L’Îlot by Tizian Büchi
In L’Îlot by Lausanne director Tizian Büchi, the jury of the International Feature Film Competition awarded “a first feature that oscillates between magical realism and portrait of a community.” Chinese filmmaker Wenqian Zhang’s first feature A Long Journey Home was awarded the Jury Prize of the Burning Lights Competition. Swiss-Japanese filmmaker Julie Sando won the Jury Prize in the National Competition as well as the Zonta Prize for her school film Fuku Nashi. The Audience Award was given to Fire of Love by Sara Dosa.
Visions du Réel estimates that it will close with approximately the same audience it attracted for its last physical edition held in Nyon in 2019. The festival runs onsite until 17 April and online until to 18 April.
“We made the bet to reinvent the festival, and we won – thanks to a very strong return to face-to-face events and an increased virtual dimension acquired during the pandemic,” said VdR president Raymond Loretan, for whom the Visions du Réel team “has transformed a crisis into an opportunity in an exemplary manner.”
He added: “This 53rd edition is already historic, as it demonstrates that Visions du Réel is both a festival of direct encounters and a strong digital platform at the service of a diversified and globalized film culture. I would like to thank all our partners, both institutional and private, all the filmmakers and our dear public for having placed their trust in us. My gratitude goes above all to the Visions du Réel team under the leadership of its two directors, who have shown admirable tenacity and agility.”
International Feature Film Competition
Grand Jury Prize offered by la Mobilière, CHF 20,000
L’Îlot by Tizian Büchi. A small urban island becomes the metaphor of contemporary Europe and lends itself to a deep, and still full of humor, reflection about the absurdity of borders, rules, fences and barriers. A brilliant observation, a surprising wondering, that rewrites the coordinates of geographical spaces in universal terms.
Special Jury Award offered by Région de Nyon, CHF 10,000
Bitterbrush by Emelie Mahdavian. For its cinematically triumphant, raw yet tender portrayal of women nomadic existence in this rewrite of the classic western genre.
Special Mention
How to Save a Dead Friend by Marusya Syroechkovskaya. For the punk rock attitude it took on when skilfully piecing together a story of another lost generation in Russia.
Burning Lights Competition
Jury Prize in the Burning Lights Competition offered by Canton de Vaud, CHF 10, 000
A Long Journey Home by Wenqian Zhang. With an equally tender and formally bare approach, the film humbly draws our attention to the intimacy of a household. With precise cinematic decisions, domestic situations unfold before the camera weaving together a family portrait of strong emotional resonance, that raises important questions about the ties that bind us, as it bridges an intergenerational gap in contemporary China, and beyond.
Special Jury Award offered by la Société des Hôteliers de la Côte, CHF 5,000
Herbaria by Leandro Listorti. A film of extraordinary lucidity, that brings together two universes–plants and cinema–in a revelatory game of analogies. Taking the time to explore the multi-layered nature of preservation, the film finds unsuspected warmth in scientific and methodical processes, rendered visible in an act of poetic justice. An enlightening invitation to reflect on permanence and transformation, and ultimately a film that feels like a gift.
Special Mention
Europe by Philip Scheffner. For dealing with the subject of in migration in a novel way and with a great sense of humanity while showing that silence and the out of frame are remarkable tools to discuss the fiction of borders.
National Competition
Jury Prize in the National Competition
Fuku Nashi by Julie Sando. A mysterious visit, a fleeting encounter of two lonesome human beings. A search for the right question, to which the desired answer may never come. A film in which you must get lost, only to later find yourself in its deeper levels.
Special Jury Award, CHF 10 000
Le Film de mon père by Jules Guarneri. The jury awards an intimate portrait of a family whose members live close to each other and yet seem far apart. The filmmaker succeeds in making an honest and entertaining film that tells of house spirits and control freaks, of searching for and cutting one’s roots, and at the same time asks the question: What does family mean?
International Medium Length and Short Film Competition, CHF 6,000
Jury Prize for the best Medium Length Film offered by Clinique de Genolier
Without by Luka Papić. When a simple search for a missing dog gives rise to a jewel of minimalist formal mastery. Thanks to Luka Papić’s imagination and mild madness, a fascinating and detestable character becomes the hero of a modern absurd comedy. A wildly audacious film that wonderfully captures a political and social reality in the Balkan region.
Jury Prize for the best Short Film offered by la Fondation Goblet, CHF 5,000
Aralkum by Daniel Asadi Faezi & Mila Zhluktenko. The short film prize goes to a film that opens a door on a landscape swept by human excess. A poetic, political and aesthetic work where words and archives give birth to a sensorial experience on disappearance, loss, memory, oblivion, absence. An unexpected and masterful cinematographic gesture that questions our humanity.
Special Mention
Jaime by Francisco Javier Rodriguez. By embodying a schizophrenic character’s voice, he offers a precise, awkward, fascinating, capturing and outstanding performance that fulfills the director’s vision. The special mention goes to the actor Guy Dessent from the film Jaime by Francisco Javier Rodriguez.
Special Youth Jury Award for a medium-length film, CHF 4,000
Churchill, Polar Bear Town by Annabelle Amoros
Special Youth Jury Award for the best Short Film offered by Mémoire Vive, CHF 2,500
Marianne by Rebecca Ressler & Lara Porzak
Interreligious Award, CHF 5,000
Ma vie en papier by Vida Dena. A film that captures the kindness of its director, aside from her characters, who she cares about so much. From drawings made by each member of the family, the scenes reveal fragments of dreams confronted with the realities that the protagonists must face. Vida Dena uncovers with attention and tenderness the problems specific to exile: shaken identities, sometimes difficult integrations, but also those specific forces that make us dream and make life stronger than anything. Tense between past and future, life and dream, roots and identity, this original film features drawings that are integrated in an alluring and poetic animation.
Zonta Award, CHF 5,000 prize for a female filmmaker whose work reveals mastery and talent and calls for support for future creations
Fuku Nashi by Julie Sando. As the film unfolds, the quest for identity, carried out with finesse and determination, forms the framework of a burgeoning cinema. Between modesty and perseverance, the director has succeeded in challenging a certain cultural heritage in order to establish her territory as a filmmaker.
International Critics’ Award – FIPRESCI Award
Steel Life by Manuel Bauer. For the original and masterfully crafted cinematic depiction of contemporary Peru within a subtle and thought-provoking critique of the social injustices of the capitalist system.
Perception Change Award
Children of the Mist by Hà Lệ Diễm
