IFFR 50 GOES GLOBAL WITH 2021 AWARDS ROSTER

The 2021 International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has spread the awards love far and wide for its expanded 50th anniversary edition, with trophies going to auteurs from India, Kosovo, Bosnia, Argentina, Thailand, Norway, The Ivory Coast and America, to name just a few.

Debutant director Vinothraj P.S’s southern India-set Pebbles (pictured, above) won the top honour, the 2021 Tiger Award. In a series of prepared statements, the Jury collective provided valuable insight into their decisions. Tiger jurists Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Orwa Nyrabia, Hala Elkoussy, Helena van der Meulen and Ilse Hughan said of Vinothraj’s work; “Creating a maximum impact with a minimum in means, the filmmaker reaches his goal with the same conviction and determination as his main characters,” adding the film is, “A lesson in pure cinema, captivating us with its beauty and humour, in spite of its grim subject.”

I Comete – A Corsican Summer (pictured, right) by French filmmaker Pascal Tagnati and Looking for Venera by Norika Sefa from Kosovo both won Special Jury Awards. The BankGiro Loterij Audience Award went to Quo Vadis, Aida? by Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić. The FIPRESCI Prize was given to The Edge of Daybreak by Thai filmmaker Taiki Sakpisit. Norwegian director Ane Hjort Guttu won the KNF prize for her short film Manifesto. La nuit des rois by Philippe Lacôte from Côte d’Ivoire won the Youth Jury Award. 

The VPRO Big Screen Award went to Argentinian Ana Katz’s El perro que no calla (The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet). VPRO Big Screen jury members Mauro Corstiaans, Oriana Baloriano, Frits Bienfait, Magda van Vloten and Mirjam van den Brink called the monochromatic film, “A hopeful and optimistic story, without toning down the challenges for especially younger people,” observing that Katz favoured, “radical choices regarding narrative, structure and cinematography.”

The prestigious Robby Müller Award, which honours an ‘image maker’ (director of photography, filmmaker or visual artist) who, in the spirit of the late Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller, has created an authentic, credible and emotionally striking visual language throughout their oeuvre, was bestowed upon American filmmaker Kelly Reichhardt (pictured, below), whose latest feature First Cow screened at IFFR 2021.

“We see in Kelly Reichardt, not just a liberating independence and clarity of aesthetic vision, but also someone who, in a self-evident way, carries on Robby Müller’s legacy,” stated the Müller Award jury. “They share a talent for depicting the American landscape in all its variety as much more than a supporting character, and for portraying humans in the most subtle and sensitive way. Both are able to visualise what can’t be expressed in words by creating pristine, unforced images in which the narrative can unfold and evolve, and the viewer's gaze can wander.”

The full list of IFFR 2021 winners are:

TIGER COMPETITION
Tiger Award: “Pebbles,” by Vinothraj P.S.
Special Jury Award: “I Comete – A Corsican Summer,” by Pascal Tagnati
Special Jury Award: “Looking for Venera,” by Norika Sefa

BIG SCREEN COMPETITION
VPRO Big Screen Award: “The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet,” by Ana Katz

AMMODO TIGER SHORT COMPETITION
Ammodo Tiger Short Award: “Sunsets, Everyday” by Basir Mahmood
Ammodo Tiger Short Award: “Terranova” by Alejandro Pérez Serrano and Alejandro Alonso Estrella
Ammodo Tiger Short Award: “Maat Means Land,” by Fox Maxy

OTHER AWARDS
Robby Müller Award: Kelly Reichardt
BankGiro Loterij Audience Award: “Quo vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić
FIPRESCI Award: “The Edge of Daybreak,” by Taiki Sakpisit
KNF Award: “Manifesto,” by Ane Hjort Guttu
Youth Jury Award: “La nuit des rois,” by Philippe Lacôte

PROGRESSIVE IFFR FILM ROSTER WELCOMES #FEMALEFILMMAKERFRIDAY

The five randomly selected filmmakers below represent a very small cross section of the women directors with works on show in Rotterdam. On any other day we may have profiled Lisa Bruhlmann (Blue My Mind) or Lucie Plumet (Damien Décembre); Rosine Mfetgo Mbakam (Les deux visages d'une femme Bamiléké) or Veronique Sapin (Secret, Lies and Death); Monira Al Qadari (The Craft) or Noemi Sjoberg (Shadows), themselves only a tiny fraction of those whose works are screening at the IFFR. In honour of #femalefilmmakerfriday, we offer these brief bios of five women directors contributing remarkable works to international cinema…

