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CINÉAST 2020 Awards

Servants and Mare come out on top at the 13th CinÉast

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- Ivan Ostrochovský’s film took home the Grand Prize at this year’s hybrid edition of the Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg

Servants and Mare come out on top at the 13th CinÉast
Festival director Radek Lipka during the awards ceremony (© CinÉast)

The physical side of this year’s hybrid edition of CinÉast concluded on Sunday 25 October with a screening of Servants [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile
]
by Slovakian director Ivan Ostrochovský, which had just won the festival’s Grand Prix the day before, during the awards ceremony held at the Kinepolis Kirchberg in Luxembourg.

Belgian director Zoé Wittock, of the International Jury, explained that she and her colleagues, Polish director and scriptwriter Tomasz Wasilewski (president of the jury), director of the GoEast film festival Heleen Gerritsen, Luxembourgish producer Jani Thiltges (CEO of Samsa Film), and film critic and head of the selection committee of the Film Fund Luxembourg Boyd van Hoeij, had decided to give the film this distinction “for its suspenseful and nightmarish vision of a system that tries to control and regulate even morals and personal beliefs, and for a story that is performed by an outstanding ensemble and told through the insidious use of sound and stark and appropriately totalitarian-feeling black-and-white visuals”.

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The International Jury also awarded Mare [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Staka
film profile
]
by Swiss filmmaker Andrea Štaka with the Special Jury Prize, “for its subtle and atmospheric evocation of the not unhappy but still never satisfactory everyday routine of a mother and wife in Dubrovnik, played with characteristic nuance and intelligence by Marija Škaričić”, said Boyd van Hoeij on stage.

Meanwhile, the Press Jury, composed of Yasemin Elci (The Luxembourg Times), Elena Lazic (Cineuropa/freelance) and António Raúl Reis (BOM DIA/Contacto), handed out the Critics’ Prize to Stories from the Chestnut Woods [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
by Slovenian director Gregor Božič. The Press Jury was impressed with the director’s control of all aspects of the film, “with the warm cinematography as well as the hypnotic soundtrack drawing us into the film’s atmospheric, beguiling world at the border between fiction and reality, dream and memory. The spirit of each character is revived with the introduction of surreal elements. The Slovenian director demonstrates a rare ability for constructing shots and narrative structures that consistently seduce the audience, and a rare eye for the everyday yet transcendent beauty of simple things like a game between old men, an ancient forest, an isolated house, or young women singing and dancing. We are all eager to see what this young director does next.”

The Press Jury also felt compelled to recognise Father [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Srdan Golubović
film profile
]
by Serbian director Srdan Golubović with a Special Mention.

The Audience Award for Best Film went to Alexander Nanau’s documentary Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, co-produced by Luxembourgish company Samsa Film, while the Audience Awards for the Best Short Films were awarded to: Lake of Happiness by Aliaksei Paluyan (fiction, Belarus/Germany/Spain), Way of Silvie by Verica Pospíšilová Kordić (animation, Czech Republic) and We Have One Heart by Katarzyna Warzecha (documentary, Poland).

Although the physical component of the festival has ended, many of the films remain available online – with a limited number of views and geo-blocked to Luxembourg – through “CinEast Online Cinema”, a dedicated VoD platform, until 8 November.

Here is the full list of winners: 

Grand Prix
Servants [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ivan Ostrochovský
film profile
]
– Ivan Ostrochovský (Slovakia/Romania/Czech Republic/Ireland)

Special Jury Prize
Mare [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Staka
film profile
]
– Andrea Štaka (Switzerland/Croatia)

Critics’ Prize
Stories from the Chestnut Woods [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Gregor Božič (Slovenia/Italy)
Special Mention
Father [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Srdan Golubović
film profile
]
– Srdan Golubović (Serbia/France/Germany/Croatia/Slovenia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Audience Award
Collective [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Alexander Nanau (Romania/Luxembourg)

Audience Awards – Short Films

Fiction
Lake of Happiness – Aliaksei Paluyan (Belarus/Germany/Spain)

Animation
Way of Silvie – Verica Pospíšilová Kordić (Czech Republic)

Documentary
We Have One Heart – Katarzyna Warzecha (Poland)

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