16/07/2019 - Chile’s Ignacio Agüero has triumphed in the international competition, Jean-Marc Chapoulie dominated the French competition and Germany’s Ute Adamczewski also scooped a prize

Chaired by US photographer-director Sharon Lockhart, who was aided by Cecilia Barrinuevo, Richard Billingham, Delphine Chuillot and Katsuya Tomita, the international competition jury at the 30^th FIDMarseille handed the 2019 Grand Prix to I Never Climbed the Provincia by Chile’s Ignacio Agüero, who previously won the 2016 edition of the gathering with This Is the Way I Like It 2.

As for the French competition (the jury for which was presided over by actress Agathe Bonitzer), victory was claimed by Jean-Marc Chapoulie’s Mittelmeer [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The film gathers views found on the internet, provided by strategically placed surveillance cameras facing the Mediterranean sea, all along its north and south shores: on hotel roofs, beaches, along the coasts, in harbours and so on. Chapoulie decides to alter these shots: he changes the colours, and adds and plays with the sounds. He also allows the audience to hear three off-screen voices – one of these is his own, as the father of a young boy whom he engages in a conversation with about the images before our eyes. Yet another voice can be heard: that of Nathalie Quintane, a writer whom Chapoulie conceived this project with and who expresses thoughts about migration, home life and dwelling. Mittelmeer was produced by Elsa Minisini and Elisabeth Pawlowski for Baldanders Films, which is also in charge of the distribution.

Also in the French competition, it is worth mentioning the Special Mentions that were bestowed upon the medium-length film How Glorious It Is to Be a Human Being by Mili Pecherer (which was also singled out with a Special Mention in the First Film category) and the French-Portuguese co-production Danses Macabres, Skeletons and Other Fantasies [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Pierre Léon and Rita Azevedo Gomes.

Lastly, it is worth highlighting the fact that the Best First Film Award was pocketed by Germany’s Ute Adamczewski and her Status and Terrain, a work that she self-produced and which she is also distributing herself. The movie explores a series of urban sites and landscapes in the former German Democratic Republic (Saxony and Thuringia). Alongside highly elaborate arrangements of archives from different sources (police reports, survivors’ testimonies, administrative correspondence and more), an off-screen voice establishes exactly what these places set the stage for in March 1933: the Nazi concentration-camp system and the elimination of all political opposition. Over time, Adamczewski lends an ear to the echoes of this traumatic past – namely, the politics of memory as they succeeded one another under different regimes. Her montage techniques produce an increasingly complex form of archaeology that attempts to lay bare, in each landscape, the layering of memorial writing.

Here is the full list of award winners:

International competition

Grand Prix
I Never Climbed the Provincia - Ignacio Agüero (Chile) 
Special Mention
Prince of Peace - Clemente Castor (Mexico)

Georges de Beauregard International Prize
Who Is Afraid of Ideology? – Marwa Arsanios (Lebanon/Kurdistan/Syria)
Special Mention
Reynard – Leonor Noivo (Portugal) (medium-length film)

French competition

Grand Prix
MittelMeer [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Jean-Marc Chapoulie (France)
Special Mention
How Glorious It Is to Be a Human Being – Mili Pecherer (France) (medium-length film)
Danses Macabres, Skeletons and Other Fantasies [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Pierre Léon, Rita Azevedo Gomes (France/Portugal)

Georges de Beauregard National Prize
Sad Song [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Louise Narboni (France)
Special Mention
Images I’ve Found - Francis Brou (France) (medium-length film)

Other awards

Award for Best First Film
Status and Terrain - Ute Adamczewski (Germany)
Special Mention
How Glorious It Is to Be a Human Being – Mili Pecherer

CNAP Award
Holy Days – Narimane Mari (Algeria/France) (medium-length film)
Special Mention
Prince of Peace - Clemente Castor (Mexico)

Meta Cultural Foundation Award
Cemetery [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Carlos Casas (France/UK/Poland/Uzbekistan)

GNCR Award
Delphine and Carole Insoumuses - Callisto McNulty (France/Switzerland)
Special Mention
About Some Meaningless Events – Mostafa Derkaoui (Morocco)

Renaud Victor Prize
Sad Song - Louise Narboni

Marseille Espérance Prize
Cemetery - Carlos Casas
Special Mention
Reynard – Leonor Noivo

High School Award
Timeless Havana [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Jeissy Trompiz (Cuba/Venezuela/Italy)
Special Mention
Cemetery - Carlos Casas

Air France Audience Award
Tenzo – Katsuya Tomita (Japan)

FIDLab (co-production platform)

Air France Prize
Do Fish Sleep with Their Eyes Open? - Nele Wohlatz (Argentina/Brazil)

Commune Image Prize
Heart of Light - Cynthia Beatt (Germany/France)

Camargo Foundation Prize
Human Flowers of Flesh [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Helena Wittmann
film profile] - Helena Wittmann (Germany/France)
Unrest [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cyril Schäublin
film profile] - Cyril Schäublin (Switzerland)

Kodak – Silverway Prize
Ski - Manque La Banca (Argentina/Brazil)

Mactari Prize
Silent Witnesses - Luis Ospina (Colombia/France)

Micro Climat Studios Prize
Far Away Eyes - Chun-Hong Wang (Taiwan)

Sublimage Prize
Archipelago, 6852 - Philippe Rouy (France)

Vidéo de Poche Prize
The Parents’ Room - Diego Marcon (Italy)

(Translated from French)