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ASTRA 2019 Awards

Immortal wins the top prize at the 26th Astra Film Festival

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- Documentaries from Estonia, France, Belgium, Israel and Romania were among the winners

Immortal wins the top prize at the 26th Astra Film Festival
Alex Brendea, the director of Teach, Dorin Ioniţă, the film's protagonist, and producer Irina Malcea on stage during the awards ceremony

Romania's biggest documentary gathering, the Astra Film Festival (14-20 October, Sibiu), came to an end on Sunday, when the local audience had one last chance to watch the winning titles announced during a gala ceremony the day before.

The top prize of the 26th edition of the gathering went to Ksenia Okhapkina's Immortal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ksenia Okhapkina
film profile
]
(Estonia/Latvia). The jury, consisting of Czech programmer and film critic Martin Horyna, French programmer Olivia Cooper-Hadjian and Romanian film professor Claudiu Turcuş, described the film as “a declaration against the dangerous dynamics of nationalism spreading all over the world”.

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The award in the Central and Eastern European Competition went to Bojina Panayotova's I See Red People [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(France/Bulgaria). The jury, consisting of UK director-producer Peter Dale, Chinese director Zhang Yang and Romanian TV personality Mirela Nagâţ, particularly appreciated the film for the “serious and profound questions it asks about the nature of life after the fall of totalitarian regimes”.

Over the seven days of the event, a total of 126 films from all around the globe were screened across nine locations.

Here is the complete list of award winners, including the winning projects in Documentary Tank, Astra's industry platform:

Best Film in the International Competition
Immortal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ksenia Okhapkina
film profile
]
– Ksenia Okhapkina (Estonia/Latvia)

Best Film in the Central and Eastern European Competition
I See Red People [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Bojina Panayotova (France/Bulgaria)

Best Film in the Romanian Competition
Teach
 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Alex Brendea (Romania)

Best Directing in the Romanian Competition
Pastures New
 [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
– Anne Schiltz, Charlotte Gregoire (Belgium)

Best Film in the Docschool Competition
My Father's Son
– Hillel Chaim Rate (Israel)

Best Directing in the Docschool Competition
The Opposite of Love Is Not Hate
– Hadas Hechter (Israel)

Industry awards

AstraFilmLab Development Award (offered by HBO Europe)
Our Men
– Mirona Radu (Romania)

AstraFilmLab Post-Production Award (offered by CineLab)
Heavy Roots
– Jacopo Marzi (Italy/Romania)

AstraFilmLab Most Promising Project (offered by Pitch the Doc)
Telciu
– Vlad Petri (Romania)

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