The Locarno Film Festival announced the winners of its various competition sections ahead of an award ceremony at the festival’s Piazza Grande tonight. The jury for the international competition, headed by Palme d’Or-winning Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, awarded the venerable Golden Leopard prize to veteran French filmmaker Jean-Claude Brisseau for “La Fille De Nulle Part” (“The Girl From Nowhere”), a quasi-fictional film in which the director stars as a retired teacher who takes in a young woman to his Parisian home after she runs away from her partner.
“The movie is about cinema and made with an economy of means,” said Weerasethakul at a press conference with his fellow jury members. “It’s not by an aging filmmaker but by a filmmaker who is young at heart.”
Sitting by his side, filmmaker Roger Avary, who was also on the jury, agreed. “We were delighted to see this film by an auteur who showed me all you need is to pick up a camera to show your soul,” he said. Referring to the presence of ghosts that surface late in the story, Avary added, “It also works as a genre film. It was the first film in a very long time to scare the fucking shit out of me.”
Top honors also went to Bob Byington’s “Somebody Up There Likes Me,” which won the runner-up prize, and Ying Liang, who won Best Director for “When Night Falls.”
The full list of winners for each of the festival sections can be found below:
Concorso internazionale (International competition)
Pardo d’oro
LA FILLE DE NULLE PART by Jean-Claude Brisseau, France
Premio speciale della giuria
SOMEBODY UP THERE LIKES ME by Bob Byington, United States
Pardo per la migliore regia (Best Director)
YING LIANG for the film WO HAI YOU HUA YAO SHUO (When Night Falls), South Korea/China
Pardo per la miglior interpretazione femminile (Best Actress)
AN NAI for the film WO HAI YOU HUA YAO SHUO (When Night Falls) by Ying Liang, South Korea/China
Pardo per la miglior interpretazione maschile (Best Actor)
WALTER SAABEL for the film DER GLANZ DES TAGES (The Shine of Day) by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel, Austria
Special mention
To the extraordinary character CANDY from the film A ULTIMA VEZ QUE VI MACAU due to her powerful presence through absence which resonated for the Jury as representing the immense courage of Portuguese cinema in times when the failures of government and social systems threaten the cinematic arts worldwide.
Concorso Cineasti del presente (Filmmakers of the present)
Pardo d’oro Cineasti del presente – Premio George Foundation
INORI by Pedro González-Rubio, Japan
Premio per il miglior regista emergente (Best Director)
JOEL POTRYKUS for the film APE, United States
Premio speciale della giuria Ciné+ Cineasti del presente
NOT IN TEL AVIV by Nony Geffen, Israel
Special Mention
TECTONICS by Peter Bo Rappmund, United States
Opera Prima
Pardo per la migliore opera prima (Best First Feature)
JI YI WANG ZHE WO (Memories Look At Me) by SONG Fang, China
Special Mention
APE by Joel Potrykus, United States
Pardi di domani
Concorso internazionale
Pardino d’oro for the Best International Short Film
THE MASS OF MEN by Gabriel Gauchet, United Kingdom
Pardino d’argento
YADERNI WYDHODY (Nuclear Waste) by Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy, Ukraine
Special Mention
LOS RETRATOS (Portraits) by Iván D. Gaona, Colombia
Locarno short film nominee for the European Film Awards – Premio Pianific
BACK OF BEYOND by Michael Lennox, United Kingdom
The Film und Video Untertitelung Prize
O QUE ARDE CURA (As the Flames Rose) ba João Rui Guerra da Mata, Portugal
Concorso nazionale
Pardino d’oro for the Best Swiss Short Film
RADIO-ACTIF (Radio-active) by Nathan Hofstetter, Switzerland
Pardino d’argento
L’AMOUR BÈGUE (Stammering Love) by Jan Czarlewski, Switzerland
Premio Action Light for the Best Swiss Newcomer
IL VULCANO (The Volcano) by Alice Riva, Switzerland
Piazza Grande
Prix du Public UBS
LORE by Cate Shortland, Germany/Australia/ United Kingdom
Variety Piazza Grande Award
CAMILLE REDOUBLE by Noémie Lvovsky, France
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