde (Spain), filmmaker and 2015 nominee Tom Sommerlatte (Germany), expert Mihai Chirilov (Cluj FF, Romania), and FIPRESCI representatives Isabelle Danel (France), Krzysztof Kwiatkowski (Poland), and Neil Young (UK). On invitation by the festival, the committee met in Oldenburg and decided on the following nominations.

These are the five (5) nominees.

Câini (Dogs), Bogdan Mirică, France, Romania, Bulgaria and Qatar
Hymyilevä mies (The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki), Juho Kuosmanen, Finland, Germany and Sweden
Jajda (Thirst), Svetla Tsotsorkova, Bullgaria
Liebmann, Jules Herrmann, Germany
סופת חול Sufat Chol (Sand Storm), Elite Zexer, Israel and France



The European Film Academy congratulates the nominees. The nominated films will soon be submitted to the more than 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Discovery 2016 – Prix FIPRESCI will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 10 December, in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.

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73rd Venice Film Festival Award Winners

Will not deny that I'm quite pleased with the top awards winners as consider three of them, great contemporary directors each with a very particular and peculiar style. I'm talking about the awesome visuals in Lav Diaz films, the amazing esthetic of Tom Ford, and the outstanding visual -and violent- storytelling style of Amat Escalante. Congratulations to the three directors and yes, I'm looking forward to be able to watch their latest oeuvres.

On the not positive side of la Mostra have to share that seems there was a communication release with the award winners leaked or released ahead of time to the American press and those without fest experience (to put it mildly) started to release winners names three hours before the award ceremony; of course, as American media usually ignores what happens outside their local industry, leaks were about American winners. Just hope that this fest as well as others control their information as they will eventually loose credibility if they don't. Sigh.

Wish to be positive and hope that next year and in the near future the festival goes back to what made it great and allowed it to be the oldest still-running film festival in the world. We don't need another Hollywood event, we need events that showcase the best of the best of World cinema and to have only two of those events will be a huge loss as a matter of fact, I believe there should be another great competitive festival in the world and not only Berlin, Cannes and (fading) Venice.

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9/9/16
With Toronto starting a couple of days ago and San Sebastian opening soon, 2016 Biennale has come and gone with too-much Hollywood-glitter for my taste and too-many media coverage for American films, stars and celebrities that for a moment felt more like any film festival but what La Mostra used to be. Perhaps there is some truth in those articles in American media about how organizers are "reviving" the festival and looking forward to make it the "Oscar predictor". Deep in my heart hope that is NOT truth and La Biennale Cinema will continue to be a window for great Italian Cinema plus films from all over the world ... except America! (LOL)

Nevertheless here are the awards announced today.

Official Selection

Golden Lion for Best Film: Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left), Lav Diaz, Philippines



Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: Nocturnal Animals, Tom Ford, USA



Special Jury Prize: The Bad Batch, Ana Lily Amirpour, USA

Silver Lion for Best Director (tie)
Amat Escalante for La Region Salvaje (The Untamed), Mexico, Denmark, France, Germany and Norway
Andrei Konchalovsky for Рай Rai (Paradise), Russia and Germany



Copa Volpi for Best Actress: Emma Stone in La La Land, Damien Chazelle, USA
Copa Volpi for Best Actor: Oscar Martínez in El Ciudadano Ilustre (The Distinguished Citizen), Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, Argentina and Spain
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actress or Actor:  Paula Beer in Frantz, François Ozon, France and Germany

Best Screenplay: Noah Oppenheim for Jackie, Pablo Larraín, USA and Chile
Lion of the Future-Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Film:  Akher Wahed Fina (The Last of Us), Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia, Qatar, UAE and Lebanon

Orizzonti Awards

Best Film: Liberami, Federica di Giacomo, Italy and France (documentary)
Special Jury Prize:  Koca Dünya (Big Big World), Reha Erdem, Turkey
Best Director: Fien Troch for Home, Belgium
Best Actress: Ruth Díaz in Tarde para la Ira (The Fury of a Patient Man), Raúl Arévalo, Spain
Best Actor: Nuno Lopes in São Jorge (Saint George), Marco Martins, Portugal and France
Best Screenplay: Ku Qian (Bitter Money), Bing Wang, Hong Kong and France
Best Short Film: La Voz Perdida, Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay, Nepal and France
Short Film Nominee for the European Film Awards: Amalimbo, Juan Pablo Libossart, Sweden and Estonia

