10/05/2021 - The feature debut by Romania’s Eugen Jebeleanu, hinging on LGBTQ+ issues, has gone home with the top prize from the 11th edition of the D’A Film Festival Barcelona

Yesterday, Sunday 9 May, marked the end of the 11^th edition of the D’A Film Festival Barcelona, which started unspooling in a hybrid format (in various cinemas in Barcelona and on Filmin) on 29 April, although its extended Madrilenian iteration will continue until the 13^th (see the news). The Romanian production Poppy Field [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugen Jebeleanu
film profile], the feature debut by Eugen Jebeleanu, scooped the Talents Award, the gathering’s top prize, handed to the best film from the section of the same name and endowed with €10,000. The official jury – made up of Ania Jones (co-founder of production outfit Bteam Prods), Jordi Costa (a film critic and head of exhibitions at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) and Carlos Marques-Marcet (the director of films such as Long Distance [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Marques-Marcet
film profile], which gets a cheeky nod in the Spanish-Argentinian-German-Brazilian film Blood, which took part in the Transicions sidebar of this same festival) – feted it “for offering a compelling plunge into a stifling reality through meticulous storytelling, convincing performances and masterful directing”.

This film revolving around a closeted gay policeman previously won the Best Actor Award (for the fabulous Conrad Mericoffer) at the most recent Gijón and Turin Film Festivals, after it was first shown at Tallinn Black Nights. The same D’A 2021 jury handed a Special Mention to the Italian flick Bad Tales [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo
film profile], directed by brothers Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo. In particular, the jury members highlighted "its bold, unique formal language".

The Un Impulso Colectivo Award (which grants the winner the use of the facilities and technical equipment from the Madrid Film and Audiovisual School during the production or post-production of their next work) was bestowed upon Karen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: María Pérez Sanz
film profile] by María Pérez Sanz, "for her ability to simultaneously make a film about Karen Blixen and about the star Christina Rosenvinge; it’s a movie about success and failure, about memory and the phantasmagorical, and about the African and the Extremaduran landscapes". The jury comprised film critic Violeta Kovacsics, Luis Ferrón (the producer of The Year of the Discovery [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]) and Carlos Loureda, from the Cine Invisible blog and programmer of the Zinegoak Festival.

In addition, a Special Mention was given to Ovella [+see also:
film review
film profile], helmed by a bunch of ESCAC students made up of Marc Puig Biel, Júlia Marcos Lázaro, Daria Molteni and Sergi Rubio González, "for the originality of their proposal and their exactitude in setting just the right, complex tone; and for the performative presence of Nao Albet and the collaborative work of a group of young filmmakers who put themselves at the service of the film to craft a supremely mature work".

Finally, the Critics’ Award was conferred upon the feature debut by French actress-director Suzanne Lindon, Spring Blossom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Suzanne Lindon
film profile]. Carlos Balbuena, Maria Adell and Marta Armengou rewarded the movie "for capturing a feminine, adolescent – and therefore extremely unusual – point of view on a story that has been told a thousand times, that of one’s first love, with a unique, personal voice". Finally, the audience plumped for First Cow by the USA’s Kelly Reichardt, a title due to hit Spanish theatres imminently, and the short film Larrua jo by Spaniard Erik Rodríguez Fernández.

Here is the full list of winners:

Talents Award
Poppy Field [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Eugen Jebeleanu
film profile] - Eugen Jebeleanu (Romania)
Special Mention
Bad Tales [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabio and Damiano D’Innocenzo
film profile] - Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo (Italy/Switzerland)

Un Impulso Colectivo Award
Karen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: María Pérez Sanz
film profile] - María Pérez Sanz (Spain)
Special Mention
Ovella [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Marc Puig Biel, Júlia Marcos Lázaro, Daria Molteni, Sergi Rubio González (Spain)

Critics’ Award
Spring Blossom [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Suzanne Lindon
film profile] - Suzanne Lindon (France)

Audience Award – Feature Film
First Cow – Kelly Reichardt (USA)

Audience Award – Short Film
Larrua jo - Erik Rodríguez Fernández (Spain)

(Translated from Spanish)