{"id":549894,"date":"2026-04-25T11:11:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/549894\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T11:11:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:11:13","slug":"from-dawn-to-dawn-wins-top-award-at-visions-du-reel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/549894\/","title":{"rendered":"“From Dawn to Dawn” Wins Top Award at Visions du R\u00e9el"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tVisions du R\u00e9el<\/a> closed its 57th edition Friday with a prize list that leaned firmly toward intimate, formally adventurous nonfiction, as Xisi Sofia Ye Chen\u2019s \u201cFrom Dawn to Dawn<\/a>\u201d took the Grand Jury Prize in the International Feature Film Competition.<\/p>\n

\n\tCentered on the filmmaker\u2019s brother, a Chinese gangster living in Spain, the debut feature offers a rare immersion into a world more frequently explored through fiction than documentary. Told through first-person narration and stylized imagery, the film charts his attempts to reconcile a criminal past with family obligations and shifting moral ground.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe top prize carries a cash award of CHF 20,000 ($22,000).vThe jury, made up of Marrakech Film Festival chief R\u00e9mi Bonhomme and filmmakers Lina Soualem and Brett Story, celebrated \u201can astonishing self assured debut. A moving, intimate and complex portrait of the impacts of exile and the struggle to reclaim one\u2019s life. Using poetic personal narration and evocative, at times dream-like cinematography, the film unfolds in layers at once revealing and deepening the question of how migration, economic survival and trauma impact family relations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe jury handed out its Special Prize to Marlene Edoyan\u2019s \u201cA Fire There,\u201d which examines the friendship between three young men navigating an unstable political environment in Georgia. Boubacar Sangar\u00e9\u2019s \u201cDjeliya, m\u00e9moire du Mand\u00e9\u201d received a Special Mention.<\/p>\n

\n\tAcross the awards, several titles drew on personal archives or close family circles to address wider political realities. A case in point is Audience Award winner \u201cBirds of War,\u201d by Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak, which delves into more than a decade of personal archives belonging to a Lebanese journalist living in London and a Syrian cameraman. The award comes with CHF 10,000 ($11,000) in prize money.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the Burning Lights Competition, the top prize went to Hassen Ferhani\u2019s \u201cAlea Jacarandas\u201d a film built around memory and transmission, where grief and inheritance are explored through recurring visual motifs \u2013 the titular jacaranda blossoms. It comes with a cash prize of CHF 10,000 ($11,000).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe jury, made up of filmmaker Ali Asgari, editor Liyo Gong and programmer-critic Antoine Thirion, praised the winning film as \u201ca work that, on the surface, explores transmission, but beneath, opens onto deeper currents. It teaches us how to look \u2013 toward beauty, and toward the dream of beauty hovering over the violence of history and the distances between beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBaby Jackfruit Baby Guava,\u201d N\u00f4ng Nh\u00e2t Quang\u2019s debut feature about a mother, daughter and son who travel back in time to mend ruptured family ties, was awarded the Special Jury Prize, worth CHF 5,000 ( $5,500).<\/p>\n

\n\tThe National Competition jury also rewarded films rooted in family relationships. Lauren D\u00e4llenbach\u2019s \u201cNicole Nicole\u201d won the top prize (CHF 15,000 \/ $16,500) for its portrayal of a co-dependent relationship between an aunt and a grandmother, balancing humor and fragility while examining isolation and the fear of living alone.<\/p>\n

\n\tSophie Schrago\u2019s \u201cWhat Comes From Sitting in Silence?\u201d received the Special Jury Prize for its focus on women confronting political and social pressure.<\/p>\n

\n\tAmong additional awards, Emma Bofanccuso\u2019s debut feature \u201cSaudades Eternas\u201d won the FIPRESCI Prize, Elsa Amiel\u2019s \u201cDentro\u201d took the Interreligious Award, and Jos\u00e9 Luis Gu\u00e9rin\u2019s \u201cGood Valley Stories\u201d received the Perception Change Award.<\/p>\n

\n\tArtistic director Emilie Buj\u00e8s said the prize list reflects the festival\u2019s identity as a space for films that \u201cbreak down the barriers of conventional documentary cinema, offering audiences the chance to shift their perspective,\u201d pointing to a selection that moves between contrasting states \u2013 \u201cjoy and terror, darkness and beauty, confinement and freedom\u201d \u2013 while continuing to attract a loyal audience and expanding its reach among younger viewers.<\/p>\n

\n\tRunning April 17-26, the festival continues through Sunday with screenings of award-winning titles, while its online program remains available until May 4.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u201cAlea Jacarandas\u201d by Hassen Ferhani<\/p>\n

\n\tFind all the awards for Visions du R\u00e9el 2026 here:<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational Feature Film Competition
Grand Jury Prize
\u201cFrom Dawn to Dawn\u201d by Xisi Sofia Ye Chen
Special Jury Prize
\u201cA Fire There\u201d by Marlene Edoyan
Special Mention
\u201cDjeliya, m\u00e9moire du Mand\u00e9\u201d by Boubacar Sangar\u00e9<\/p>\n

\n\tBurning Lights Competition
Jury Prize
\u201cAlea Jacarandas\u201d by Hassen Ferhani
Special Jury Prize
\u201cBaby Jackfruit Baby Guava\u201d by N\u00f4ng Nh\u00e2t Quang
Special Mentions
\u201cThe Case Against Space\u201d by Graeme Arnfield
\u201cIllusion of Quiet Night\u201d by Olga Chernyk<\/p>\n

\n\tNational Competition
Jury Prize
\u201cNicole Nicole\u201d by Lauren D\u00e4llenbach
Special Jury Prize
\u201cWhat Comes From Sitting in Silence?\u201d by Sophie Schrago
Special Mention
\u201cDer Runde Tisch\u201d by Juliette Menthonnex & Benjamin Bucher<\/p>\n

\n\tInternational Medium Length & Short Film Competition
Best Medium-Length Film
\u201cIci, ailleurs\u201d by Comes Chahbazian
Best Short Film
\u201cVisite guid\u00e9e\u201d by Alba Jaramillo
Youth Jury Award (Medium-Length)
\u201cThe Building Site\u201d by Tiziano Locci & Tito Puglielli
Special Mentions
\u201cMemories of a Window\u201d by Amin Pakparvar & Mehraneh Salimian
\u201cSawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon\u201d by Bill Morrison<\/p>\n

\n\tWide Angle
Audience Award
\u201cBirds of War\u201d by Janay Boulos & Abd Alkader Habak
International Critics\u2019 Award \u2013 FIPRESCI Award
\u201cSaudades Eternas\u201d by Emma Bofanccuso
Interreligious Award
\u201cDentro\u201d by Elsa Amiel
Perception Change Award
\u201cGood Valley Stories\u201d by Jos\u00e9 Luis Gu\u00e9rin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visions du R\u00e9el closed its 57th edition Friday with a prize list that leaned firmly toward intimate, formally…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,189248,2839,56,54,55,189249],"class_list":["post-549894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-from-dawn-to-dawn","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-visions-du-ru00e9el"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}