Me, Too scoops Golden Iris, Corridor Cineuropa Award at Brussels Fest

by Aurore Engelen

01/07/2010 - The Brussels Film Festival 2010 closed yesterday with the awards ceremony, where accolades went to the films that most moved the jury and other groups of voters. This “transitional edition” aimed to confirm the festival’s European rootedness, whilst showing the desire to open itself up to established filmmakers, by abandoning the previous restriction whereby only debut and second works were screened in competition.

The Golden Iris Award was handed to Spanish duo Alvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro’s Me, Too [trailer], whose humour and tenderness, impressively served up by a couple of extraordinary actors, clearly won the day. Me, Too candidly offers viewers a modern fable, the story of a frog who wanted to be as big as the ox.

Daniel (32) suffers from Down’s syndrome, which his good education can’t conceal. For one season, he dreams of being in the arms of his inaccessible colleague (played by Lola Dueñas). The film has undeniable audience potential, which didn’t escape the notice of RTBF, who also gave it an award, along with a pre-acquisition.

Meanwhile, the White Iris Award for Best Debut Feature was presented to young Dutch director Danyael Sugawara’s Upstream. Like in Me, Too, more than the directorial prowess, here it’s the sensitivity of the story and the true-to-life portrayal of the characters that seem to have won over the jury, who were clearly enchanted by this simple and subtle story of a mother and son who lose touch before being reunited again.

Cineuropa presented its fourth festival award to Corridor [trailer, film focus], a brilliant exercise in style by two young Swedish directors, Johan Lundborg and Johan Storm, who tackled the psychological thriller genre. Their technical mastery of the genre’s codes is admirably used in the dramatic construction of a complex character who initially repulses viewers, only to better embroil them in his madness and confront them with their own fears (see review).

Finally, the Audience Award and Prime Award went to Giorgio Diritti’s Italian film The Man Who Will Come [trailer, film focus].

(Translated from French)