20/05/2010

Denmark and the documentary format triumphed at the 49th International Critics’ Week (SIC), which awarded its Grand Prize 2010 to Janus Metz’s forceful debut feature-length film Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile]. Following some Danish soldiers posted in Afghanistan over a period of six months, this extraordinarily powerful documentary (see review) has this week sparked enormous waves of controversy in the media and in the Danish government.

The Critics’ Week sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival also honoured Phang Dang Di’s Vietnamese/French/German co-production Bi, Don’t Be Afraid, which scooped the SACD Prize and the ACID/CCAS Support Award.

Meanwhile, the 24 French and German high-school students comprising the (Very) Young Critics’ Jury crowned Swedish duo Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson’s Sound of Noise [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see review).

This was truly Denmark’s year in Critics’ Week as the Grand Prize for Best Short Film went to Daniel Joseph Borgman’s Berik.

Prize-winners 2010

Grand Prize:
Armadillo – Janus Metz (Denmark)

SACD Prize:
Bi, Don’t Be Afraid – Phang Dang Di (Vietnam/France/Germany)

ACID/CCAS Support Award:
Bi, Don’t Be Afraid – Phang Dang Di (Vietnam/France/Germany)

OFAJ (Very) Young Critics’ Award:
Sound of Noise – Ola Simonsson & Johannes Stjärne Nilsson (Sweden/France)

Canal+ Grand Prize for Best Short Film:
Berik – Daniel Joseph Borgman (Denmark)

Kodak Discovery Prize for Best Short Film:
Deeper than Yesterday – Ariel Kleiman (Australia)

(Translated from French)