Burma VJ – Reporting From a Closed Country wins VPRO Joris Ivens Award 2008
This evening in Pakhuis de Zwijger the winners of the various competition programmes were announced, at the closing ceremony of the twenty-first IDFA, presented by Twan Huys. The winners include Burma VJ – Reporting From a Closed Country (Denmark/Sweden/England/Norway) by Anders Østergaard, which won both the VPRO Joris Ivens Award and the Movies that Matter Human Rights Award, and Boris Ryzhy (the Netherlands) by Aliona van der Horst, which won the Silver Wolf.
Tomorrow is the last day of the festival, which this year once again attracted more visitors than ever.
VPRO Joris Ivens Competition Award
The VPRO Joris Ivens Award was presented to Anders Østergaard for Burma VJ – Reporting From a Closed Country. The film consists almost completely of material filmed in secret by a group of reporters during the uprising against the military dictatorship in Burma in September 2007. According to jury chair Bianca Stigter, the film is “a harrowing reminder of the power and the weakness of images."
The VPRO Joris Ivens Award consists of a sculpture and € 12,500.
The jury of the Joris Ivens Competition also awarded a Special Jury Award to Rick Minnich and Matthew Sweetwood for Forgetting Dad (Germany), which deals with the emotional consequences for those around him of the sudden and inexplicable loss of memory suffered by Minnich’s father.
Silver Wolf Award
Aliona van der Horst received the Silver Wolf Award for Boris Ryzhy (the Netherlands), about the Russian poet Boris Ryzhy, who tragically died at an early age, and Yekaterinburg, the grey industrial city that had a great deal of influence on his life and work. Jury chair Thomas White said that, “although none of the jury members had heard of the poet in advance, Van der Horst manages to immerse the viewer in his world, while at the same time giving us a glimpse of the Russian soul”. The Silver Wolf consists of € 10,000, made available by the NPS.
For the first time, the Silver Wolf jury also presented a Special Jury Award to Lady Kul el Arab (Israel) by Ibtisam Mara'ana.
The winner of the Silver Cub Competition, for documentaries up to 30 minutes, was also announced. Slaves – An Animated Documentary (Sweden/Norway/Denmark) by Hanna Heilbronn and David Aronowitsch won the Silver Cub Award, worth € 5,000.
First Appearance Award
Andrei Dascalescu received the First Appearance Award for Constantin and Elena (Romania/Spain), which centres on the everyday life of an elderly Romanian couple. Sally Berger, jury chair: “Intimate and humorous scenes in their home are eloquently captured through a discreet and fluid camera that follows them in their everyday tasks”.
The First Appearance Award consists of € 2,500.
IDFA Student Award
The second IDFA Student Award was presented by jury chair Ellen Kuras to Shakespeare and Victor Hugo´s Intimacies (Mexico) by Yulene Olaizola, about her grandmother’s friendship with the talented writer Jorge Riosse, who died young, and rented a room from her. The film was made with support from the Jan Vrijman Fund.
The IDFA Student Award consists of € 2,500.
Dioraphte Audience Award
This year, the audience cast over 40,000 votes for films screening at IDFA. The film receiving the most votes was RiP - A Remix Manifesto (Canada) by Brett Gaylor. The film is a cinematic argument against penalising anyone who takes existing music and makes it into something new.
The Dioraphte Audience Award consists of € 5,000.
Movies that Matter Human Rights Award
The Movies that Matter Human Rights Award, for the best documentary on human rights and human dignity, was also awarded to Burma VJ – Reporting From a Closed Country by Anders Østergaard. Jury chair Chris Keulemans awarded a stipend of € 2,500 to Anders Østergaard.
DOC U! Award
The five-strong youth jury from DOC U! awarded the DOC U! Award, worth (€1,000) to Kassim the Dream (USA) by Kief Davidson. This documentary is about Kassim Ouma, who at the age of six was forced to serve as a child soldier, escaped, and went on to become a boxing champion in the USA.
The Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund Award for Documentary 2008
Sarah Mathilde Domogala won the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund Award for Documentary 2008 for her film plan Monsters Under the Bed. Monsters Under the Bed deals with Young, successful people in the Randstad conurbation, who make great demands of themselves in terms of living a smooth, sparkling and seemingly happy life. But are these demands realistic?
The jury considered Sarah Mathilde Domogala’s film plan to be “a plan with social urgency, which shows a strong, original visual and audio approach. The plan has great authenticity, is raw, honest and poignant.”
The award – a cash prize of € 125,000, is made available every year by the Dutch Cultural Broadcasting Fund and is intended for the realisation of the best film plan, which was developed in IDFA’s Documentary Workshop. This year, the workshop was led by John Appel.
Facts and figures
The 21st IDFA showed an increase in visitor numbers compared to 2007 (145,000 tickets sold), with at least 157,500 tickets sold. Net receipts rose from € 623,000 in 2007 to at least € 700,000 this year.
The number of international guests was less than last year: 2,469, as opposed to 2,700 last year.
The new website was visited almost 20% more frequently than in 2007. A striking note was the success of IDFA TV; the hundreds of video reports, recordings, trailers and short films were viewed some 4,000 times a day during the festival. Another factor in the increased online interest in the festival was the presence of IDFA on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Brightcove.
For the full jury reports, see www.idfa.nl.
Laura van Halsema
Press Officer