13/07/2018
Congratulations to all the Film Award Winners:
Hearty congratulations to all the winners from the Scenecs Debut Film Festival, 2018!
SCENECS recently enjoyed a successful 13th edition of the festival, and six well-deserved and prestigious Awards were presented to debut filmmakers who contributed from over 70 countries.
We want to congratulate and thank all these filmmakers once again for allowing SCENECS to screen and showcase their work to a broader and international audience. The films shown were of very high quality, and were enjoyed by many people.
Director Anthony Pedone won the Best Fiction Film award for ‘An American in Texas.’
In his film, Antony tells the story of a group of disenfranchised youth - also members of a punk band - who struggle to find their identity in the current America; and it relates how they contemplate negotiating the roads that they must choose to set the foundations for adulthood. They decide instead to kick back at the expected career path choice of submitting to blue-collar jobs in the local plastic factory, and instead cause mayhem by causing disruption, and damaging homes in the middle-class neighbourhood where they lived. Against a backdrop of 24-hour newsreels of the Gulf War struggle, we see a group of young people; themselves in a battle – but in peacetime and in their homeland.
Simon Intihar's haunting film ‘You Did Not Forget’, won the Dutch Golden Stone Award for 'Best Short Fiction Film' about an old woman who wakes up one morning to find her husband missing from home. As he has Alzheimer's, she begins a brave search for him in the city, seeking out his regular places of venture and usual surroundings; which leads to an exciting plot twist. The film also won the prize for Best 'Short' at the Balkan Film Food festival this week!
Director Adam Weingrods film ‘The Island’, was awarded Best Documentary. For over two years his camera followed a group of terminally ill patients on their emotional journey with their families and carers, as they received palliative care. It was genuinely revealing and a privilege to be invited into such intimate moments and take a look at what becomes important to people, nearing the end of their lives. Without being intrusive, Weingrod manages this balance beautifully. A relative of Weingrod who works here as a nurse, inspired him to make this film.The Jerusalem St. Louis French Hospital was founded in 1889 and sits in one of the most fractious places on earth.Yet, the calmness, the tranquility and commitment and dedication by everyone involved, pierces through the nearby political tensions, and fills the hospital, like very warm sunlight.
‘Wheels of Change’ received the popular Audience Award and features Jaime Prins (co-producer and co-founder) and his crew, who set up the foundation ‘Get Your S**t Together’. These are a group of individuals who collect skateboards, and bring them to South Africa where they have started a programme for street children. By giving these children skateboarding lessons, it also supplies many life lessons. They gain some direction in life as they have a goal to learn something, it offers them challenges and teaches discipline, and shows them healthy peer pressure, as many of them are often exposed to the worst effects of poverty and gangs on a daily basis. The groups who work with these children on the film are very passionate about their cause – and this shone through in the entire documentary.
New talents on the block were Barbara Vollebregt and Fatima Warsame, who made the documentary ‘Breaking Borders’. These two students from the Hogeschool Utrecht received the Stadfonds Hilversum Talent Award for their film about a homosexual refugee, Ibrahim, who was shocked to find that discrimination exists toward sexual orientation in Europe. This realisation moves Ibrahim to become a voice for LGBTIQ refugees.
Christanne de Bruijn was awarded with Best Acting Talent, and her work in the Dutch drama film ‘De Dirigent’ ('The Conductor') will capture audiences everywhere. In this, she plays the role of one of the very few women who determines to become a successful music conductor in what is usually a male dominated role. The film is directed by Maria Peters and will be shown in cinemas in autumn.
Once again: congratulations and thank you for your contribution to the SCENECS Film Festival!
Photo: Robin Eggenkamp.
