latest awards

Oberhausen. The FIPRESCI Prize went to Bernadette by Duncan Campbell (Great Britain 2008, 37 min, DV, see photo). The jury stated: "This film is an intriguing portrait of a young woman whose political activism made a significant impact in the times of the Northern Irish conflict and the events of the Bloody Sunday. Using newsreel and archival footage, it captures the universal truth of political engagement and of the possibilities and difficulties of a life thereafter." Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

San Francisco. The FIPRESCI Prize went to Everything Strange and New by Frazer Bradshaw (USA, 2008). The Jury was "delighted to acknowledge the work of a Bay Area-based director whose first feature dares to cut against the grain of American independent filmmaking in its embrace of stylistic experimentalism and genuine interest in the intricacies of adult relationships." Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Lisbon. As already earlier this year in Sofia, Radu Jude's first fiction film The Happiest Girl in the World won the Critics' Prize. The film tells in simple images of a 18-year-old girl who together with her parents travels from the province to the capital, for a car which she has won in a promotional campaign. Reason enough for family conflicts which Radu Jude uncovers carefully. Details of the Prize / Reports from the Festival

Wiesbaden. The goEast Film Festival presents an overview on eastern European cinemas. George Ovashvili's film The Other Bank (Gagma napiri), which had earlier this year been shown in Berlinale's "Generation" program and was now a competition entry in Wiesbaden and winner of the Critics' Prize, takes place in the outskirts of Tbilisi, former Soviet Republic Georgia's capital, and focuses on a 12-year-old boy and his young mother who had arrived from their native place in Abkhazia during the civil war. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Istanbul. Our jury awarded two prizes, to a film in the international competition: Milk (Süt) by Semih Kaplanoglu, and to a film in the national competition: My Only Sunshine (Hayat Var) by Reha Erdem. Both films have already launched themselves on the international scene; one at Venice, the other at Berlinale. Both are to a certain degree coming-of-age films: Milk is about a boy in a provincial town who dreams to become a poet, while My Only Sunshine focuses on a young girl trying to survive in a poor district of Istanbul. That the FIPRESCI jury prized two Turkish films may of course be seen as a sign for a particularly vivid period in the cinema of the country. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Lecce. Mukha, the fly: that's the nickname of Vera Mukhina, a 16 years old schoolgirl from the Russian province who's in the center of the debut of young filmmaker Vladimir Kott, The Fly. He unfolds the story of how her father, who allegedly had died years ago, enters her life, and how she declares war on him. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Buenos Aires. The FIPRESCI jury awarded a film fresh into what will be an extensive festival run, Maren Ade's seemingly simple tour-de-force Everyone Else (Alle Anderen) — which had premiered in the competition of Berlinale in February (and hat convinced the jury). No mere runner up, Ade's sophomore feature also took home the main prize for Best Director, and could have easily won prizes for both lead actors as well. "Hell, it could have won everything else", comments Mark Peranson. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Hong Kong. The FIPRESCI Jury chose Zou Peng's carefully considered A Northern Chinese Girl (2009) from an impressive field featuring films from countries including China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and Korea. Peng's excellent direction of mainly untrained actors combined perfectly with the exciting new talent of cinematographer Pablo Enrique Mendoza Ruiz; both of these men headed a team that crafted a deeply affecting story of a young woman struggling to make ends meet in the harsh landscape of a city wracked by economic turmoil, and forced to cater to the whims of others while still searching for her own fulfilment. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Toulouse. The FIPRESCI Jury chose a first feature film from the "Discovery" program and presented the International Critics' Prize to the four-hour first feature film Extraordinary Stories (Historias Extraordinarias) by Mariano Llinás (Argentine, 2008, first shown at BAFICI — The Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Cinema in 2008). Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Guadalajara. The festival has two main competitions, and our jury followed both of them. Prize for a film in the Iberoamerican Competition: The Maid (La nana) by Sebastián Silva (Chile, 2009), about a maid who in 23 years of service became introverted and bitter and needs to learn how to break down the barrier she's built around herself. Prize for a film in the Mexican Competiton: Black Sheep (Oveja negra, photo), the debut of Humberto Hinojosa Ozcariz (Mexico, 2009), about two friends working on a ranch who decide to steel sheep, to fullfil their dreams of a better life. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival. From a delightful selection of international and Greek films our jury chose these two prize winners: Prodigal Sons by Kimberly Reed (USA/UK) and Bathers (Louomeno) by Eva Stefani (Greece). Details of the FIPRESCI Prize / Reports on the festival

