latest awards

San Francisco. Our jury awarded the Critics Prize to Ballast by Lance Hammer (USA, 2007). Motivation: "Gradually and assuredly pulls the audience in, without indulging in tricks or shortcuts, and builds to an extraordinarily honest depiction of a difficult relationship." A Special Mention went to Glasses (Megane) by Naoko Ogigami (Japan, 2007). Motivation: "For the freshness and optimism of the comedy, that glides along at an unexpectedly serene pace." Reports / Details of the Prize

Oberhausen. In The Unseen (Nezrimoe), the winner of the Critics' Prize, Russian director Pavel Medvedev, looks behind the scenes at the St. Petersburg Summit, for 30 minutes revealing the rites of the contemporary political business. He approaches the Summit as an ethnologist without any comments and music. Reports / Details of the Prize

Lisbon. Momma's Man, directed by Azazel Jacobs, the winner of the Critics' Prize at IndieLisboa, had its world premiere at Sundance (January 2008). American critics appreciated it as "a major discovery" (Screen Daily), as "exceptionally tender, funny and poignant" (Indiewire), a "quirky, angst-ridden family drama" (Entertainment Weekly). Reports / Details of the Prize

Lecce. The film Hope tells about an unusual blackmail case in a church witnessed by a young man. The first feature by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Stanislaw Mucha (Poland) is a mixture between thriller, meditation on art, culpability and society, revealing a tragic family story in the past linked by various kinds of blackmail. Reports / Details of the Prize

Buenos Aires. The Critics Jury awarded our prize to Ballast, American Lance Hammer's first feature-length fiction film as writer and director. Settled in the deep South of the States, near the Mississippi delta, the film focuses on two characters, a pre-teen boy and his mother, without a place and drowned by past and present dramas. Reports / Details of the Prize

Istanbul. Our jury followed the international and the national competitions and presented two prizes: to Ben X by Belgium Nic Balthazar and to Summer Book by Turkish Seyfi Teoman — both films being the feature debuts of their directors. Reviews of both films and reports on the festival / Details of the Prize

Wiesbaden. Magnus, the first feature by 26-year-old Estonian filmmaker Kadri Kõusaar, won the Critics' Prize at the eight edition of the goEast Festival for Middle and Eastern European Cinema. She tells the touching story of a 16-year-old boy who has a severe pulmonary disease and eventually struggles with girls and with his father. Reports / Details of the Prize

Toulouse. At the "Rencontres Cinémas d'Amérique Latine", Mexican Cochochi won the critics' appreciation, first feature by Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán. is a story about two young brothers, who are very different from one another. Throughout the story they borrow and then lose their grandfather's horse. The film follows them through the vast landscape of Mexico. Reports / Details of the Prize

Hong Kong. At this center of Asian cinema, the film Wonderful Town by Thailand filmmaker Aditya Assarat won the Critics' Prize, the story of a love between an architect and a hotel owner in a small town in the south of Thailand which is suffering from the physical and moral consequences of the Tsunami a few years ago. Reports / Details of the Prize

Guadalajara. In the Ibero-American competition the jurors of FIPRESCI discovered The Path (El camino), the first feature-length film of the young Costa Rica-based Ishtar Yasin, a road movie about two children undertaking a dangerous and tiring travel from Nicaragua to Costa Rica to find their mother. Reports on the Festival / Details of the Prize

Sofia. The Bulgarian film Seamstresses by Lyudmil Todorov was appreciated by the critics: an honest and refreshing film about contemporary Bulgaria. It is told in a classical and neat way, and carried by three young, wonderful and gifted actresses, whose characters are torn between broken dreams and the beauty of hope. Festival reports / Details of the Prize

Thessaloniki Documentary. The festival "Images of the 21st Century" celebrated its tenth anniversary and presented an important selection of international and Greek docs. Our prizes went to Tanaz Eshaghian's Be Like Others and Nicos Ligouris' The Lovers from Axos. Reports / Details of the Prize

Mumbai. Tingya, an Indian movie by newcomer Mangesh Handawale, which explains the values and tolerances between the farmers and their animals and the different religions in India won the FIPRESCI prize at the 10th edition of the Mumbai International Film festival, the only independet film festival in India. Festival reports / Details of the Prize

Miami. At the 25th anniversary edition of the Miami International Film Festival, the first under the stewardship of industry veteran Patrick de Bokay, our jury surveyed the 15 films of the World Dramatic Features section and presented its single award to the violent drama Foul Gesture (Tnu'a Meguna), the second feature (after Giraffes) by Israeli director Tzahi Grad. Festival reports / Details of the Prize

Fribourg. At the first edition to be directed by our colleague Edouard Waintrop, the films in competition challenged the viewer and were cinematographic constructions using out-of-frame images, encouraging the audience to complete the film in their minds, thus making them a part of the filmmaking process. Among them, the FIPRESCI jury awarded the Korean film With a Girl of Black Soil (Geomen Tangyi Sonyeo Oi) by Jeon Soo-il. Festival reports / Details of the Prize

Mexico City. At FICCO 2008, the Mexico City International Contemporary Film Festival, our jury chose winners in two categories. Santa Fe Street (Calle Santa Fe) (Chile-France-Belgium), directed by Carmen Castillo, was Best Latin American Documentary. Intimates of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo (Intimades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo, Mexico), directed by Yulene Olaizola, was Best Mexican Documentary. Reports / Details of the Prize

Berlin. At Berlinale's 58th edition, our jury presented three prizes: Lake Tahoe, the second film by young Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke (Competition), Mermaid (Rusalka) by Anna Melikyan (Russia) (shown in Panorama), and Shahida — Brides of Allah (Shahida) by Israeli filmmaker Natalie Assouline (Forum). Festival reports / Details of the Prizes

Mumbai. Reports / Details of the Prize
Rotterdam. Reports / Details of the Prize
Goteborg. Reports / Details of the prize
Tromso. Reports from the festival / Details of the Prize
Dhaka. Reports from the Bangladesh Festival / Details of the Prize
Palm Springs. Reports / Details of the Prize /

top