Enrique Rivero brings first Golden Leopard to Mexico news
Enrique Rivero's Parque vÃa is the first Mexican to win the Grand Prize at the recently concluded Locarno International Film Festival. The film also picked up the International Film Critics' Federation (Fipresci) Prize. The 61st Locarno International Film Festival (August 6-16) - headed by artistic director Fréédéric Maire - announced its prize-winners on Saturday.
The Special Jury Prize and the Youth Jury Second Prize went to Malgoska Szumowska''s German/Polish film 33 Scenes from Life. Meanwhile, Denis Côté took home Best Director for Elle veut le chaos ("She Wants Chaos", Canada) and the Leopard for Best Debut Film went to Händl Klaus' März (Austria).
Ilaria Occhini received the Leopard for Best Actress for her role in Federico Bondi's Mar nero ("Black Sea", Italy/Romania/France), which also won over the Ecumenical Jury and the Youth Jury. Tayanç Ayaydin won the Leopard for Best Actor for Ben Hopkins' The Market - A Tale of Trade (Germany/UK/Turkey/Kazakhstan)
In the Filmmakers of the Present section, Swiss director Fernand Melgar picked up the Golden Leopard for La forteresse (""The Fortress") and the Special Jury Prize went to Chile's Esteban LarraÃn for Alicia en el paÃs ("Alice in the Land"). The Critics' Week Jury honoured Kites by Polish director Beata Dzianowicz.
Kirill Serebrennikov's Yuri's Day (Russia/Germany) received the Youth Jury First Prize and the International Federation of Film Clubs Award. The Netpac Award went to Noh Young-seok's Daytime Drinking (South Korea) and the Arthouse Prize to Özcan Alpers' Autumn (Turkey/Germany). Garth Jennings' Son of Rambow (UK/France/Germany) won the Audience Award and Sólveig Anspach's Back Soon (Iceland/France) scooped the Variety Piazza Grande Award.
The festival was attended by 180,000 viewers (185,751 in 2007) despite the rain which put the dampers on the Piazza Grande open-air screenings. Moreover, the international rights to five of the competition titles were sold at the film market. These include Un autre homme (""Another Man") by Switzerland's Lionel Baier (Wide Management); Yuri''s Day by Russia's Serebrennikov (m-appeal); Daytime Drinking by Korean director Young-seok (Finecut); Mar nero by Italy's Bondi (Intramovies); and Autumn by Turkish director Alper (Medialuna).
(Mathieu Loewer for cineuropa)