Venezia Classici

Best Documentary: Le Concours, Claire Simon, France
Best Restored Film:  Break-up. L'umo dei 5 Palloni (Break-up. The Man With The Balloons), Marco Ferreri, Italy and France

Autonomous Sections

13th Giornate degli Autori - Venice Days
Venice Days Award: The War Show, Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon, Denmark and Finland
Label Europa Cinemas: Sameblod (Sami Blood), Amanda Kernell, Sweden, Denmark and Norway
SIAE Creative Talent:  Vangelo, Pippo Delbono, Italy
People's Choice Award: Pamilya ordinaryo (Ordinary People), Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines

31st Settimana Internazionalle della Critica - Venice International Film Critics' Week
Mario Serandrei Award: Akher Wahed Fina (The Last of Us), Ala Eddine Slim, Tunisia, Qatar, UAE and Lebanon
Audience Award: Los Nadie, Juan Sebastian Mesa, Colombia

Collateral Awards

FIPRESCI Awards
Best Film of Venezia73: Une vie (A Woman's Life), Stéphane Brizé, France and Belgium
Best Film in Orizzonti: Kékszakállú, Gastón Solnicki, Argentina

SIGNIS Award: Piuma, Roan Johnson, Italy
Special Mention:  Na mliječnom putu (Milky Road), Emir Kusturica,  Serbia, UK and USA

FEDEORA Awards (Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean)
Venezia73 Best Film in Competition:
Giornati delgi Autori - Venice Days
Best Film: 再見瓦城 Zai Jian Wa Cheng (The Road to Mandalay) by Midi Z, Myanmar, Taiwan, China, France and Germany
Best Debut Filmmaker: Amanda Kernell for  Sameblod (Sami Blood), Sweden, Denmark and Norway
Best Actress: Ashleigh Cummings in Hounds of Love by Ben Young, Australia
Best European Film: Ne gledaj mi u pijat (Quit Staring at My Plate), Hana Jušić, Croatia and Denmark

Arca CinemaGiovani Award
Best Film Venezia 73: Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, USA
Best Itlian Film: Orecchie (Ears), Alessandro Aronadio, Italy

FEDIC Award: Indivisibili (Indivisible), Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Special Mention: Il più grande sogno (I Was a Dreamer), Michele Vannucci, Italy
Special Mention: Orecchie (Ears), Alessandro Aronadio, Italy

Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award
to James Franco and Ambi Pictures for the film In Dubious Battle
to Paolo Sorrentino and Jude Law for the series The Young Pope
to Roan Johnson and Lucky Red for the film Piuma

Francesco Pasinetti Awards
Venice Days
Best Film: Indivisibili (Indivisible) by Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Best Actor: Michele Riondino in La Ragazza del Mondo (Worldly Girl),  Marco Danieli, Italy
Best Actress: Sara Serraiocco in La Ragazza del Mondo (Worldly Girl),  Marco Danieli, Italy
Special Mention: Angela and Marianna Fontana in Indivisibili (Indivisible), Edoardo De Angelis, Italy

Future Film Festival Digital Award: Arrival, Denis Villeneuve, USA
Special Mention: Voyage of Time: Life's Journey, Terrence Malick, USA and Germany

Green Drop Award (tie)
Spira Mirabilis, Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Italy and Switzerland
Voyage of Time: Life's Journey, Terrence Malick, USA and Germany

Human Rights Nights Award: Ku Qian (Bitter Money), Bing Wang, Hong Kong and France
Special Mention: Robinù, Michele Santoro, Italy

Online Critics Awards
Mouse d'Oro for Best Film in Competition: Jackie, Pablo Larraín, USA and Chile
Mouse d'Argento for Best Film Out of Competition: Austerlitz, Sergei Loznitsa, Germany