Fribourg. Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies by Mexican director Yulene Olaizola, winner of the FIPRESCI prize, is a film about film making. It follows the mystery of Jorge Riosse, a special guest who lived with his grandmother, Rosa Carvajal, in a way that reminds a detective story. Details of the FIPRESCI Prize / Reports on the festival

Miami. "An amusing take on the nature of group dynamics", characterizes the festival Ruben Östlunds film Involuntary. "Two teenage girls chat, take pictures and get drunk, a group of young men experiment with sex, a teacher tries to resolve the problem of a student bullied by another teacher, and a group of passengers are held prisoner by a bus driver." Details of the FIPRESCI Prize / Reports on the festival

Sofia. Romanian cinema is still interesting. Radu Jude's first fiction film The Happiest Girl in the World, which won the Critics' Prize, tells in simple images of a 18-year-old girl who together with her parents travels from the province to the capital, for a car which she has won in a promotional campaign. Reason enough for family conflicts which Radu Jude uncovers carefully. Details of the FIPRESCI Prize / Reports on the festival

Mexico City. Our Fight (Nuestra lucha, Mexico, 2008, HDV), directed by Jaime Rogel Román, is a spontaneous and straightforward story, which succeeds to turn a deep Mexican reality of anonymous fighters into a human and universal reflection. Details of the FIPRESCI Prize / Reports on the festival

Berlin. The young Peruvian filmmaker Claudia Llosa (photo, right), whose first film Madeinusa had won the FIPRESCI Prize in Rotterdam 2006, won for her second feature The Milk of Sorrow (La teta asustada) the Golden Bear, as well as the FIPRESCI Prize. Actress and singer Magaly Solier (photo, left) plays an Indio girl whose mother had been violated in the Peru of the terror of the 80s, and who has sucked with the mother's milk an "illness of fear". In the Panorama section, our jury chose North (Nord) by Rune Denstadt Langlo (Norway 2009), in the International Forum of New Cinema Japanese movie Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi) by Sono Sion won our prize. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival

Göteborg. Our jurors attended the Nordic competition and selected The Blessing as best film. It's the first feature-length fiction film by Danish debutant Heidi Maria Faisst, "who previously impressed with her short films", informs the festival catalogue. "Based on her own screenplay, she shows psychological decline during postnatal depression and the impossibility of two people getting closer together even if, or precisely because, they are also mother and daughter." Details of the Prize / Texts about the Festival

Rotterdam. A feature by a young Indonesian film-maker won the appreciation of the critics in our jury and our prize: Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly by Edwin (born 1978, he uses his first name only). It is "a film that is both serious and playful. The film tackles a sensitive racial political issue, namely the denial of the cultural identity of the Chinese minority in Indonesia, but is also filled with humorous and bizarre jokes and situations", writes the festival programmer who invited the film in the Tiger Award competition. Details of the Prize / Reports on the Festival, including a review of Blind Pig

Palm Springs. From national submissions to the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film, a jury of FIPRESCI selected its first special award of the year, the Best Foreign Language Film of 2008: Revanche by Götz Spielmann (Austria, 2008). The jury decided also prizes for best actor/actress. Best actor: Natar Ungalaaq in The Necessities of Life (Ce qu'il faut pour vivre, directed by Benoit Pilon, Canada 2008). Best actress: Martina Gusman in Lion's Den (Leonera, directed by Pablo Trapero, Argentina/South Korea/Brazil, 2008). Details of the Prize / Reports about the festival
Tromso. At this festival in the north of Norway, Austrian director Götz Spielmann's film Revanche won also the critics' prize. Details / Texts on the festival

More Festivals

See our 2008 reports from Stockholm Reports / Prize ljubljana Reports / Prize Sarajevo Reports / Prize Zanzibar Reports / Prize

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