Unexpected outcome
For the first time in many years the Grand Prix of the International Film Festival “Molodist” was awarded to a student film
The last time it happened in 1997, when the “Scythian Deer” statuette and the prize of 10,000 dollars for the best film were awarded to a student film by Donna Swan SKUD (Australia).
This year the unique situation took place again. With a strong feature films competition in the overall contest of the Molodist Film Festival the winner is not even a professional short film, but a student film The Mass of Men of the British director Gabriel Gauchet.
Another winner of the Festival is the film Ilo Ilo by film director from Singapore Anthony Chen. Chen added to the list of his awards, which include, in particular, the “Golden Camera” from the Cannes Film Festival, the first prize in the feature films category (with a certificate for 2,500 dollars) and the FIPRESCI Jury Prize. The jury awarded special prizes to the directors Agustin Toscano and Ezequiel Radusky from Argentina “for artistic expression of the relations between servants and masters and continuing tradition of Luis Bunuel and Joseph Losey” in The Owners.
The best film in the short films competition is the Butter Lamp (Hu Wei, France), the special prize was awarded to the film Noah by Canadian directors Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg “for artistic minimalism in uncovering drama of virtual communication” and to the film The Whistle by Grzegorz Zariczny from Poland “for subtle and poetic images of everyday life.” The first prize among student films was awarded to the film Mother by Lukasz Ostalski (Poland). The special jury award “For best actor” went to Vincent Krueger, protagonist of Barbara Ott’s film Sunny (Germany). Finally, the “Don Quixote” prize from the film society jury was awarded to a sports drama Sarah Prefers to Run (Chloe Robichaud, Canada). Another French film Me, Myself and Mum (Guillaume Gallienne, France-Belgium) was very popular among the audience that’s why it received the Audience Award and a special award from the film societies. The winner of the “Sunny Bunny” nomination is a new film by Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska In the Name of…, and the winner of the “Molodist for Kids” nomination is the film The Rocket by Kim Mordaunt (Australia, Laos, Thailand).
As for the participants from Ukraine, the feature debut of Dmytro Moiseiev Such Beautiful People did not get any of the festival’s awards. The leader by the number of awards became a truly decent novella by Iryna Tsilyk Commemoration, which received an award of the ecumenical jury and the special award of the National Competition “for preserving traditions of Ukrainian cinema.” The director of the film The Road Back – the best film of the National Competition, Oleksandr Ratii received a certificate for 2,500 dollars.
A more detailed account of the events of the festival will be released this week, but we can already provide a brief summary. The full-length program was worthy of any European festival of debutants; well-organized, bright visit of one of Europe’s leading directors, Ulrich Seidl; workshops and press conferences of a number of well-known filmmakers; roundtable discussions on issues of cinema critics; separate children’s competition; screenings of films that made a sensation at this year’s major film festivals; social films as a cross-cutting motive of all programs – all of these suggest that the Molodist 43 became the most successful and balanced festival in recent years.
The Day’s FACT FILE
This year Molodist Film Festival featured nearly 300 films from over 60 countries. The Ukrainian national competition had 23 films. The full-length competition consisted of 12 films. The Festival was held in Kyiv, Zhovten, Kinopanorama, and Kyivska Rus cinemas.
