email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

LUXEMBOURG 2021 Awards

Quo vadis, Aida? triumphs at the 11th Luxembourg City Film Festival

by 

- Interrupted by the March 2020 lockdown, the event this time unfolded in a hybrid format

Quo vadis, Aida? triumphs at the 11th Luxembourg City Film Festival
Quo vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić

Despite the pandemic, the main film festival in the Grand Duchy has one more time managed to come out on top. The figures of this 11th Luxembourg City Film Festival speak for themselves: 4,200 viewers attended the physical screenings between 4 and 14 March, which translates to screening rooms nearly 80% full. To these results, which far exceed the expectations of the event’s organiser, we must add the 3,000 who attended the exhibition Ready. Set. Design. Film sets in Luxembourg which took place at the Cercle Cité. Regarding the festival’s online offering, its platform (hosted on the FestivalScope/Shift72 system) has garnered some 20,000 viewings: a very encouraging result, despite the content being geo-blocked to people outside of Luxembourg (the event thus having to do without its French and German neighbours, who are usually very fond of the festival).

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

In the competition, Bosnian film Quo vadis, Aida? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jasmila Žbanić
film profile
]
by Jasmila Žbanić received the main honours of the festival. It is worth noting that this impressive European co-production, which brings together no less than 9 countries (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria, Romania, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Norway, Turkey) had its international premiere in Venice then went on to receive multiple distinctions, including the Golden Atlas for Best Film at the Arras Film Festival and the Dragon Award of the Göteborg Film Festival. The cherry on the cake is Quo Vadis, Aida? being in the shortlist of films nominated for the Best International Feature Film award at the Oscars, the first film to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina at the prestigious ceremony since No Man’s Land [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
in 2002. In Luxembourg, the President of the Jury Sandrine Bonnaire specified that she wanted to hand out the Grand Prix - By Orange “to a powerful, politically engaged, necessary and useful film.” The Press Jury, composed of France Clarinval, Loïc Millot and Geoff Thompson, also handed out its award to Jasmila Žbanić’s film, to underline the duty of historical memory associated with the massacres that were carried out in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the early 1990s.

The film critics also decided to give a Special Mention to Samuel Kishi Leopo’s feature film Los Lobos, which has also won the Audience Award. This multi-award winning film (which to this day counts no less than twenty awards won across the world, including at the Berlinale in the Generation Kplus category) tells the story of two Mexican boys who have illegally arrive in the US and who use their imagination to give sense to the world around them.

In the documentary section, it is Swiss director Thomas Imbach who stood out with his film Nemesis [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, about the destruction of the train station in Zurich and the construction of a new prison in its place. Composed of the members of the Europa Film Festivals network, the jury justified its choice with these words: “For the humour of its images and its amusing and smart editing, as well as for its very original sound work, we celebrate an atypical film which pushes the boundaries between documentary, fiction, and experimental cinema.”

In parallel to the screenings, artistic director Alexis Juncosa and his partners, including Neimënster, the Film Fund Luxembourg, Digital Luxembourg and Phi, continued the development of the VR Pavilion which had already met with great success in 2020. The VR to Go offer, which allows anyone to rent a pre-programmed VR headset for 2 to 3 days, has garnered a lot of interest and will continue until 30 May.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Grand Prix – by Orange
Quo vadis, Aida? [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jasmila Žbanić
film profile
]
- Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Austria/Romania/France/Netherlands/Germany/Poland/Norway/Turkey)

Documentary Award – by BGL BNP Paribas
Nemesis [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Thomas Imbach (Switzerland)

Critics’ Award
Quo vadis, Aida? - Jasmila Žbanić
Special Mention
Los lobos - Samuel Kishi Leopo (Mexico)

Audience Award – by Orange
Los lobos - Samuel Kishi Leopo

Teen Jury Award – by Kinepolis
Antigone - Sophie Deraspe (Canada)

Schoolchildren’s Jury Award
Antigone - Sophie Deraspe

Kids’ Jury Award
Rocca Changes the World [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Katja Benrath (Germany)

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from French)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

Privacy Policy