Romania takes pride of place at FIFF
The 25th Namur International Francophone Film Festival (FIFF) closed last Friday after a week full of discoveries and surprises.
The world’s largest Francophone film festival (this year it hosted almost 450 guests and 350 journalists), the FIFF is often a unique opportunity in Belgium to discover films from across the Atlantic and sometimes from across the Mediterranean. But it is also an opportunity to see European films which rarely make it onto screens, mainly from Switzerland and Romania.
This year, the FIFF gave audiences the chance to discover Nicolas Wadimoff’s latest documentary Aisheen (Still Alive In Gaza) [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicolas Wadimoff
film profile]. It also presented Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond’s debut feature The Small Room [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Véronique Reymond, Stéphan…
film profile], which is Swiss representative in the Oscar nomination race. Centred on an old man (superbly played by Michel Bouquet) and looking at death, the latter film deeply moved viewers.
But everyone’s attention was on Romania on Friday evening, after the announcement of the prize-winners. Without consulting each other, the short film and features juries both awarded Best Film gongs to representatives from this small country whose burgeoning film industry never ceases to surprise.
Newcomer Adrian Sitaru emerged as the most promising new talent by winning the Golden Bayard for Best Short Film for Lord, while Radu Muntean continued his winning streak after his Jury Prize in 2006 for The Paper Will Be Blue. Although Tuesday, After Christmas [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Radu Muntean
film profile] wasn’t necessarily the audience’s favourite, it won over the jury, who awarded it Best Actor and the Golden Bayard for Best Film.
Double honours also went to newcomer David Dusa, whose debut feature, Flowers of Evil (presented at Cannes in May) won over the Youth Jury (Discovery Prize) and Junior Jury.
Finally, as could be expected, Anne Coesens took the Golden Bayard for Best Actress for her dignity, intensity and emotion-filled performance in Belgian director Olivier Masset-Depasse’s second feature Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile], which is also one of this year’s finalists for the European Parliament’s LUX Prize (see video interview).
(Translated from French)
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