The jury, composed by Christian von Borries, Bill Brown, José Luis Cienfuegos, Ana Isabel Santos Strindberg and J.P. Sniadecki, has previously seen all the films presented for the Official Section. Following due discussion, it decides to award the following prizes:
Special Mention, worth 1,250 euros, for The Florestine Collection (USA), by Paul Gailiunas and Hellen Hill. In recovering flooded film and paying homage to a lost love, the two filmmakers offer a sweet and tragic fairytale of naivete, civic responsibility, and national crisis that exposes the fragility of idealism and the limitations of political engagement.
Special Mention, worth 1,250 euros, for El modelo (Spain), by Germán Scelso. A bullfight that masquerades as a bum fight. The filmmaker presents naked brutality and reciprocal exploitation in one of the most political film of the festival, a film plagued and bolstered by all kinds of major problems, just like the current economic model itself. Money is the paramount subject, or is it the macho filmmaker?
Prize for the Best Short Film, worth 3,500 euros, for Tomas Dos (Cuba), by Pilar Álvarez. Occupying an ambivalent position between fiction and non-fiction, TOMA DOS defines the space between the embodied camera, the subjects, and the audience in an intimate, ambiguous triangle
’Jean Vigo’ Prize for the Best Direction, worth 5,500 euros, to John Smith, for Dad’s Stick (United Kingdom),
A condensed, multi-layered, self-deprecating view of politics viewed through a material object and generational dislocation. The film raises the questions of how one copes with the quasi-expiration of class struggle as viewed through objects. It is a “colorful” political film in the best tradition of Jean Vigo wrapped in a patina of dark British humor.
‘Punto de Vista’ Prize for the best film, worth 10,000 Euros, for Apuda (China), by He Yuan. For its patient, naturalistic, and cinematic exploration of the passage of time, the play of light, and the fact of human mortality in a far corner of the world. The filmmaker, without taking obvious political sides, refuses to exoticize and explain. The unadorned technical approach coheres with the film’s commitment to quotidian experience and its resulting image.
The public of the festival has decided to give the Spezial Prize of the Public, worth 2,500 Euros, to A World Not Ours (United Kingdom, Líbanon, Denmark), by Mahdi Fleifel.