02/12/2019 - The director’s latest documentary, the German production Heimat Is a Space in Time, has scooped the Jury Prize after the jurors discussed their verdict in front of the audience attending the gathering

Director of the Lanzarote Muestra Internacional de Cine Javier Fuentes together with the official jury, Beatrice Fiorentino, Felipe de la Hoz and David Varela, during the festival (© Muestra Internacional de Cine de Lanzarote)

On the evening of Friday 29 November, Javier Fuentes, the director of the Lanzarote Muestra Internacional de Cine (Lanzarote International Film Festival), outlined the procedure according to which the official section jury would be explaining, openly and in front of the audience, their reasoning for rewarding one of the seven titles that had been vying for the top prize at the ninth edition of the Canarian event – “because group reflection is a basic concept and must spring forth from culture”. After two hours of deliberations, in which the audience was encouraged to participate actively, the German production Heimat Is a Space in Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the latest documentary by maestro Thomas Heise, emerged victorious, winning the €2,000 Jury Prize. “It’s a dense, powerful and meticulous film, which constructs a universal story by commencing with the retrieval of personal memory: a geographical atlas about a past that is bound to return, a movie that needs to be passed on to enable an understanding of what surrounds us,” asserted the jury members.

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Likewise, the jury also discussed their motives behind granting a well-deserved Special Mention to Bird Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maya Kosa and Sérgio da Costa
film profile], a Swiss production directed by duo Maya Kosa and Sergio da Costa, which “seeks spirituality through the physical, with wonderful characters and a powerful literary narrative”. This film also went home with the Youth Jury Prize, and that same jury bestowed a Special Mention upon the Spanish feature Endless Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eloy Enciso
film profile] by Eloy Enciso.

The official jury – comprising Beatrice Fiorentino, a member of the selection committee for the Venice International Film Critics’ Week; David Varela, the co-director of the DocumentaMadrid Festival; and Felipe de la Hoz, a cultural promoter on Lanzarote – highlighted the immensely high quality of the films that took part in the Muestra: “One can really see the hard work that has gone into selecting the titles as well as their strong political content: they are movies that harmoniously intertwine fiction and non-fiction at a festival that is militant, both aesthetically and politically speaking.”

Here is the full list of award winners at the 2019 Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote:

Jury Prize
Heimat Is a Space in Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Thomas Heise (Germany/Austria)
Special Mention
Bird Island [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maya Kosa and Sérgio da Costa
film profile] - Maya Kosa and Sergio da Costa (Switzerland)

Youth Jury Prize
Bird Island - Maya Kosa and Sergio da Costa
Special Mention
Endless Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eloy Enciso
film profile] – Eloy Enciso (Spain)

(Translated from Spanish)