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THESSALONIKI 2013

The Golden Cage triumphs at Thessaloniki Festival

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- The Spanish-Mexican drama wins Golden Alexander along with three more awards; French drama Suzanne picks up Silver, and two more prizes.

The Golden Cage triumphs at Thessaloniki Festival
The Golden Cage by Diego Quemada-Diez

Diego Quemada-Diez’s winner of the UCR ensemble prize, The Golden Cage [+see also:
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, was crowned Best Film at the Thessaloniki Film Festival on Saturday. The film picked up the Golden Alexander Award, along with the Best Directing Prize, the Audience Award for Best Film in competition and the Human Values Award from the Greek Parliament’s TV channel.

Katell Quillevere’s Critics’ Week contender Suzanne [+see also:
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interview: Katell Quillévéré
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]
came in second, winning the Silver Alexander Award, the Best Acting Award for Sara Forestier’s titular performance, and the Artistic Achievement Award for Francois Damiens’ work as a supporting actor.

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No one was present at the awards gala for either film. Local distributor Strada Film’s representative Marina Konti went on stage a total of seven times to pick up the awards, resulting in the evening’s anecdote: “Some might call it a scandal, but I call it an exhibition of common good taste, shared by [Strada head] Takis Veremis, Dimitri Eipides and Alexander Payne,” said miss Konti of her company’s triumph.

Alexander Payne headed the fest’s jury, which also awarded Mariana Rondon’s Venezuelan production Bad Hair [+see also:
film review
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interview: Mariana Rondón
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]
with the Bronze Alexander, a special jury award celebrating originality and innovation. The Best Screenplay Award went to Tae Gon-Kim for South Korean film Sunshine Boys.

The Devil’s Liquor, from Chilean director Ignacio Rodriguez, won the Best Actor Award for Jaime Vadell, ex aequo with Christos Stergioglou’s work in Elina Psykou’s Berlinale-debuted The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas [+see also:
film review
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interview: Elina Psykou
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]
. Psykou’s film had also been tapped as Greek film of the year by the Greek Critics Guild earlier that day.

The FIPRESCI jury picked Psykou’s film as Best Greek entry at the festival, while Mariana Rondon’s Bad Hair was their pick for Best Film in competition. Vassilis RaisisOne Last Joke picked up the Audience Award for the Greek Films section, as did The Priest’s Children [+see also:
film review
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interview: Vinko Bresan
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]
in the Balkan Survey section and Papusza [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Joanna Kos Krauze
film profile
]
in the Open Horizons section.

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