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NAMUR 2020 Awards

Petit Samedi bags the Bayard d’Or at the Namur Film Festival

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- The event’s 35th edition sees young Belgian filmmaker Paloma Sermon-Daï walk away with the festival’s top award for her first feature-length documentary

Petit Samedi bags the Bayard d’Or at the Namur Film Festival
Petit Samedi by Paloma Sermon-Daï

On Friday of last week, the closing ceremony for the 35th Namur International French-Language Film Festival unfolded, whereupon the jury, presided over by Samuel Benchetrit and composed of Anne Delseth, Daphné Patakia, Guillaume Senez and Yoann Zimmer, awarded its Grand Prize to the Belgian title Petit Samedi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paloma Sermon Daï
film profile
]
. The first ever feature by young director Paloma Sermon-Daï, the film is an intimate and hard-hitting documentary about addiction as seen through the eyes of a devastatingly moving couple made up of a mother and her son.

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"An absolutely wonderful and incredibly modest film that’s overwhelming yet very funny, and beautifully shot", explained Samuel Benchetrit. The movie also won the Agnès Award for an Egalitarian Imaginary, created last year in honour of Agnès Varda. Produced by Michigan Films and presented in Berlin back in February, the film will receive precious financial distribution aid off the back of this award and will be released via Screenbox on a scale that’s set to increase from 28 October.

Not only did the jury bestow the Grand Prize upon a documentary film, but also the Bayard for Best Screenplay, which went to Alexander Nanau’s Romanian title Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. The Special Jury Prize, meanwhile, was scooped by Josep [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aurel
film profile
]
, the first feature film to be directed by illustrator Aurel who’s offering up what he conceived to be an illustrated rather than an animated film, and who, despite not being a documentarian in the stricter sense of the term, examines the life of anti-Franco artist and fighter Josep Bartolí.

The category of short films also witnessed many wins on the part of documentaries: the Bayard for Best Short Film went to Ismaël Joffroy Chantoudis Maalbeek, which journeys back through the traumatic memories of a survivor of Brussels’ 22 March terrorist attacks, and the national and international Jury Awards were likewise bagged by two documentaries: Halima Ouardiri’s Clebs (which also received the brand-new Marion Hänsel Award) and La Disparition de Tom R. by Paul Sirague.

In all, it was a tight competition organised this year, but the overall winners list illustrates the special interest and attention that the Namur Film Festival pays to documentary cinema in all its forms.

The results are as follows:

Feature Film Competition

Bayard d’or
Petit Samedi [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paloma Sermon Daï
film profile
]
- Paloma Sermon-Daï (Belgium)

Special Jury Bayard
Josep [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aurel
film profile
]
- Aurel (France/Spain/Belgium)

Bayard for Best Screenplay
Antoaneta Opris, Alexander Nanau - Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(Romania/Luxembourg)

Bayard for Best Photography
Yann Maritaud - Slalom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Charlène Favier
film profile
]
(France/ Belgium)

Bayard for Best Acting Performance
Virginie Efira – Bye Bye Morons [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(France)

Agnès Award
Petit Samedi - Paloma Sermon-Daï

Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature
Bye Bye Morons - Albert Dupontel

Audience Award for Best Documentary
China Dream [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Hugo Brilmaker and Thomas Licata (Belgium)

Be TV Award for Best Feature Film
The Big Hit [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Emmanuel Courcol (France)

Short Films Competition

Bayard for Best Short Film
Maalbeek - Ismaël Joffroy Chantoudis (France)

Jury Award for Favourite International Film
Clebs - Halima Ouardiri (Canada/Morocco)

Jury Award for Favourite Belgian Film
La Disparition de Tom R. - Paul Sirague (Belgium)

Best Director
Saïd Hamich - Le Départ (Morocco/France)

Best Photography
Marine Atlan - Le Départ

Best Acting Performance
Christine Beaulieu - Un jour de fête (Canada)

Special Mention
On n’est pas près d’être des super héros - Lia Bertels (Belgium)
I Am Afraid to Forget Your Face - Sameh Alaa (Egypt/France/Qatar/Belgium)

OFF Awards

ARTE Short Film Award
Novembre - Camille de Leu (Belgium)

BeTV Award for Best Belgian Short
On My Way - Sonam Larcin (Belgium)

Dérives Short Film Award
Nuit Debout
- Nelson Makengo (Belgium/DRC)

Marion Hänsel Short Film Award
Clebs - Halima Ouardiri (Canada/Morocco)

RTBF Award for Best Belgian Short
Juillet 96 - Michèle Jacob (Belgium)

Namur University Award for Best Short
Novembre - Camille de Leu (Belgium)

Audience Award for Best Short
Autour d’eux la nuit - Vassili Schémann (Belgium)

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(Translated from French)

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