UPDATE: UPC Audience Award goes to Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. Festival’s second Big Screen Award to support Dutch distribution goes to Russia’s Another Year.

At the IFFR awards ceremony last night, the winners of three equal Hivos Tiger Awards were:

  • Anatomy of a Paper Clip (Yamamori clip koujo no atari) by Ikeda Akira (Japan) 
    INTERVIEW: Ikeda Akira
    The jury said: “Challenging narrative form with precision and economy, this film elevates observations of the absurd in human behavior, and brings it into the poetic domain.”

  • Something Must Break (Nånting måste gå sönder) by Ester Martin Bergsmark (Sweden)
    INTERVIEW: Ester Martin Bergsmark
    The jury said: “A free-floating personal voyage traces the pains and pleasures of intimacy, recounted in a tender depiction of characters, with a sincere and playful use of cinematographic language.”

  • Han Gong-Ju by Lee Su-Jin (South Korea)
    INTERVIEW: Lee Su-Jin
    The jury said: “A skilfully crafted and highly accomplished debut – deviating from classicist structure, this film lures the spectator to participate in the pleasures of storytelling through an extraordinary and intricate narrative puzzle.”

The jury was comprised of Elia Suleiman; Nanouk Leopold, Edwin; Violeta Bava, and Kiki Sugino.

Each Hivos Tiger Award, for first or second features, comes with a prize of €15,000 for the filmmaker.

The UPC Audience Award went to Alexander Payne’s Nebraska and the Dioraphte Award went to Qissa by Anup Singh.

Rotterdam’s second Big Screen Award, decided by a public jury, went to Oxana Bychkova’s debut feature Another Year (Yeshche odin god) from Russia. The jury said: “At a time when Dutch media abound with negative news about Russia, Another Year takes us straight into the daily lives of the young people who will shape its future and makes us open up our hearts to them. More than just a simple love story, it shows us how globalization meets tradition in present-day Russia, how they clash, and how they might be reconciled. Pitch perfect, beautifully acted and choreographed, modest, subtle and utterly convincing.”

That prize comes with €10,000 to a distributor to release the film in the Netherlands.

The other prizes were:

NETPAC Award
28 by Prasanna Jayakody (Sri Lanka)

FIPRESCI Award
The Songs of Rice (Pleng khong kao) by Uruphong Raksasad (Thailand)

KNF Award
To Kill a Man (Matar a un hombre) by Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Chile/France)

MovieZone Award
Jacky in the Kingdom of Women by Riad Sattouf (France)

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