22/10/2006

After ten days of festivities, a packed programme with over 200 films (see news) and the World Soundtrack Awards won by Spain’s Alberto Iglesias (see news), the 33rd Ghent International Film Festival closed on Saturday evening with the screening of Black Book [+see also:
trailer
film profile], attended by its Dutch director Paul Verhoeven.

Grand Prix for Best Film went to Ten Canoes by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr, an Australian co-production sold by France’s Wild Bunch and co-produced by Italy’s Domenico Procacci through his branch office, Fandango Australia. The film, the first ever made in Aborigine, represents a culture rarely seen onscreen and won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, where it was shown in the Un Certain Regard sidebar.

Presided over by UK producer Jan Harlan, the jury then unveiled an awards ceremony at which Europeans stole the show, with winners including Tony Gatlif and Delphine Mantoulet, who picked up Georges Delerue Award for Best Score for Transylvania [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], while the SABAM Award for Best Scenario went to Austrian director Michael Glawogger and his co-writer Barbara Albert for Slumming [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

The Robert Wise Award for Best Director went to Finland’s Aku Louhimies for Frozen City [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aku Louhimies
interview: Markus Selin
film profile] (to which Cineuropa will soon dedicate a Focus).

The Youth Jury gave its Mine Xplore Award to Princess [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see Cannes article) by Danish helmer Anders Morgenthaler.

Meanwhile, Belgian director Renaud Callebaut picked up the UIP Ghent Award for Best Short for Kwiz; the award nominates him for the UIP Award for Best European Short.

A last – but by no means least important – prize, the Audience Award, was won by Jasmine Dellal’s documentary When the Road Bends.

Presented in the World Cinema section, it follows the travels of a group of gypsies through several North American states and is centred on musical traditions.

Produced by the US, the film is being sold internationally by Fortissimo Film Sales and will be released in Belgium through A-Films.

(Translated from French)