From left to right: Susanna Nicchiarelli (president Tiger Jury), Zhu Shengze (filmmaker), and Zhengfang Yang (producer)

48th International Film Festival Rotterdam

23 January – 3 February 2019

Rotterdam, 1 February 2019

Aya Koretzky’s A volta ao mundo quando tinhas 30 anos won the Bright Future Award for best feature-film debut. The Bright Future jury gave a special mention to Historia de mi nombre by Karin Cuyul. La Flor (Parte 2) by Argentine filmmaker Mariano Llinás picked up the Hubert Bals Fund Audience Award. 

In congratulating all winners, festival director Bero Beyer said: “These filmmakers don’t just show that independent cinema is alive and kicking, but that they are able to explore new cinematic grounds. We thank them for their courage and passion.”

The FIPRESCI Award from the international film critics went to End of Season by Elmar Imanov. The KNF Award, presented by the Circle of Dutch Film Journalists, went to Tarde para morir joven by Dominga Sotomayor.

Last Night I Saw You Smiling by Kavich Neang won the NETPAC Award for best Asian film premiering at the festival. The winner of the IFFR Youth Jury Award is Lazzaro felice by Alice Rohrwacher from Italy. Filipe Martins won the Voices Short Award for Casa de vidro and Kodak by Andrew Norman Wilson won the Found Footage Award.

The Tiger Award is IFFR’s most prestigious award and includes a prize of €40,000 to be divided between filmmaker and producer. The Tiger jury also chooses an outstanding artistic achievement within the Tiger competition to receive a Special Jury Award worth €10,000.

Winner Tiger Award: Present.Perfect. by Zhu Shengze (USA/Hong Kong)

Jury report: “A daring film that takes us to places where we have never been, brings to light characters that want and need to be seen, expanding the language of cinema to a new grammar, using the new found footage of this millennium.”

Winner Special Jury Award: Take Me Somewhere Nice by Ena Sendijarević (Netherlands/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Jury report: “The exceptional artistic achievement is for the director who portrayed a journey through a unique and very precise personal vision with humor and a deep sense of history.”

Jury: Alfredo Jaar, Daniela Michel, Susanna Nicchiarelli, Pimpaka Towira, Katriel Schory

Filmmakers presenting the world or international premiere of their first feature-length film in the Bright Future Main Programme are eligible for the Bright Future Award worth €10,000.

Winning film: A volta ao mundo quando tinhas 30 anos by Aya Koretzky (Portugal)

Special mention: Historia de mi nombre by Karin Cuyul (Chile/Brazil)

Jury report: “The jury wants to give a special mention to Historia de mi nombre, a documentary relating to a personal story and the history of a country underlining at the same time the importance of images to preserve memory. However, the Bright Future Award goes to A volta ao mundo quando tinhas 30 anos, a film about gardening and travelling, about openness and curiosity. A strong cinematic approach to an intimate and poetic journey with a superb sound design merging perfectly with the images in every second.”

Jury: Sata Cissokho, Beatrice Fiorentina, Christoph Friedel

The winner of the VPRO Big Screen Award is chosen by an audience jury of five film fanatics. The film wins a guaranteed release in Dutch theatres and will be broadcast on Dutch public television channel NPO 2. Of the €30,000 in prize money, €15,000 is spent on the winning film’s theatrical release and €15,000 goes towards the production of the filmmaker’s next project.

Winning film: Transnistra by Anna Eborn (Sweden)

Jury report: “A beautiful, intimate portrait. The amazing characters in this coming-of-age film made us relive our own memories through recognisable themes such as self-assertiveness and feeling lost, being in love and feeling reckless. The director managed to capture these feelings making excellent use of colour, shots and great music. This movie proves it’s possible to accomplish great things with little resources. We can’t wait to see the director’s next move.”

Jury: Vlada Brenici, Annelies Groot, Keston Pollard, Dorien Riswick-Keultjes, Marinko Saponja

Using tear-to-vote cards, visitors rate the films after the screening. The film with the highest rating at the end of the festival wins the BankGiro Loterij Audience Award worth €10,000.

