The 26th edition of Curtas Vila do Conde, the International Film Festival was announced this afternoon at the closing ceremony of the festival. The great prize of the contest was delivered to the French animation "La Chute", by Boris Labbé.
The jury, composed by Laurence Boyce (film critic and member of BAFTA, FIPRESCI and European Film Academy), Aurélie Chesné (programmer for France Télévisions) and Nadav Lapid (writer and director In Focus) considered the film "a pure cinema (...) as if there was nothing more than cinema "but" also an audiovisual essay on life and death ". The short film "La Chute" by Boris Labbé won the DCN Beers Grand Prix of the International Competition (which also competes with the National Competition films).
In the same competition, "Raymonde or l'évasion verticale", by Sarah van den Boom, was the winner of the prize for Best Animation; "Madness", by João Viana, was considered the Best Documentary; and Laura Moss's "Fry Day" was awarded the Best Fiction trophy. The Audience Award was awarded by the spectators to "Ce Magnifique Gâteau!" performed by Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels.
The Portuguese Ana Moreira, recognized as an actress and newcomer in the conducts of the achievement, won the Best European Short Film Award with "Aquaparque". The film was thus nominated for the European Film Academy's European Film Awards. Ana Moreira also won the Kino Sound Studio Award for Best Portuguese Director. In the words of the jury, the short film "combines the nostalgia of the past and the literal and figurative void of the present in a hypnotic and seductive work."
In the National Competition, which had 17 Portuguese films in competition, the winner of the Pixel Bunker Prize and Best Film in competition was "Where the Summer Goes (Episodes of the Youth)" by David Pinheiro Vicente, a film that, according to the jury, is "an exquisite work that combines the cinematic with beautiful pictorial pictures".
The Público SPA Award, for the Portuguese film with the best voting average attributed by the public, was attributed to the animation "Entre Sombras", by Alice Eça Guimarães and Mónica Santos.
In the Experimental Competition, the American director Morgan Fisher won the prize for best film with "Another Movie". The jury also awarded an honorable mention to the short film "Comfort Stations", by the couple Anja Dornieden and Juan David González.
At the Curtinhas, section for youngsters where the jury is made up of children, the MAR Shopping Short Prize was awarded to "The Highway Rat" by Jeroen Jaspaert. Honorable mentions were also awarded to the films "Ameise" by Julia Ocker and "Skyggebokser" by Andreas Boggild Monies.
João Pombeiro won the Music Video Competition with "Back to Nature" by Nightmares On Wax.
In the Take One! Competition, dedicated to school films, they were given to the short film "Amor, Avenidas Novas" by Duarte Coimbra, the IPDJ Prize, the Smiling Award, the Short Film Agency Award and the Restart Prize. The pair André Puertas and Ana Oliveira won the Blit Award for Best Performance for the short film "A Ver o Mar". In the first edition of the Take One! European, with several European schools in competition, the Polish short film "Their Voices", by Eri Mizutani, won the prize for best film.
The winners will also be presented, in different cities of the country, through the extensions of the festival.
