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ART FILM FEST 2021 Awards

A double win for Pleasure at Slovakia’s Art Film Fest

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- Ninja Thyberg’s behind-the-scenes drama film about the adult entertainment industry has nabbed the Best Film and Best Actress Awards

A double win for Pleasure at Slovakia’s Art Film Fest
Pleasure by Ninja Thyberg

Slovakia’s largest film gathering, Art Film Fest Košice, has wrapped its 28th edition (see the news) with its traditional awards ceremony. Nine films had been competing in the International Competition for Feature Films, with script consultant Maja Hriešik, director Tereza Nvotová and actress Natália Germáni serving on the jury. This all-female group picked Ninja Thyberg’s drama flick Pleasure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ninja Thyberg
film profile
]
as the winner of the Best Film Award. “Nearly all of the films in the competition were exceptional for their honesty and ability to draw us into the lives and worlds of people whom we almost never see in the mainstream media. Whether it be disabled adolescents fighting for freedom and love, influencers in the social-media spotlight, Iranian workers in the middle of the desert who not only lose their jobs, but also their very identity, porn stars, parents whose children are taken away by the system, or whale hunters at the ends of the Earth – these films allow us to see the world from broader, more empathetic perspectives, and for this, we owe their creators our thanks,” commented the jury about the main competition.

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“Making a film about pornography is a minefield. Yet Pleasure manages to avoid all of the potential clichés, not exploiting or fetishising the exotic world of adult entertainment, while forcing us to confront our own boundaries and ask ourselves where exactly they (would) lie,” wrote the jury in their official statement after awarding the Blue Angel for Best Film to Thyberg’s movie. Furthermore, Sofia Kappel, who plays the leading character, earned herself the Blue Angel for Best Actress “for her portrayal of a strong woman, capable of total physical and mental self-exposure, who knowingly ventures into the dark side of the entertainment industry, intent on succeeding at all costs and, despite all her failures, never losing control over her own life or decisions”, according to the jury.

Serbian director Ivan Ikić won the Blue Angel for Best Director for Oasis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ikic
film profile
]
, for “his masterful directing of non-professional actors and his courage to take on the grand theme of love along with every person’s need to make their own life decisions, no matter the circumstances”, the jury noted. The Best Actor gong went to Russian thesp Vladimir Onokhov for portraying the protagonist in The Whaler Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philipp Yuryev
film profile
]
. Polish cinematographer Michał Dymek received a Special Mention for his work on Magnus von Horn’s Sweat [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile
]
, with the jury praising the “dynamic, subjective images that put us right into the skin of the protagonist – a lonely woman who is the centre of media attention”.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Blue Angel for Best Film
Pleasure [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ninja Thyberg
film profile
]
– Ninja Thyberg (Sweden/Netherlands/France)

Blue Angel for Best Director
Ivan Ikić – Oasis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ikic
film profile
]
(Serbia/Netherlands/Slovenia/Bosnia and Herzegovina/France)

Blue Angel for Best Actress
Sofia Kappel – Pleasure

Blue Angel for Best Actor
Vladimir Onokhov – The Whaler Boy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Philipp Yuryev
film profile
]
(Poland/Russia/Belgium)
Special Mention
Michał Dymek – Sweat [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Magnus von Horn
film profile
]
(Poland/Sweden)

Joj Cinema Audience Award for Best Feature Film
The Big Hit [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
– Emmanuel Courcol (France)

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