The film by Romanian director Florin Serban 'You Don't Belong Here' has been recognized this Saturday the 14th with the Golden Giraldillo for the best film at the twenty-third edition of the Seville European Film Festival, a decision announced at the award reading ceremony held at the Lope de Vega Theatre.
The jury of the Official Section, chaired by Howard A. Rodman - screenwriter, novelist and vice president of the Hollywood Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - and made up of the director of the San Sebastián Festival, José Luis Rebordinos, the producers Lisa Marie Russo and Denise O'Dell and the director, writer and screenwriter Miguel Ángel Vivas; has decided to award the highest award to this film, as specified by the Seville City Council through a note.
For its part, the Grand Jury Prize went to 'House in Ruins', by Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Gharaei; while the Puerta América Award travels to Sweden with 'Adult Supervision', written and directed by Alex Schulman and in the Oscar race for Best International Film.
In this regard, the director of the Seville Festival, Manuel Cristóbal, has stated that a film festival is "great, above all, for the people who make it possible and for those who visit it, accompany it and make it their own."
"The tour of the films by the juries and the Official Section is a fundamental part of that experience, but so is the bond we build with the city. We work hand in hand with the movie theaters of Seville, because they are the ones that keep the festival alive throughout the year," he added.
Specifically, Cristóbal has assured that the objective of the festival is for Seville to "continue to be a meeting point for European cinema, its creators and, especially, for the public. We are ready to fly, let's fly."
Likewise, the head of the festival has elaborated on the "leading role of the city and its theaters" in the consolidation of a festival that, "for yet another edition, says goodbye with a record that recognizes the heterogeneity and quality of European cinematography."
"A contract with the viewer, who, once situated, could let themselves be carried away by a highly interesting cinematographic experience," Serban defined the film that earned him the highest award and with which he returned to directing after a few years focused on the film school he directs in Bucharest.
One of the interpretation exercises that he developed there gave him the inspiration to write this story. The jury highlighted that 'You Don't Belong Here' is "a lucid exploration of life in the Romanian town of Resita, and an analysis of the long-term consequences of intolerance."
"We see Marius, a widowed doctor, who lives like a sleepwalker until a violent nightmare wakes him up. It is a subtle, powerful and magnificently crafted story about painful moral symmetry," they have indicated.
According to the ruling, the film "says a lot about the world we live in, but it is its depiction of a lost father and a lost son that gives it the power to break and heal our hearts."
The film has also received the Award for Best Art Direction, which went to Bogdan Ionescu, whose production design "never draws attention in itself, but is always at the service of the extraordinary characters of the film. Ionescu builds us a Romanian world that seems fully inhabited and lived, as if it had always existed beyond the limits of each frame," the ruling detailed.
Thus, the film adds these awards to the Golden Leopard, which it already won at the last edition of the Locarno Festival. Its director adds the Golden Giraldillo to his already extensive collection of international awards, among which previously stood out the Silver Bear obtained in Berlin, in 2010, for 'If I have to whistle, I whistle'.
As is traditional, on Sunday the 15th the winning films of this edition of the festival will be screened in two special sessions at the Alameda Theater. At 5:30 p.m. you can see the Best Animated Short Film in the Official Section, 'Gently', and the Best Feature Film in the Ramp section, 'House of the Wind'.
Later, at 8:30 p.m., 'Fresh Cut' (Best Live Action Short Film in the Official Section) will be shown and the festival will end with the screening of the Giraldillo de Oro winning film, 'You Don't Belong Here'.
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'Adult Supervision', written and directed by the Swede Alex Schulman, has won the Puerta América Award. It is the third time that the Seville Festival grants this award, for which the titles that represent their respective countries compete in each edition in the nomination for the Oscar for Best International Film.
The jury for this award, made up of Lukas Ettlin and Nuria González Blanco, has highlighted "its contemporary, relevant and direct exploration of harassment and abuse, in which it examines its origins, dynamics and psychological effects without lecturing, moralizing or resorting to stereotypes."
The Austrian 'Rose', directed by Markus Schleinzer, co-written by the same director with Alexander Brom and starring Sandra Hüller, wins a Special Mention in the same category "for effectively immersing ourselves in the 17th century and approaching the story with remarkable authenticity, showing the realities of the time without explicit discourses and trusting the public to draw their own conclusions."
Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Gharaei has won the Grand Jury Prize for 'House in Ruins', a co-production with Germany and the US valued as "a masterpiece of contemporary Iranian cinema." This film has also received the award for Best Editing, work carried out by Evelyn Rack and Emad Khodabakhsh.
The Best Director Award went to the Italian Tomasso Landucci for 'Children Of The Monkey' for its "subtlety and audacity." "The film immerses us in the story of a man's inability to accept the basic obligations of love towards his severely disabled son."
As for the acting awards, the Best Actress Award was won by Melania Cruz for her work in 'Tralovento', the first fiction film by Eloy Domínguez Serén, which he co-wrote with Meritxell Colell. In turn, the Best Actor Award was shared by Gustaf Skarsg*rd, Fares Fares and Linus Wahlgren, the three protagonists of 'Adult Supervision'.
The winners of the Official Section are completed with the Award for Best Photography, which focuses on Noé Bach and his work on 'Elephants In The Fog', a co-production between Nepal, France, Germany, Norway and Brazil and the first feature by Abinash Bikram Shah.
The jury also decided to include a Mention for Best Creativity, which it awarded to 'Blaise', an animated film directed by Dimitri Planchon and Jean-Paul Guigue and co-written with Clémence Lebatteux, which adapts a previous comic with an ingenious technique that assembles photomontages and paper cutouts.
As for the Short Films in the Official Selection, the French 'Fresh Cut' - directed by Hadrien Bels and co-written with Jasmine Badrfue - was the winner in the live action category, while 'Gently', by Jamaica Kindlová, won in the Animation category.
