18/11/2019 - Melina León’s insightful visions as well as her DoP impressed the jury, who also honoured actors Nina Hoss and Bartosz Bielenia at the prize ceremony on Friday night

Melina León (front) with her Bronze Horse for Song Without a Name (© Olav Holten)

It was “right down to the very last detail” that the main jury of the 2019 Stockholm International Film Festival, producer Erik Hemmendorff together with directors Rojda Sekersöz and Zora Rux, enjoyed the “impactful intensity” of Song Without a Name [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Peruvian helmer Melina León’s heartfelt account of the baby-trafficking incidents in her home country in the 1980s won the weighty (7.3 kg, to be precise) Bronze Horse for Best Film and also earned DoP Inti Briones the Best Cinematography Award. León, who accepted the award in person at the festive Friday-night closing ceremony, has had a successful run since the premiere of this, her first feature, in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, with several subsequent festival wins along the way.

The Best Director Award went to the UK’s Mark Jenkin for Bait [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mark Jenkin
film profile], a stark chronicle of gentrification in Cornwall, with the top acting honours bestowed upon Germany’s Nina Hoss for her performance as a distraught music teacher in The Audition [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ina Weisse
interview: Ina Weisse
film profile] and to Poland’s Bartosz Bielenia as the spiritually awakened young criminal in Corpus Christi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bartosz Bielenia
interview: Jan Komasa
film profile]. The Best Scriptwriting Award went to Nadav Lapid and Haim Lapid for the French-Israeli Berlin winner Synonyms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nadav Lapid
film profile] while You Deserve a Lover [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile], director-writer-star-producer Hafsia Herzi’s veritable one-woman super effort, snagged the Best First Film Award.

The trafficking of small children also plays a major part in the winner of the Best Documentary Award, given to Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s joint effort One Child Nation, where some painful truths surrounding China’s 1979-2015 birth-planning policy and its enforcement methods are unveiled. The Stockholm Impact Award, a SEK 1 million cash prize highlighting pressing contemporary topics, went to Russia’s 2020 Oscar submission, Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], another Cannes success story, which went home with the Best Director Award from the 2019 Un Certain Regard section.

Previously during the festival, Stockholm’s 30^th since 1990, a Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Swedish acting master Max von Sydow (who was sadly not present) and the Special Visionary Award to French director Céline Sciamma, with additional career awards for actors Rosanna Arquette, from the USA, and Peyman Moaadi, hailing from Iran.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Best Film
Song Without a Name [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Melina León (Peru/Spain/USA/Chile)

Best Director
Mark Jenkin – Bait [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mark Jenkin
film profile] (UK)

Best Actress
Nina Hoss – The Audition [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ina Weisse
interview: Ina Weisse
film profile] (Germany/France)

Best Actor
Bartosz Bielenia – Corpus Christi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bartosz Bielenia
interview: Jan Komasa
film profile] (Poland)

Best Screenplay
Nadav Lapid, Haim Lapid – Synonyms [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nadav Lapid
film profile] (France/Israel/Germany)

Best Cinematography
Inti Briones - Song Without a Name

Best First Film
Hafsia Herzi - You Deserve a Lover [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile] (France)

Best Film in the Documentary Competition
One Child Nation - Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang (USA)

Stockholm Impact Award
Beanpole [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Kantemir Balagov (Russia)

Best Film in the Short Film Competition
Kingdom Come - Sean Robert Dunn (UK)

Rising Star Award
Celie Sparre

1 Km Film Award Scholarship
Tova Mozard
Honourable Mention
Fanny Rosell

Honorary Awards
Max von Sydow
Céline Sciamma
Rosanna Arquette
Peyman Moaadi