ANNEMARIE JACIR, Dir: Wajib
Having been recognised by the global film publication Filmmaker Magazine as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema, Palestinian-born Annemarie Jacir (pictured, above) is at the forefront of film culture, education and activism in her homeland. Her 2003 Oscar-nominated short Like Twenty Impossibles was the first Arabic short film ever granted official selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Her feature Salt of this Sea (2008) became the first film directed by a Palestinian woman and was the Palestinian entry for the Foreign Language Oscar, as was her follow-up, When I Saw You, in 2012. She founded Dreams of a Nation, an initiative to promote Palestinian cinema; was amongst the founders of the Palestinian Filmmakers Collective; and, in 2003, launched the nation’s largest travelling film festival. Her IFFR selection, Wajib (2017) is her third feature film.

DEBORAH HAYWOOD, Dir: Pin Cushion
Citing Jane Campion’s Sweetie as a major influence, Brit filmmaker Haywood announced her own presence when her short film debut, Lady Margaret led to her selection as one of Screen International's 2007 Stars of Tomorrow. She quickly earned acclaim for her films Tender (2009); Sis (2011), which received Best Short at the Soho Rushes Film Festival and Best International Fiction Film at WOW Film Festival; Biatch! (2011); and, Tender Tender (2013). Pin Cushion is her feature film debut, the eccentric mother/daughter story chosen to open Critics Week at the Venice Film Festival, ahead of selection for Glasgow and Rotterdam. (Pictured, above; Haywood on the set of Pin Cushion)

CYNTHIA CHOUCAIR, Dir: Counting Tiles
Born in Lebanon, Cynthia Choucair studied film at the prestigious Institut d'études scéniques audiovisuales et cinématographiques, Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut. She broadened her skills as an editor, director and producer on many Lebanese short films and documentaries, most notably Anonymes (1998), Pictures of Life (2000) and Al kursi (2002), her calling-card directorial effort that was selected by festivals worldwide. In 2007, she founded her own production house, Road 2 Films, where she produces documentaries, fiction films and cultural television programs for local Arab and European networks. Her roster of filmmakers includes such young female directors as Sandra Abrass, Lara Zakhour, Farah Kassem, Joelle Abou Chabke, Sabine Choucair and Pascale Abu Jamra. Counting Tiles exhibits all her skills as a documentarian, capturing moments of glee amongst the hardship of refugee life on Lesbos.

CHLOE ZHAO, Dir: The Rider
Of Chinese heritage, Zhao studied political science at Mount Holyoke College in the United States before completing the Graduate Film Program at New York University. Remaining based in the US, she wrote and directed a series of well-received shorts, including Post (2008), The Atlas Mountains (2009) and Daughters (2010). Her first feature film, the Native American family drama Songs My Brothers Taught Me (2015) had its world premiere at Sundance in the US Official Competition category, ahead of its international premiere at Cannes; the film earned festival kudos at Deauville, Jerusalem and Mumbai, as well as the Audience Award at the American Film Institute Festival. Zhao's second feature The Rider (2017), a feminist western, comes to Rotterdam after its Cannes premiere, where the director won the CICAE Art Cinema Award. 

LUISA SEQUERIA, Dir: Who is Barbara Virginia?
Portugese-born Luísa Sequeria studied journalism before entering the the world of filmmaking via documentary projects. Honing her craft in Mozambique at national broadcaster TVM before returning to her homeland, where she spent a decade at Rádio e Televisão de Portugal. Since 2010 she is the artistic director of Shortcutz Porto, one of the region’s leading short film festivals, as well as overseeing the Super 9 Mobile Film Fest, a festival for films made with the mobile phone. Together with the artist Sama she created the experimental animated series Motel Sama (2014) for Canal Brazil. In her debut documentary feature, Who Is Bárbara Virgínia?, Sequeria examines the all-but-forgotten life and career of the first Portugese woman to direct a feature film.