Other winners include Everyday Rebellion, Dirty Wars and A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness.
Algerian film Bloody Beans has picked up the DOX:Award for best film at Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX (Nov 7-17).
The directorial debut of Narimane Mari includes a large group of children who blend role play and trippy re-enactment to portray Algeria’s historical struggle for independence.
The film, which received its international premiere at the festival, was described as “radical, original and playful” by the jury.
The jury comprised Georgian filmmaker Tinatin Gurchiani, Danish filmmaker Janus Metz, Tate Modern flm curator George Clark, artist Angela Melitopoulos and MoMA film curator Lawrence Kardish.
They gave a special mention to US drama-doc Stop the Pounding Heart, directed by Roberto Minervini. The film, about an illicit romance between two teenagers in a conservative, rural Texan community, debuted at Cannes and recently won a top prize at DOK Leipzig.
The Politiken Audience Award went to Arman & Arash Riahi’s Everyday Rebellion, which received its world premiere at the festival and will be awarded with Danish cinema distribution.
The F:ACT Award went to investigative film Dirty Wars, from US director Richard Rowley. The jury described the film, about covert wars the US is conducting around the world, as “investigative journalism at its best”.
A special mention went to No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka, directed by the UK’s Callum Macrae and supported by broadcaster Channel 4.
The NEW:VISION Award for the strongest artistic view went to A Spell To Ward Off the Darkness, directed by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell.
The jury described the film as “partly allegorical, partly post-apocalyptic and partly a Black Metal music video.
They gave a special mention to Aleksander directed by Poland’s Wilhelm and Anka Sasnal.
The NORDIC:DOX Award for “the best new film from the North” went to After You, which received its world premiere at the festival and was directed by Sweden’s Marius Dybwad-Brandrud.
The film, about the death of a family member, was described by the jury as “shot with a combination of simplicity and sophistication reminiscent of an Ozu film”.
The Reel Talent Award went to Madhi Fleifel, director of A World Not Ours.
The festival opened with the world premiere of Andreas Johnsen’s new film, Ai Weiwei The Fake Case, and ends tonight (Nov 17).
However, organisers said that numerous sold out screenings has led to it staging extra screenings from Nov 18-20.
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