Verzio Film Festival 2024

Impressions from five days in Budapest for the Verzio FF. I already – the post before this – wrote about a day with Diana Groó and Judit Hoffmann, unforgettable, so much looking forward to the film “Dear Helena” with Diana as director and Judit Hoffmann, her grandmother as the protagonist, 97 years old now, holocaust survivor.

I was there invited by festival director Enikö Gyuresko to sit in the Hungarian jury with Polish Adam (Kruk) and Slovak Eva (Krizkova). Adam and Eva! We saw 6 films, all good ones, comments to Life and Social Conditions. For the screenings there were full houses and the organizers had made time for Q&A’s, obvious as the films called for discussions. All fine and professional.

We gave the first prize to “Your Life Without Me” by Anna Rubi, which was already awarded at the Sarajevo FF and was shown in September at the Magnificent7 Festival in Belgrade. The festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic wrote about the film (https://filmkommentaren.dk/anna-rubi-your-life-without-me/). Our short winner motivation at the Verzio FF went like this:

“For a film that is simultaneously engaged in social issues and is engaging the viewer’s attention – one that avoids oversimplifying family relationships in order to show, that unbreakable determination of mothers can even win against the impotency of the state, the winner is Your Life Without Me.

Our short motivation for the special mention ‘to “Kix” by Bálint Révész & Dávid Mikulán went like this:

An impressive interpretation of how social conditions over years can influence the lives of kids. For its long-lasting, honest, playful and immediate dialogue with its protagonists, in which the medium of film plays a unique and irreplaceable role,  a Special Mention goes to KIX.

Some words on other awards, happy that Ukrainian Olha Zhurba was given main award for her extraordinary Songs of Slow Burning Earth that I reviewed on this site (https://filmkommentaren.dk/olha-zhurba-songs-of-slow-burning-earth/), the best documentary of 2024?, with a special mention for Balomania by Danish Sissel Morell Dargis, that film was also in Belgrade and the festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic wrote about it (https://filmkommentaren.dk/sissel-morell-dargis-balomania-2/).

The Verzio website can give you the full list of winners.

It was biting cold in Budapest the last days I was there but the festival atmosphere was warm, supporting the films and their makers. There is a strong Hungarian filmmakers organization Madoke that has a website – https://madoke.hu/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/madoke_katalogus_2024_online.pdf – and the understated characterization of the state of the art goes like this:
“The art of documentary is needed more than ever in Hungary, where independent filmmakers are faced with a lack of proper funding.” It was obvious that the 6 films we watched in the jury were all funded – all of them or partly – by NGO’s and humanitarian organizations.