Pedro Costa and best director Lav Diaz Golden Leopard at … – Reuters

             

                     
                 

                     
                 

                     

             

 
                     

For the fourth consecutive year, a Portuguese filmmaker returns awarded the Locarno festival. Peter Costa won the Leopard for Best Director for Horse Money , a balanced and careful history that gave the top prize of the event, the Golden Leopard, the Filipino film Lav Diaz From What Is Before . Philip Listen Up , the American Alex Ross Perry, received the Special Jury Prize, and Winds August , the Brazilian Gabriel Mascaro, a special mention.

                 

                     The jury, chaired by filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi and also composed by actresses Alice Braga and Connie Nielsen and by directors Thomas Arslan and Diao Yinan, announced their choices at a press conference held this morning at the Palazzo Morettini. The history, righteous, rewarded the most interesting films shown over the last ten days and was received with loud applause by the journalists who filled the room, especially when Pedro Costa and Lav Diaz were named.

The French actress Ariane Labed won the Leopard for best female performance for her portrayal of an engineer in the merchant navy Fidelio – L’Odyssée d’Alice Lucie Borleteau; the award for Best Actor went to Russian Artem Bystrov for his idealistic plumber The Fool , Yuri Bykov.

From What Is Before one very intense exercise acclimated memory in deep poolside introduction of martial law by Ferdinand Marcos Philippines, was the first film to be shown and, with almost six hours long, also became one of the “phenomena” of the festival. Has, interestingly, several connection points with Winds August , where Gabriel Mascaro also looking for a remote community in the wilds of the jungle, although the films are remarkably different in tone and narrative. And both could not be further from the antipodes Listen Up Phili p, a dramatic comedy about urban and bitter relationship difficulties a common writer-iorquino.Em have new movies are filmmakers working thematic narratives classic (the story, the memory, the passage to adulthood, relationships with others and the community) inspired by historical forms of cinema but working them modern and radical way.

Horse Money , which was considered one of the favorites for the Golden Leopard, was initially received with some reservations but the criticisms that have been published however are quite enthusiastic. If Scott Foundas, who the magazine Variety calls it a “strange and hauntingly beautiful” film, which “defies classification and reimagines the possibilities of cinema”; or Eric Kohn, the website Indiewire, which describes Horse Money as “a cinematic tone poem” that “casts a difficult spell away.”

Beyond Pedro Costa, who had here his third spell at Locarno contest after In Vanda’s Room and the collective Memories , Portugal was still in history through co-production Songs from the North (Pink Films). This essay-documentary of the South Korean Soon-mi Yoo, created from their trips to reclusive North Korea, was introduced in Cineasti del Present competition and won the Opera Prima award for best first film, transverse to the main sections of the festival.

The jury of the contest secondary Cineasti del Gift, dedicated to first and second works, chaired by Syrian filmmaker Ossama Mohammed, chose to reward Latin America. The Golden Leopard Cineasti del Present fell to Mexican Ricardo Silva by Navajazo and the Special Jury Prize to the Colombian Oscar Ruiz Navia by Los Hongos .

History
International Competition
Golden Leopard – From What Is Before (Philippines) of Lav Diaz

Special Jury Prize – Philip Listen Up (USA) Alex Ross Perry

Best Direction – Pedro Costa by Horse Money (Portugal)

Best Actress – by Ariane Labed Fidelio, L’Odyssée d’Alice (France)

Best Actor – Artem Bystrov by The Fool (Russia)

Special mention – Winds August Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil)

Cineasti del Gift

Golden Leopard – Navajazo (Mexico) Ricardo Silva

Special Jury Prize – Los Hongo s (Colombia / France / Argentina / Germany) Oscar Ruiz Navia

Best Emerging Filmmaker – Simone Rapisarda Casanova by La di Creazione significato (Canada / Italy)

Special mention – Un jeune poète (France) Damien Manivel

Opera Press (best first film) – Songs from the North ( USA / South Korea / Portugal) Soon-mi Yoo

Pardi di Domani (short films)

Pardino international d’Oro – Abandoned Goods (UK) Pia Borg and Edward Lawrenson