The festival in Amsterdam is still going on – until November 29. The awards, however, were presented yesterday, For the first time ever, two prizes were awarded per competition: a prize for the best film and a special jury prize.

For the Feature-Length Documentary Competition it was a Polish/Ukrainian triumph. Jerzy Sladkowski got the main award for his ”Don Juan” – a quote from the jury report: “This tender, bittersweet tragicomedy about role-playing within both therapeutic theatre games and family dramas, and the interplay between them, is both subtle and aggressive, speaking volumes about the definitions of normality, abnormality and the dynamics of power and love”. A fine choice by the jury to give a prize to the Polish veteran, who has been living in Sweden since 1982, and who for this film had engaged the master of camera, Wojciech Staron. The Special Jury Award went to Roman Bondarchuk and Darya Averchenko for their first feature length documentary, ”Ukrainian Sheriffs”, produced by Latvian Uldis Cekulis – and many times written about on this site. So well deserved!

From my point of view the jury for IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary made a beautiful choice giving the main award to Danish Andreas Koefoed for his ”At Home in the World” (photo), a quote from the jury report: ”a film that manages to humanize the issues we are so concerned about today. With great sensitivity and compassion for its characters the director gives a face to the most vulnerable of refugees, children bravely coping with a new world. We were deeply moved by a film that provides people everywhere a slight ray of hope.” The Special Jury Award was given to ”The Fog of Srebrenica” by Samir Mehanovic.

The IDFA Award for First Appearance went to Georgian ”When the Earth Seems to be Light” by Salome Machaidze, Tamuna Karumidze and David Meskhi, a quote from the jury report: ”A particular city, a flickering moment in life, and a specific time in history are viewed through the eyes of youth who drift, almost invisibly, through a landscape of crumbling architecture and political protest. Cinema contains many portraits of young masculinity, but our experimential, expertly-crafted… film sees its outsider subjects differently. It finds within their apathy the visions of a different and better life.” The Special Jury Award in memory of Peter Wintonick went to Hassen Ferhani’s Roundabout in My Head (Algeria/France/Lebanon/Qatar).

There were more prizes given, read the titles and motivations by clicking below.

https://www.idfa.nl/industry/press/25-november-don-juan-wins-vpro-idfa-award-for-best-feature-length-documentary.aspx

While IDFA is running, CPH:DOX communicates that it will move from November to March. Festival director Tine Fischer puts it like this:

“This year’s festival has been outstanding. We have once again had great response from our audiences, and the interest from the international film industry is now so significant that we have decided to move the festival to March to give ourselves the space it takes to develop the international ambitions of the festival further. CPH:DOX has taken place in the week before IDFA since the very beginning without too many overlaps and complications, but with the latest year’s growth in international industry attendance we need more space around us.”

According to the press release, link below, the producers and the Film Institute are very happy with this decision, using words like ”unique” and ”a leading platform” about the festival, that in the same text – most important from this blogger’s point of view – stresses that…

… the mission of the festival continues to be to present challenging and critical works of documentary cinema – and other arts – in an original and intelligent context. CPH:DOX aims to set a high cultural standard and to stimulate critical thinking, while insisting on documentary as an art form across different practices…

By the way the 2015 version finished with a new audience record: 91.400 (in 2011 it was 47.000).

Next festival March 16-26 2017.

Photo by Amanda Obitz

http://cphdoxnews.dk/d/nyhedsbrev.lasso?n=1023

… or how I could not get rid of the football player, whose last name is Ibrahimovic, the man who with two goals last week made sure that we Danes do not have a team at the upcoming European Championship. I watched the match with good friend, true documentarian, Scottish Doug Aubrey and his Danish Film Institute commissioner wife Marie Olesen, a football connaisseur, at their place, we survived the Danish defeat thanks to good whisky and a recognition of the fact that Denmark lost to a great player.

I thought the defeat was out of my mind but at IDFA some days later I met Fredrik Gertten, a football idiot like myself, always AGAINST Messi and FOR Zlatan. With a smile he gave me a postcard invitation to the world premiere of the film he and his brother Magnus have made, “Becoming Zlatan”, Danish editor (traitor!) Jesper Osmund.