Winning film: Capharnaüm by Nadine Labaki (Lebanon)

The highest-rated film supported by the Hubert Bals Fund wins the Hubert Bals Fund Audience Award worth €10,000.

Winning film: La Flor (Parte 2) by Mariano Llinás (Argentina)

The Voices Short Award is for narrative-driven short films from the festival’s Voices section. IFFR 2019 screened five different Voices Short compilations, totalling over 20 films from 18 countries. The audience chose the winner (prize money €2,500) using voting cards.

Winning film: Casa de vidro by Filipe Martins (Portugal)

The FIPRESCI Award is given to the filmmaker of the best film among all the world premieres in Bright Future (excluding the Tiger Competition), by the jury of the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI).

Winning film: End of Season by Elmar Imanov (Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia)

Jury report: “For its deeply mysterious depiction of familial disintegration, its frequently surprising narrative angularity, and its refreshingly evocation of a world in which every home is a private chamber of frustrated desire – most especially for women.”

Jury: Kristin Aalen, Renata Habets, Rasha Hosny, José Antonio Teodoro, Giovanni Vimercati

The NETPAC Award is awarded to the best Asian feature film world premiering at IFFR 2019 by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema.

Winning film: Last Night I Saw You Smiling by Kavich Neang (Cambodia/France)

Jury report: “Putting people in front of politics, this visually poised and polished documentary is a brave attempt in revealing the collapse of a society undergoing drastic transformation. At once specific in terms of the place it is set in but also universal in its reflections of how disenfranchised people confront the past and the present, the filmmaker invites the audience to enter both the soul of his family and also that of his country.”

Jury: Diana Ashimova, Lee Sang-yong, Clarence Tsui

The KNF Award is given to the best Dutch, or Dutch co-produced, feature film at IFFR. The winner is selected by a jury of the ‘Circle of Dutch Film Journalists’.

Winning film: Tarde para morir joven by Dominga Sotomayor (Chile/Brazil/Argentina/Netherlands/Qatar)

Jury report: “We would like to award the modest honour of the prize from the Dutch film critics to a film that is also modest but at the same time incredibly broad in its recognisability: a story that is set almost twenty years ago, but is just as pungent today. Under the steady and impressive direction the leading role is played by an incredible talent, in this sensory coming-of-age film. As Mazzy Star sang in ‘Fade Into You’, we faded into Tarde para morir joven and wanted to stay in this moment with the protagonist played by Demian Hernández forever.”

Jury: Sacha Gertsik, Omar Larabi, Jim Pedd, Jasper Tonnon, Alexander Zwart

The film that makes the biggest impression on this jury of young people is awarded the IFFR Youth Jury Award.

Winning film: Lazzaro felice by Alice Rohrwacher (Italy/Switzerland/France/Germany)

Jury report: “After a long and passionate discussion, we are happy as Lazzaro to present the IFFR Youth Jury Award to Alice Rohrwacher for her outstanding achievement: Lazzaro felice. A surreal experience, Lazzaro felice fits perfectly with this year’s theme: feel IFFR. The original and allegorical story about the pure and innocent Lazzaro moved us. We were captivated by Hélène Louvart’s cinematography, carried away by the soundtrack, detailed characters and Rohrwacher’s masterful direction. We believe that Lazzaro will inspire a future audience to be more humane and reflect on their daily experiences and interactions. It is not only an enchanting film experience, but also a beautiful depiction of humanity and the course of its progress.”

Jury: Jildou Loskamp, Marie Liland, Sofia Rosa Milošević, Sonia Shvets, Michael Slootweg

The Found Footage Award is granted to a filmmaker who has made outstanding use of archive material. The award, worth €2,500, is supported by the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

Winning film: Kodak by Andrew Norman Wilson (USA)

Jury report: “For its innovative use of a very diverse range of archival audio and visual sources; for its dense and layered framing of these materials; for the way it weaves together a family narrative with the broader history of an industry; for its poetic, literary and historical ambition in chronicling the trajectory of an entire medium; for pushing cinematic, narrative and theoretical boundaries in the use of found footage.”

Jury: Eric Baudelaire, Tom de Smet, James Steffen