Filmmakers from Iran won the top prizes as International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the world’s biggest nonfiction cinema festival, handed out its awards tonight.
A Fox Under a Pink Moon, directed by Mehrdad Oskouei, was named Best Film in International Competition, an award that comes with a €15,000 prize. The film focuses on 16-year-old Soraya, a young artist “creating stunning drawings and sculptures that are as beautiful as they are dark. This strong-willed Afghan sculptor and illustrator has been trying for five years to escape Iran and join her mother in Austria.”
‘A Fox Under a Pink Moon’
IDFA
In its citation, the jury said, “This film opens a window onto the power of art and hope during the difficult times through which we’re living. Through masterful cinematography often filmed in dangerous conditions, and the protagonist’s radiant energy, this empowering collaboration between an established filmmaker and a young new artist enables her to reclaim identity amid exile and domestic violence, to bloom despite repression, and to find solace through creation. A self-portrait that witnesses the growth of an Afghan artist whose work will continue to resonate.”
Jury members for International Competition included Eric Hynes, Isabelle Glachant, Maya Daisy Hawke, Michel K. Zongo, and Myriam Sassine.
Scroll for the full list of IDFA awards winners.
The prize for Best Directing in International Competition went to Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel for The Kartli Kingdom. Deadline shared the teaser-trailer for the film with you last week. The award comes with a €5,000 prize.
‘The Kartli Kingdom’
Sakdoc Film/Habilis Productions
“A visual labyrinth that takes us deep inside a single location yet continuously reveals new facets and faces,” jurors said of The Kartli Kingdom, “this film depicts something scarcely seen in stories of the refugee experience: the long arc of permanent exile in which dislocation engenders new communities defined by survival and defiance—communities that are then forcefully dissolved, creating another wave of trauma,” jurors wrote. “We were struck by the evident time and care the directors took in working with members of this community, in their ability to capture and convey a sense of home in such an unlikely place.”
‘December (Diciembre)’
Compañía de Cine
The IDFA Award for Best Editing in International Competition went to December (Diciembre) directed by Lucas Gallo, with editing by Fernando Epstein. Best Cinematography in that category was claimed by Silent Flood by Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk, with cinematography by Ivan Morarash, Oleksandr Korotun, Viacheslav Tsvietkov, and Dmytro Sukholytkyy- Sobchuk.
Flood, directed by Katy Scoggin, was awarded a Special Mention for International Competition.
In IDFA’s equally prestigious Envision Competition, the Best Film award was earned by Past Future Continuous, directed by Iranian filmmakers for Morteza Ahmadvand and Firouzeh Khosrovani. The honor comes with a €15,000 prize.
‘Past Future Continuous’
IDFA
The documentary centers on Maryam, a woman who “fled Iran decades ago and settled in the United States. Her parents remained in Tehran. Now that they are growing older and political unrest is intensifying, she is concerned. She persuades them to install security cameras in every room, so she can stay in direct contact with them from a distance.”
The film is composed largely of that security footage interspersed with home video of Maryam’s childhood.
“In this film, with an outstanding text, the form elevates the subject to another level,” wrote Envision Competition jurors Ansuya Blom, Gladys Joujou, Ignacio Agüero, Massimo D’Anolfi, and Salomé Jashi, who noted their choice was unanimous. “Here, time and space are both concrete and suspended. The authors invented and set up a reality where cinematic experience offers emotional truth. The film presents itself as an unusual and poignant cinematic experiment that holds together various lines of reflection: diaspora, exile, historical repetition, and personal memory.”
The Award for Best Directing (accompanied by a €5,000 prize) in the Envision Competition went to Aistė Žegulytė-Zapolska for Holy Destructors. The Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution was presented to Miguel Eek for Amílcar.
‘Paikar’
IDFA
Paikar, directed by Dawood Hilmandi, won two awards: Best First Feature (accompanied by a €5,000 prize) and the FIPRESCI Award, chosen by a group of international critics. A Special Mention in the Best First Feature category was awarded to The Kartli Kingdom (directed, as noted above, by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel).
The NPO Doc IDFA Audience Award will be announced Friday. IDFA, the largest documentary film festival in the world, runs through Sunday in the Dutch capital.
Prize winners at IDFA’s awards ceremony in Amsterdam, Thursday, Nov. 20.
IDFA
This is the full list of winners announced Thursday:
– IDFA Award for Best Film – International Competition: A Fox Under a Pink Moon, dir. Mehrdad Oskouei
– IDFA Award for Best Directing – International Competition: The Kartli Kingdom, dir. Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel
– IDFA Award for Best Editing – International Competition: December, dir. Lucas Gallo
– IDFA Award for Best Cinematography – International Competition: Silent Flood, dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk
– Special Mention – International Competition: Flood, dir. Katy Scoggin
– IDFA Award for Best Film – Envision Competition: Past Future Continuous, dir. Morteza Ahmadvand and Firouzeh Khosrovani
– IDFA Award for Best Directing – Envision Competition: Holy Destructors, dir. Aistė Žegulytė-Zapolska
– IDFA Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution – Envision Competition: Amílcar, dir. Miguel Eek
– IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction: Feedback VR, un musical antifuturista, dir. Claudix Vanesix for Collective AMiXR
– Special Mention – IDFA DocLab for Immersive Non-Fiction: Under the Same Sky, dir. Khalil Ashawi
– IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling: Artificial Sex (Ep. 1 & 2), dir. Anan Fries
– Special Mention – IDFA DocLab for Digital Storytelling: Coded Black, dir. Maisha Wester
– IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary: An Open Field, dir. Teboho Edkins
– Special Mention – Short Documentary: Dreams for a Better Past, dir. Albert Kuhn
– IDFA Award for Best First Feature: Paikar, dir. Dawood Hilmandi
– Special Mention – IDFA Award for Best First Feature: The Kartli Kingdom, dir. Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel
– IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film: My Word Against Mine, dir. Maasja Ooms
– Special Mention – IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film: Paikar, dir. Dawood Hilmandi
– Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award: Remake, dir. Ross McElwee
– Special Mention – Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award: The Memory of Butterflies, dir. Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski
– FIPRESCI Award: Paikar, dir. Dawood Hilmandi