Non-statutory awards were announced on Saturday afternoon.
The award of international film critics FIPRESCI goes to German film Original Bliss by Sven Taddicken. „A distinctive, daring and provocative film, disturbing but at the same time romantic; it does not cease to surprise. The director’s thematic and artistic ambition is matched by narrative playfulness, and delivered by an exceptional performance of the three lead actors,“ thinks the jury.
Original Bliss also won the Europa Cinemas Label award for the best European film in the Main Competition or the East of the West Competition. „Sven Taddicken tells a comprehensible story, which will surely reach a broader audience and which made us want to see it again. Original Bliss is a daring exploration of faith, deviant addictions and violence told through the encounter between Helen and Eduard; but above all it is a story of acceptance and newfound freedom achieved through mutual trust and understanding. Amazing performances, lively dialogue, and witty humour make Original Bliss a highly worthy recipient of this year’s Europa Cinemas Label Award,” says the jury.
The Ecumenical Jury award goes to Italian-French film The Confessions by Roberto Andò. “A film with well-balanced symbolism and clean aesthetics reflecting on silence, time and human vulnerability as well as on the possibility of redemption, it calls out for breaking away from the pragmatic cynicism of powerfull decision-makers as opposed to consciousness and return to essential principles of Christianity,“ says the jury.
FEDEORA award by Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean for the best film from East of the West competition section belongs to Russian film Collector, directed by Alexei Krasovskiy. “In his compact script, full of meticulous observations, the director sketches the trajectory of a ruthless character, exploiting to the fullest, the concept of a single location, slowly but surely creating an atmosphere of unabated suspense, and eliciting a great performance from the lead actor, Konstantin Khabenskiy,” thinks the jury.