My luck was that I could not be in Amsterdam for the screening but it was not possible to get rid of Zlatan… On French television, this evening, here in Paris, there was a long focus on Zlatan, Ibra as they call him here, who in this weekend’s French league, for his PSG club, was the leader, and was praised for his football skills. The two

goals were shown, which brought Zlatan and Sweden to Paris in June. Painful!

Back to the film which I long to watch, here is the description from the IDFA site:

The decisive years of Swedish soccer player Zlatan Ibrahimović, told through rare archive footage in which a young Zlatan speaks openly about his life and challenges. The film closely follows him, from his debut with the Malmö FF team in 1999 through his conflict-ridden years with Ajax Amsterdam, and up to his final breakthrough with Juventus in 2005. Becoming Zlatan is a coming-of-age film that captures the complicated journey of this young, talented and troubled player as he becomes a superstar in the international football world. It’s a story about a young talent living under constant pressure: from teammates in Malmö who think he’s too egoistical and only plays for himself; from the tough managers at Ajax who send him to the bench, where he loses his self-confidence; and from his father, who tells the 18-year-old Zlatan: “You’re nothing. You’re nothing special until you’ve succeeded internationally.” Throughout his journey, Zlatan stays true to himself. When he finally succeeds in Italy, he also becomes much more private. Soccer superstar Zlatan Ibrahimović is an enigma, but in this story from his breakthrough years, he gives us a glimpse at who he really is – if even just for a moment.

Sweden, 2015, 110 mins.

Photo from the premiere: Magnus Gertten, editor (Danish!!!) Jesper Osmund, Fredrik Gertten. Jävla Svenskere!

The IDFAAcademy for young filmmakers from all over the world started yesterday. Joyful Meike Statema is the head of this important section of the Documentary Paradise that IDFA was called in the KLM flight magazine I had in my hands during the turbulent journey down from Copenhagen thursday morning.

The turbulence continued… After video introductions of the participants – full of fun – Viktor Kossakovsky and Tom Fassaert were introduced under the headline ”Master and Talent”. It became one of the most memorable sessions I have experienced. It was emotional and informational at the same time – to bring forward two words that Kossakovsky used on a stage that he conquered totally.

The original idea, I think, was that the two of them should have a conversation about filmmaking, the experienced Kossakovsky and the young Tom Fassaert, whose ”A Family Affair” was the opening film of the festival’s 28th edition.

It did not work out like that. Fassaert wanted to show his appreciation of Kossakovsky by showing a long clip from ”Belovs”. He did and it made Kossakovsky burst into tears, kneel in front of the screen, ”I am sorry I shot this”, ”this is a typical Russian person”, he was inconsolable, had to leave the room, came back, left again, came back and stayed.

Stayed, yes, I dare say, to tear apart completely the film of the talent. He

asked for a screening of two times five minutes – without sound – from ”A Family Affair”… What do you think, he asked Fassaert, is that a good cut, is that a good shot, why did you not get up a bit earlier in the morning to catch the right light, so on so forth. ”There’s no form”, ”where is your talent”, the rhytm of your film is like ”a limping chicken”, ”you don’t know how to distinguish emotion and information”, ”composition of the image, it is not there”.

OMG – Tom Fassaert took it well, I think – but ”you could have warned me in beforehand” – and Kossakovsky gave him the following home work: 1.Go and watch Rembrandt. 2.Watch contemporary art. 3.Read big books.

”You can continue to be a filmmaker if you in the next film are able to surprise yourself and me”. And to the audience: ”If you watch two films by me, which are just good, then I will quit making films”.

”There must be an aesthetical reason, if you don’t have that, don’t make the film”.

Viktor Kossakovsky is a gift to the documentary community, always inspiring, not afraid to express his emotions. An entertainer as well. All right, he ”killed” the young director but he will survive and without having seen the whole ”A family affair”, but only clips, Kossakovsky was right in his objections. What a show, thank you IDFA!    

Irina Demyanova came up to me at the Baltic Sea Forum in Riga: Tue, it is time for you to come back to Minsk. You were there 20 years ago! I would like to invite you back.

