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14-11-2016

FNE at Cottbus Film Festival 2016: Zoology Wins Best Film

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    Zoology by Ivan Tverdovsky Zoology by Ivan Tverdovsky

    COTTBUS: Ivan I. Tverdovsky’s award winning metaphorical Russian drama Zoology picked up the 25,000 EUR main prize of the 26th Cottbus Film Festival at the closing ceremony on 12 November 2016. The film also earned the Best Actress award.

    Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdu won the 7,500 EUR Best Director prize for It’s Not the Time of My Life.

    Poland won two awards for Jan P. Matuszynski's biographically inspired The Last Family: Best Debut (and a prize of 3,000 EUR) and Best Actor for Dawid Ogrodnik. Poland also took the Audience Award for its box office hit Planet Single with a 3,000 EUR prize.

    Estonia had a an honorable mention in the debut category for The Ghost Mountaineer and Georgia received the DIALOGUE Award for Multicultural Communication along with a prize of 3,000 EUR for House of Others. Bulgaria won the Best Short award for The Son directed by Hristo Simeonov.

    The Cottbus Film Festival, perhaps more than any other film festival, was born out of a political moment in history: the fall of a divisive wall and the desire to retain a connection between former Communist controlled countries with their shared history. Over the past 26 years that spirit has guided the festival’s choices. This year, the force of political change was again in the air, from the festival’s focuses on Cuba with its slowly repaired relationship with the US, to the connecting cottbus market’s focus on the Ukraine with its endangering relationship with Russia. In the background, the air was tinged with discussions about the impact of nationalistic political shifts on national film industries and on the world.

    Speaking to that topic, festival director Bernd Buder told FNE, “You don’t know if politics will affect film or not. There’s a reason to be scared.” Looking back at the festival’s history, he observed, “Filmmakers from the Balkan countries were able to meet here and found a way to cooperate” when political tensions between those countries were at their highest.

    Reflecting on the films in this year’s festival, Buder said he noted some trends, such as “a trend to tell the story straight away, in a more direct, even documentary style.” Following this year’s focus on Cuba, Buder said he’s looking at filmmakers in Belarus and Vietnam for upcoming editions of the festival.

    The list of winners follows:The Last Family by Jan P. Matuszyński

    Best Film
    Zoology (Russia)
    Directed by Ivan I. Tverdovsky

    Best Director
    It’s Not the Time of My Life (Hungary)
    Szabolcs Hajdu

    Best Actress
    Natalia Pavlenkova for Zoology by Ivan I. Tverdovsky (Russia)

    Best Actor
    Dawid Ogrodnik for:

    The Last Family (Poland)
    Directed by Jan P. Matuszyński
    Produced by Aurum Film
    Coproduced by HBO Polska, Mazowiecki Instytut Kultury, Lightcraft, Universal Music PolskaHouse of Others by Rusudan Glurjidze
    Supported by the Polish Film Institute, the Mazovia Film Fund

    DIALOGUE-Award for Multicultural Communication

    House of Others / Skhvisi sakhli (Georgia, Russia, Spain, Croatia)
    Directed by Rusudan Glurjidze
    Produced by Liga Productions
    Coproduced by Cinetech Ltd, Kinoskopik SL, Embrio

    Best Debut

    The Last Family (Poland)
    Directed by Jan P. Matuszyński

    Ecumenical Jury Award

    Kills on Wheels / Tiszta szivvel (Hungary)
    Directed by Attilla Hill

    Best Short Film
    The Son (Bulgaria)
    Directed by Hristo Simeonov
    Produced by Trivium FilmsPlanet Single by Mitja Okorn

    Special Award
    Credit (Russia)
    Directed by Vadim Valiullin

    Best U-18 Youth Film
    Storm Cells (Germany)
    Directed by Jakob Schmidt

    Audience Award

    Planet Single / Planeta Singli (Poland)
    Directed by Mitja Okorn
    Produced by Gigant Films and coproduced by TVN