Queer Lion: Hjartasteinn (Heartstone) by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, Iceland and Denmark

Nuovo IMAIE Talent Award
Camilla Diana in Tommaso, Kim Rossi Stuart, Italy
Daniele Parisi in Orecchie (Ears), Alessandro Aronadio, Italy

Sorriso Diverso Venezia 2016 Award
Best Italian Film (tie)
Questi Giorni, Michele Vannucci, Italy
Il più grande sogno (I Was a Dreamer), Michele Vannucci, Italy
Best Film in a Foreign-Language: Ang Babaeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left), Lav Diaz, Philippines

Soundtrack Stars Award:  L'Estate Addosso (Summertime), Gabriele Muccino, Italy
Best Soundtrack Venezia73: Andrei Konchalovsky for Рай Rai (Paradise), Andrei Konchalovsky, Russia and Germany
Special Mention: Giuseppe Piccioni for Questi Giorni, Italy

Young Jury Members of the Vittorio Veneto Film Festival Award: El Ciudadano Ilustre, Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, Argentina and Spain

Bisato d'Oro:  Kékszakállú, Gastón Solnicki, Argentina
BNL Award: Palmiya Ordinaryo (Ordinary People), Eduardo Roy Jr., Philippines
Brian Award: La Ragazza del Mondo (Wordly Girl), Marco Danieli, Italy
C. Smithers Foundation-CICT-UNESCO Award: The Bleeder, Philippe Falardeau, USA and Canada
Cinema for Unicef:  Рай Rai (Paradise), Andrei Konchalovsky, Russia and Germany
Civitas Vitae Award: Roan Johnson for Piuma, Italy
Coppa Codacons Ridateci i soldi: La La Land, Damien Chazelle, USA
Enrico Fulghignoni-CICT-UNESCO Award: Mukti Bhawan (Hotel Salvation), Shubhashish Bhutiani, India
Gianni Astrei Award: Indivisibili (Indivisible), Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Interfilm Award: White Sun, Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal, USA, Qatar and Netherlands
Lanterna Magica Award: Dark Night, Tim Sutton, USA
Leoncino d'Oro Agiscuola Award: Na mliječnom putu (Milky Road), Emir Kusturica,  Serbia, UK and USA
Lina Mangiacapre Award:  Indivisibili (Indivisible), Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Lizzani Award:  La Ragazza del Mondo (Worldly Girl), Marco Danieli, Italy
Open Award: Pippo Delbono for Vangelo, Italy and Belgium
Padre Nazareno Taddei Award: Рай Rai (Paradise), Andrei Konchalovsky, Russia and Germany
Sfera 1932 Award:  Spira Mirabilis, Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Italy and Switzerland

Final Cut Awards (Post Production Support)
Félicité (Felicity), Alain Gomis, France, Senegal and Belgium
Isiko (The Wound), John Trengove, South Africa, Germany, France and Netherlands
Istiyad Ashba (Ghost Hunting), Raed Andoni, Palestine, France and Switzerland

Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement: Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jerzy Skolimowski
Jaeger-Le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award: Amir Naderi
Biennale Special Award
L'Oreal Paris per il Cinema Award: Matilde Gioli
Persol Visonary Award: Liev Schreiber
Premi Pietro Bianchi: Ugo Gregoretti

To check collateral awards at official fest site go here.

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13th Venice Days Award Winners

The independent section of Venice Film Festival that honors film directors closed today with the awards ceremony and here are the many awards related to this section.

The Jury for the Venice Days Award, chaired by the Canadian artist Bruce LaBruce, has bestowed the 2016 Venice Days Award on the following documentary feature film from the Official Selection:
The War Show by Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon, Denmark and Finland

Jury Motivation on the Venice Days Award
The War Show provoked an impassioned response from the jury. We were immediately struck by the political and social significance and urgency of the film, while also appreciating its daring and innovative approach to filmmaking. We deliberated on whether or not this harrowing documentary should be included alongside the rest of the Venice Days lineup, which was comprised of narrative fiction features. However, we came to the conclusion that the film worked on its own merits as an outstandingly crafted piece of cinema, not simply one that appealed to our moral conscience. The War Show is also an incredibly topical film that sheds light on an ongoing conflict that is too often ignored or misrepresented by the media. We believe it is a film that each and every one of us should see.

