12/12/2022 - Spanish director Carla Simón wins over Brussels’ Cinemamed Festival jury after bagging the Golden Bear at Berlin

Another victory was scored in Brussels this weekend, at the Cinemamed Festival, by Carla Simón’s new film Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile], which also bagged the Berlinale’s Golden Bear back in February. The movie looks back on the shattered and shattering summer of a rural Spanish family as they’re faced with a new reality. "We love all the characters, we grow as attached to them in emotional moments as we do at more mundane times. We feel like we know them, like we recognise them. It’s a wonderful film, an ode to the land and to those who cultivate it," enthused the jury composed of actor Simon Abkarian, actress Amira Chebli and director Sarah Hirtt, following their deliberations.

Cinemamed also hosted the ReVolution competition for the second time, which looks to highlight the various aspects of young people’s lives in all four corners of the Mediterranean. The competition award was won by French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri for her first fiction feature film Under the Fig Trees [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erige Sehiri
film profile], which was presented in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight in May. This movie also homes in on a rural world with accuracy and affection, retracing the daily lives of young people and not so young people working in a fig field in northern Tunisia over the course of a day. As they harvest the fruits, they chat and confide in one another over their fears and their hopes, both for the present and the future. The jury notably praised the "way it depicts Tunisian society, Tunisian women, youngsters and humanity more generally, all in the arena of an orchard from dawn until dusk."

Cineuropa, a partner of the festival, awarded its prize to two exciting works. Firstly, No Dogs or Italians Allowed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Ughetto
film profile], an animated documentary discovered in Annecy and coming courtesy of French director Alain Ughetto, which looks back on the history of Italian immigration. The film also walked away with the Audience Award and the Special Jury Prize. The Cineuropa jury further singled out Snow and the Bear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selcen Ergun
film profile], a first feature film by Turkish director Selcen Ergun, co-produced in league with Germany and Serbia. Unveiled in Toronto and later in Marrakech, the movie follows in the footsteps of a young nurse lost in a strange, snow-covered village under threat from bears.

Last but not least, the Youth Jury bestowed their award upon Firas Khoury’s Palestinian movie Alam [+see also:
film review
film profile], while the UPCB-UCC Critics’ Award went to another Palestinian work, Maha Haj’s Mediterranean Fever [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which previously screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

The list of winners is as follows:

Grand Prize
Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile] - Carla Simón (Spain)

Special Jury Prize
No Dogs or Italians Allowed [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Alain Ughetto
film profile] - Alain Ughetto (France/Belgium/Switzerland/Italy/Portugal)

ReVolution Prize
Under the Fig Trees [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Erige Sehiri
film profile] - Erige Sehiri (Tunisia/France/Switzerland)

Youth Jury Prize
Alam [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Firas Khoury (France/Palestine/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Tunisia)
Youth Jury Special Mention
Amanda [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benedetta Porcaroli
film profile] - Carolina Cavalli (Italy/France)

Cineuropa Prize (ex aequo)
Snow and the Bear [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Selcen Ergun
film profile] - Selcen Ergun (Turkey/Germany/Serbia)
No Dogs or Italians Allowed - Alain Ughetto

UPCB-UCC Critics’ Award
Mediterranean Fever [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Maha Haj (France/Germany/Cyprus/Qatar)

Audience Award
No Dogs or Italians Allowed - Alain Ughetto

(Translated from French)