Other winners include Encardia, Sayome, Canicula.

Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi’s Italy, Love It or Leave It won the audience award for best international feature at the 14th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century (March 9-18). The film [pictured] follows the directors on a road trip across contemporary Italy, deciding if they should emigrate like their friends.

For a film under 45 minutes, the audience award for international went to Ora by Philippe Baylaucq. For Greek films the winners were Angelos Kovotsos’ music project Encardia, The Dancing Stone (over 45 minutes) and Stratis Vogiatzis and Thekla Malamou’s The Blind Fisherman (under 45 minutes).

The Fipresci awards went to Sayome by Nikos Dayandas (Greek) and Jose Alvarez’s Canicula (international).

Of Sayome, the Fipresci jury said it was a “sensitive and intelligent testimony dealing with one of the mostcontemporary and strong subjects of modern Greece: immigration. Building bridges between two cultures apparently far away from each other, this film depicts the life of an exceptional woman. The jury was impressed by the deep respect and admiration expressed by this talented filmmaker.”

Of Canicula, they added that it was “a lyrical and cinematographic depiction of a marginalized culture. Worming its way into the everyday life of the Totonac people in close-ups and sounds, and with admirable narrative restraint, the film places the quotidian and extraordinary facets of this ancient culture side by side.”

Meanwhile the Amnesty International Award for a film dealing with human rights issues went to Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb’s Iranian doc This Is Not A Film.

The WWF Award for a film in the Habitat section went to ¡Vivan Las Antipodas! by Victor Kossakovsky, and the ERT3 Broadcasting Award was shared by Manos Papadakis’ Expropriation (Apallotriosi) and Ruya Arzu Koksal’s A Few Brave People (Bir Avuc Cesur Insan).

The ERT Doc On Air Award for best project at EDN Pitching Forum (with Euros 7,000) went to Marco Simon Puccioni’s My Journey To Meet You, a personal portrait about being a gay father in contemporary Europe.

The EDN Award for contributing to documentary culture went to Diana El Jeiroudi and Orwa Nyrabia, representing the Syrian Documentary Festival DOX BOX team.

 

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