A unique festival dedicated to the cinematic exploration of conflicts and their consequences, War on Screen has successfully concluded its 8^th edition, the audience of Châlons-en-Champagne proving to be very faithful despite restricting health measures. Unveiled yesterday, the 2020 list of winners saw the jury (which included among others director Manele Labidi and actor Damien Bonnard) hand out the Grand Prix to The Flying Circus [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fatos Berisha
intervista: Fatos Berisha
scheda film] from Kosovo-born filmmaker Fatos Berisha. Discovered at the Tallinn Black Nights film festival, the film is set in the early days of the war in Kosovo and follows a theatre group from Pristina which puts up a play inspired by the Monty Python. Trying to illegally cross the border so that they can participate in a festival in Albania, the four actors have only one goal in mind: to meet their idol, Michael Palin.

Recognised with a Special Mention from the jury, Vadim Perelman’s Persian Lessons [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Leonie Benesch
scheda film], which was discovered at the Berlinale this year and stars Nahuel Pérez Biscayart and Lars Eidinger, also won the Audience Award.

The press jury handed out its award to two films ex-aequo: the animated film Josep [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aurel
scheda film], directed by Aurel (recipient of the Cannes 2020 Official Selection label and playing in French cinemas since last Wednesday) and Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux’s Towards the Battle [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] (released in France on 9 December).

The full list of winners:

Feature Films

Jury Grand Prix
The Flying Circus [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Fatos Berisha
intervista: Fatos Berisha
scheda film] - Fatos Berisha (Kosovo/Albania/North Macedonia)

Special Mention from the Jury
Persian Lessons [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Leonie Benesch
scheda film] - Vadim Perelman (Russia/Germany/Belarus)

Best Director
Spider - Andrès Wood (Chile)

Student Jury Prize
1982 – Oualid Mouaness (Lebanon/France/Norway/Qatar)

Press Jury Prize
Josep [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Aurel
scheda film] – Aurel (France/Spain)
Towards the Battle [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux (France/Colombie)

Audience Award
Persian Lessons - Vadim Perelman

Short Films

Best Short Film Award
Bach-Hông - Elsa Duhamel (France)

Best Short Film Audience Award
Disciplinaires - Antoine Bargain (France)