The Jury is composed of the participants in the 28 Times Cinema program: 28 young cinephiles from as many countries in the European Union, selected by the exhibitors in the Europa Cinemas circuit and invited to Venice by the European Parliament LUX Prize, in collaboration with Cineuropa. The award carries a cash prize of €20,000, to be equally divided between the director and the international distributor of the film; the latter is urged to use the sum received to promote the winning film.

Most interesting is when section releases the process to select the award winner and the following is a summary. At the conclusion of the official selection, which consisted of 11 films from 15 different countries this year, the Jury convened this morning, its proceedings open to the public and livestreamed on Venice Days' Facebook channel, to discuss the three films that had garnered the most votes in the previous voting sessions:
Heartstone by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Hounds of Love by Ben Young
The War Show by Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon

The reasons for the exclusion of the 8 other films in competition from the above shortlist and from the final deliberations were reviewed, after which the entire jury took part in a run-off vote between two titles that produced a winner. By so doing, after the 28 jurors' initial lack of consensus over the titles in the running for the 2016 Venice Days Award, they were able to declare the Syrian film The War Show best film of this year's edition.

Other Awards

The Europa Cinemas Label goes to Sameblod (Sami Blood) by Amanda Kernell, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.  Kernell will be collecting the award with producer Lars G. Lindström.
The Europa Cinemas Label is devoted to European-produced films and co-productions. The Label was created in 2003 by a network of European exhibitors of independent films (over 2,300 screens in more than 500 European cities), with the support of the European Union's Media Programme, and consists of a cash prize for the distribution and promotion of the winning film, and its release in the cinemas belonging to the network.

The Brian Prize goes to La Ragazza del Mondo (Wordly Girl) by Marco Danieli, Italy
The UAAR (Union of Rationalist Atheists and Agnostics) bestows an award on the best film presented at the Venice Film Festival; director Marco Danieli will be on hand to collect the award.

The Queer Lion goes to Hjartasteinn (Heartstone) by Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson, Iceland and Denmark
The Queer Lion is a film prize awarded annually since 2007 to the "Best Film with Homosexual & Queer Culture Themes". Director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson will be on hand to collect the prize.

The Lina Mangiacapre Prize goes to the film Indivisibili (Indivisible) by Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Created in 1987 by Lina Mangiacapre and awarded by a jury made up of journalists and film critics (50% men, 50% women), the prize aims to "acknowledge films that honor diversity by showing the changing image of women as a subject of historical and cultural interest." Director Edoardo De Angelis and producer Pierpaolo Verga will be on hand to collect the prize.

The Pasinetti Prizes
Best Film: Indivisibili (Indivisible) by Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Best Actor: Michele Riondino in La Ragazza del Mondo (Worldly Girl) by Marco Danieli, Italy
Best Actress: Sara Serraiocco in La Ragazza del Mondo (Worldly Girl) by Marco Danieli, Italy
Marco Danieli will be collecting the prize on behalf of his actors.
A Special Mention goes to actresses Angela and Marianna Fontana in Indivisibili (Indivisible) by Edoardo De Angelis, who will be collecting the prize on their behalf.
The Pasinetti Prize, named after the director, screenwriter, film critic and photographer Francesco Pasinetti and assigned by the National Syndicate of Italian Film Journalists (SNGCI), is one of the collateral prizes of the Venice Film Festival.

The FEDEORA Prizes (Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean):
Best Film: 再見瓦城 Zai Jian Wa Cheng (The Road to Mandalay) by Midi Z, Myanmar, Taiwan, China, France and Germany; who will be on hand to collect the prize.
Best Debut Filmmaker: Amanda Kernell for  Sameblod (Sami Blood), also on hand to collect the prize.
Best Actress: Ashleigh Cummings in Hounds of Love by Ben Young, Australia; who will collect the prize on behalf of the actress.
Best European Film: Ne gledaj mi u pijat (Quit Staring at My Plate), Hana Jušić, Croatia and Denmark; on hand to collect the prize along with producer Ankica Tilic.

