Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home (China/Canada) has won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary. The film was made with the financial assistance of the Jan Vrijman Fund.
Last Train Home is about the heroic journey undertaken by countless Chinese workers each year from the new industrial areas to their families in the provinces. In its citation, the jury was “of the opinion that this is a striking, honest film about a topic that is of relevance to the entire world”. With the prize comes a cheque for €12,500.
IDFA Audience Award
Two Jan Vrijman Fund films, The Peddler by Adriana Yurcovich, Lucas Marcheggiano and Eduardo de la Serna and Sins of My Father by Nicolas Entel, were listed in the top 20 of the IDFA Audience Award. The Peddler is the captivating story of self-made filmmaker and irrepressible optimist Daniel Bergermeister who makes feature films with the inhabitants of all the villages he visits in rural Argentina. Sins of My Father is an intimate portrait of drug lord Pablo Escobar as seen through the eyes of his only son, who wants to make amends for his father's deeds.
IDFA’s Docs for Sale
In the Top 10 most watched films at Docs for Sale are listed three Jan Vrijman Fund films, Last Train Home, Sins of My Father and Addicted in Afghanistan by Jawed Taiman. Addicted in Afghanistan is an intimate portrait of the teenagers Jabar and Zahir, two of the more than one million drug addicts in Afghanistan.
In total 476 documentaries were selected to participate in Docs for Sale, IDFA’s leading marketplace for creative documentaries, also offering streaming video all year round.
Behind the Scenes
Many of the funds films were picked up by festivals during IDFA and will circulate the festival circuit in 2010.
Just after IDFA finished Sundance unveiled their programme for the 2010 edition, including Last Train Home and Sins of My Father.
Addicted in Afghanistan which had its International Premiere at IDFA already won its first award for Best Documentary Director at the Asian First Film Festival in Singapore. Director Jawed Taiman is especially happy that the film raises awareness around the World about such an important issue such as children drug addiction in Afghanistan. “That’s the real award for me and my team”.