27/01/2014 - The Festival in Angers also rewards Class Enemy, Under the Starry Sky, Salvation Army, Spanish actress Nora Navas and Italian actor Filipo Timi

Presided by filmmaker Catherine Corsini, the jury of the 26^th Festival Premiers Plans in Angers awarded the 2014 Grand Prix to Harmony Lessons [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Emir Baigazin. This first feature, which is piling up rewards since its Silver Bear last year in Berlin, was coproduced by Kazakhstan, Germany, and France via Arizona Productions. The French company managed by Guillaume de Seille has in fact done very well this weekend on both sides of the Atlantic, since another one of its co-productions, To Kill a Man [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Chilean Alejandro Fernandez Almendras (news),won one of the major prizes in the World Cinema Dramatic section at Sundance.

In Angers, the international competition also rewarded Spanish actress Nora Navas (for her role Todos queremos lo mejor para ella [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mar Coll) and Italian actor Filipo Timi (for I Corpi estranei [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mirko Locatelli
film profile] by Mirko Locatelli).

The competition dedicated to French first features witnessed a tie between Under the Starry Sky [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Dyana Gaye (read the article – released in France by Haut et Court Distribution on Wednesday, January 29) and Salvation Army [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Abdellah Taïa (unveiled in Venice’s Critics’ Week).

The Prizes of the Public were awarded to Class Enemy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Rok Biček
interview: Rok Bicek
interview: Rok Bicek
film profile] by Slovenian director Rok Bicek (also discovered at the Critics’ Week in Venice and Cineuropa Prize in Les Arcs) and Des étoiles. Finally, the Grand prix for European Shorts was won by Lagy Eso by Hungarian director Denes Nagy, while the Franco-Algerian co-production Les jours d'avant by Karim Moussaoui won the title in the French competition and the British animated short The Shirley Temple by Daniela Sherer dominated the student film category.