The Lizzani Prize goes to La Ragazza del Mondo (Worldly Girl) by Marco Danieli, Italy
The Lizzani Prize established by ANAC is dedicated to filmmaker Carlo Lizzani, a legendary figure in the Italian film industry and director of the Venice Film Festival from 1979 to 1982. The prize goes to film exhibitors who have shown the most courage in their choices. This year that exhibitor is Sino Accursio Caracappa from Sciacca, who has selected the winning film and will ensure it will be promoted and distributed in his cinemas.

Gianni Astrei Prize goes to Indivisibili (Indivisible) by Edoardo De Angelis, Italy
Director Edoardo De Angelis will be on hand to collect the prize.

To read main winner announcement go official site here and the other awards announcement is here.

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31st Venice International Film Critics' Week Award Winners

As Venezia73 starts to slide into the sunset, the collateral sections start to announce their awards winners; the following are two award winners in Settimana Internazionale della Critica.

Premio Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia Award:   Akher Wahed Fina (The Last of Us) by Ala Eddine Slim (Tunisia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon)

From this year on and together with the Audience Award, the Venice International Film Critics’ Week decided to also give a prize for the best technical contribution, named after the great editor Mario Serandrei. The jury, composed by the film critics’ Franco Montini (president of the National Union of Italian Film Critics’), Adriano De Grandis and Piero Spila gave the Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia Award for the Best Technical Contribution to The Last of Us for “the admirable photography of Amine Messadi and the decisive contribution of Moncef Taleb and Yazid Chabbi for the sound, that constitute a real alternative to narration in a film without dialogues, thanks to which The Last of Us (Akher Wahed Fina) by Ala Eddine Slim carries out an original existential road movie, between ghostly intuitions and an almost abstract description of reality”.

“A confirmation and a restart. The cinema at Venice Critic’s Week is alive and kicking” says Giona Nazzaro, general delegate of the Venice International Film Critics’ Week “characterized by a generous affluence of audience and a great attention by national and international press, this edition of Critics’ Week awards the urgency of living and making cinema, a young cinema which is in tune with the world. Juan Sebastián Mesa and Ala Eddine Slim are two filmmakers that revealed themselves to the audience with an unmistakable and radical gaze. Two filmmakers that are rooted in the present and projected towards the future”.



Audience Award - Circolo del Cinema di Verona:  Los Nadie by Juan Sebastián Mesa (Colombia)

Seventeen years after the victory of Mondo Grúa, the film that revealed the talent of Argentinean Pablo Trapero, Latin America triumphs again in the Venice International Film Critics’ Week thanks to the Colombian film winner of the Circolo del Cinema di Verona Audience Award of this 31st edition.

Los Nadie tells the story of five friends who, during their late adolescence full of intense restlessness, astonishment, unexpressed tenderness and manifested rage, survive in the margins of Medellín: a city that attracts and excludes at the same time, a city that seduce them with their promises but also pushes them away with hostility. Music, street art and friendship are their weapons of resistance in the hope of a rite of passage that is able to transform them in something different.

“This is a film – says Mesa – that speaks about a generation of disenchanted dreamers that feel the need to embrace the unknown and to explore the world by themselves, in order to escape from the problems and the violence that surrounds them on a daily basis”, offering at the same time a portray of “a movement, the anarcho-punks, which is one of the most enigmatic and radical movements of our time”.

Shot only in seven days (but imagined for eight months), produced with merely two thousand dollars, Los Nadie (literally The Nobodies) it’s – as explained by selection committee member Beatrice Fiorentino in her essay in the Critics’ Week catalogue – “ spirit de jeunesse at its more pure, vivid and kicking state (…) for Juan Sebastián Mesa, who debuts in long feature developing characters and stories from a previous short, it’s enough a song, a tear and a gesture to evoke the tenderness that coexists with the rage and the disorientation of an entire generation”.



To check the announcement at the official site go here.

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