Our main entry collecting reviews and reports from the International Film Festival Rotterdam has been updated through today, and we’ve also just posted a dispatch from the festival by Aaron Cutler. Now the IFFR, which, it should be stressed runs on through the weekend, has announced the winners of this year’s awards.
The three winners of the equal Hivos Tiger Awards 2013, as chosen by the Jury (Fatemeh Motamedarya, Sergei Loznitsa, Kees Hin, José Luis Cienfuegos, and Ai Weiwei):
Môj pes Killer (My Dog Killer) by Mira Fornay (Slovakia/Czech Republic, 2013). From the Jury: “The challenge for showing a very strong subject from the inside reveals the difficulty of life and a sense of violence.”
Soldate Jeannette (Soldier Jane) by Daniel Hoesl (Austria, 2012). “The breaking out of two women is realized with strong imagery and visual power. Each shot is minimal but gives a high construction of forms and shapes; a very formalistic approach.”
Larzanandeye charbi (Fat Shaker) by Mohammad Shirvani (Iran, 2013). “The film introduces the audience to a very different world. It is a fascinating story with superb characters. The cinematography really draws out the story, the paranoia and the characters.”
The NETPAC Jury (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) awards the best Asian film in IFFR 2013 Official Selection. The Jury: Eduardo Lejano Jr., Jo Ji-Hoon, and Massoud Bakhshi. This year’s NETPAC Award goes to Yang tidak dibicarakan ketika membicarakan cinta (What They Don’t Talk About When They Talk About Love) by Mouly Surya (Indonesia, 2013). “For its delicate portrayal of the desires and fantasies of its visually-impaired characters in a Jakarta school of the blind that appeals to the senses in evoking the textures and rhythms of the emerging southeast Asian cinema.”
The Jury of the international association of film critics FIPRESCI (Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique) awards the best film among the nineteen world premieres in Bright Future 2013. The Jury: Diego Lerer, Robert Koehler, Ronald Rovers, Boris Nelepo, and Nam Da-Eun. This year’s FIPRESCI Award goes to O quinto evanxeo de Gaspar Hauser (The Fifth Gospel of Kaspar Hauser) by Alberto Gracia (Spain, 2013). “For Alberto Gracia’s radical and audacious desire to capture the world as seen through the eyes of a legendary, rebel madman. Mysterious and bravely resisting any amount of words to precisely describe what he’s achieved on screen, Gracia’s work is both meticulously structured and yet as untamed as a dream in the deepest dark of night. We celebrate the film’s achievement to convey Kaspar’s divided selves, identities and visions through purely cinematic means, and to also question the very purpose of cinema itself.”
IFFR introduced a new competition in 2013: The Big Screen Award Competition, aimed at supporting the distribution of films in Dutch cinemas. The first winner: Bellas mariposas (Pretty Butterflies) by Salvatore Mereu (Italy, 2012). “Representing the audience, we felt the duty to watch out for a refreshing movie. One that would be an addition to what is on offer in Dutch cinemas; one that we don’t want others to miss. We found this voice in a movie with a young perspective that frolics from characters to plotlines and is just a celebration of life all together.”
For the KNF Award, The Dutch Circle of Film Critics (KNF) Jury chose the winner out of the ten films in The Big Screen Award Competition 2013: Il futuro (The Future) by Alicia Scherson (Chile/Germany/Italy/Spain, 2013). “In a solid competition, a number of titles distinguished themselves by taking more risks. One film caught the jury’s eye with its distinct tone of voice. The film plays with light and darkness on many levels; perhaps surprisingly, this is reflected most effectively in the inventive and atmospheric soundtrack. The intriguing central relationship, which calls back memories to Last Tango in Paris, is intimately portrayed by Manuella Martelli and Rutger Hauer.”
Earlier in IFFR 2013, the following awards were presented:
Canon Tiger Awards for Short Films: The Tiger’s Mind by Beatrice Gibson (UK, 2012), Unsupported Transit by Zachary Formwalt (Netherlands, 2011), and Janus by Erik van Lieshout (Netherlands, 2012).
Rotterdam Short Film Nominee European Film Awards 2013: Though I Know the River Is Dry by Omar Robert Hamilton, Egypt/Palestine/UK, 2013.
Moviezone Award of the young people’s jury: Les chevaux de Dieu (God’s Horses) by Nabil Ayouch (Morocco/France/Belgium, 2012).
Lions Film Award of the Rotterdam Lions Club L’Esprit du Temps: Penumbra by Eduardo Villanueva (Mexico).
Eurimages Award, best European CineMart Project 2013: Jätten (The Giant) by Johannes Nyholm (Sweden).
ARTE International Prize for best CineMart Project 2013: The Lobster by Yorgos Lanthimos (Ireland/UK/Greece).
WorldView New Genres Fund Development Award, best CineMart Project 2013: Zama by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/Spain).
Update, 2/3: “Two feature film débuts were IFFR 2013’s audience favorites. Dutch film Matterhorn by Diederik Ebbinge took the UPC Audience Award. Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda was awarded with the Dioraphte Award for best Hubert Bals Fund-supported film. Both awards come with 10,000 Euro prize money.”
Update, 2/4: At Indiewire, Brandon Harris describes My Dog Killer as “a wrenching look at an inept neo-Nazi youth who owns the titular dog and carries the secret of having a little brother who is a gypsy. Their mother, an escapee from the neo-Nazi environs that have shaped her first born son, is doing her best to settle old scores within her former milieu while keeping her brainwashed and potentially dangerous son out of harm’s way. Sadly, her youngest child might not be so lucky in this harrowing vision of a society boiling over with racial hatred that is reminiscent, in its own, peculiar, heart-wrenching way, of early works by Michael Haneke and Matthew Kassovitz.”
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @KeyframeDaily on Twitter and/or the RSS feed. Get Keyframe Daily in your inbox by signing in at fandor.com/daily.