Right she is, I was in Minsk to meet filmmakers two decades ago. I travelled with Ilze Gailite, we represented the Baltic Media Centre and had meetings, that included a presentation of something new called “pitching”. That is one of the things that Yuri Goroulev remembered, when I met him in Minsk a week ago for the ²² edition of the Listapad festival.

I was there for three full days – hospitality warm, perfect organization, good programme for documentaries, which was what I was looking for and at. And – as my Russian language skills do not exist – the festival generously offered me, and other guests, a personal guide. Veronika Bondarovich, young filmmaker-to-be, took me around to films and to the lecture on documentary I made at the festival, where she and Lizaveta Bobrykava, head of the industry section, translated/interpreted my school English so well.

I had time to watch four Belarussian documentaries and meet with the

directors to talk about their new projects. They were all of good quality, most of them so-called self-financed in a country, where public funding is little and restrictions many. Daria Yurkevich, living half time France half time Belarus, has made a 13 mins. long documentary called “Easter” on outdoor church ceremonies, beautifully shot, has been to the festival in Clermont-Ferrand this year. Equally cinematically impressive is “Adam”, a portrait of a 80 year old man, 20 mins., made by Yulia Gonchar, her first documentary where she performs a wild editing, quite refreshing! Another talent is Artem Lobach, who had been to Ukraine to film the 25 minutes long story about bohemian Pavel, who left Crimea after the Russians came. Title “Road to Damascus”, Lobach wants to make a follow-up – with Pavel’s family in Crimea.

The longest one, 61 minutes, the one that was awarded as the best Belorussian documentary at the Listapad festival, was “Guests” by Andrei Kutsila, who has been to the Baltic Sea Forum several times and took part in the series “15 Young by Young” produced by Latvian Ilona Bicevska. Kutsila’s film, shot in the countryside of Belarus and in Italy, tells the story about Aliaksiej, a young man who operates his life as a disciple of Mother Teresa, having set up an asylum for poor and disabled people. Kutsila, who has done camera and editing as well, has stayed a long time at the house of Aliaksiej catching the stories of some of the inhabitants, who are being taken care of. He has found the right, slow rhythm, he lets the scenes develop, he gets close but does never lose a respectful distance in the room where 4-5 are sleeping. The work of Aliaksiej (called brother Luigi when he is in Italy) is constantly under threat from the authorities – considered to be illegal.

The jury for the international documentary competition, headed by Artchil Khetagouri, did a good job. Main award for Best Documentary (like at DOK Leipzig), “Brothers” by Polish Wojciech Staron, Sergei Loznitsa got an award for his brilliant “The Event”, Ostap Kostyuk from Ukraine got an award for “The Living Fire”, “for believing in the preservation of authentic national culture in the process of globalization”, and there was a diploma to Lithuanian Giedre ickytė for her “Master and Tatyana”. All these films have been praised on this site.

http://listapad.com/en

I have had the pleasure to follow from the sideline how Ukrainian filmmakers and friends Dar’ya Averchenko (DA), Roman Bondarchuk (RB) together with Latvian producer and friend Uldis Cekulis have developed their “Ukrainian Sheriffs” that will have its premiere at IDFA on this coming Friday, competing in the main feature duration competition.

At DOK Leipzig where I met them and their wonderful little girl Agata. And we had a conversation of one hour that is now in an edited version to read on the wensite of the film. Here is a tiny clip that also demonstrates that a romantic date can become much more in real life, a marriage and a film!

“RB: It was during one of our dates – Dasha and me – that we met each other. I took a car, we went for some driving around Kherson. There was a huge sign on the road like “Georgievska church, 19-th century, fortress, Cossacks graves” and we were interested to find them. They were touristic signs.

TSM: How many years ago?

DA: It was late 90’es.

RB: No! (Roma says) Really?

TSM: And you were not a couple at that time?

RB: No, it was just one of our first dates… and we turned to the road to nowhere, looking for all these attractions. We couldn’t find anything, so we stopped on the road to ask the way. That’s how we met a local man, a teacher of history.”

This teacher of history became the mayor of Stara Zburjivka and is one of three main characters of the film. Check the website and read the whole interview. And see the film!

www.ukrainiansheriffs.com

www.idfa.nl