Awards galore for debut films at 24th FIFF
The Namur International Francophone Film Festival closed October 9 with positive audience figures (Namur viewers returned to theatres) and encouraging artistic results. Meanwhile, the prize list was dominated by films from Quebec.
As at Cannes, the juries were won over by Xavier Dolan’s I Killed My Mother , which won the Golden Bayard for Best Film and Best Debut Film.
Another debut film also scooped top honours. Local director Bernard Bellefroid last week unveiled The Boat Race [+see also:
trailer
interview: Bernard Bellefroid, directo…
film profile], which took six years to complete. The film is an artistic exorcism and big-screen exploration of his suffering, as well as his emancipation.
The Boat Race centres on 15-year-old Alex, who tries to escape from his father’s daily violence by taking refuge in sport and physical suffering. Shot in the Namur region, the film received the Audience Award, despite its harsh subject matter, and the Junior Jury Prize.
Developed by Les Films du Fleuve, headed by the Dardenne brothers (Bellefroid’s heroes since adolescence and producers of his debut documentary Rwanda: The Hills Speak), the film was produced by Artémis and co-produced by Liaison Cinématographique. It is set for release in February 2010 in Belgium and France.
Artémis must also have been delighted to see another of its productions honoured. The Emile Cantillon jury, made up of youngsters aged 18 -25, gave its Discovery Award to French DoP Philippe Van Leeuw’s debut directorial feature, The Day God Walked Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Although the Rwandan genocide has been tackled before on screen, Van Leeuw gives his film a different slant by focusing on a frightening and claustrophobic experience in the jungle, among rocks and animals, in which two strangers are forced to share space to survive.
Finally, a special mention was awarded to Melissa de Raaf and Razvan Radulescu’s debut film First of All, Felicia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Melissa de Raaf and Razvan …
film profile], produced by Romania’s Hi Films, Belgium’s FraKas Productions and France’s Unlimited.
(Translated from French)
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