Winners of the 2021 Villa Medici Film Festival
On Saturday 18 September evening, the jury composed of Teresa Castro, Mati Diop and Béla Tarr awarded the two prizes of the 2021 Film Festival on the Piazzale stage of the Villa Medici:
VILLA MEDICI PRIZE FOR BEST FILM
Inside the Red Brick Wall (2020) from the collective of filmmakers Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers
Premiering in Italy in the occasion of the festival, this documentary film shot in November 2019 follows the Fight For Freedom Movement in Hong Kong when it took up the Polytechnic University as their base. With the police blocking all exit routes, the University was placed under siege. Inside the Red Brick Wall is a chilling testimony of police repression in Hong Kong.
The Prize for Best Film, worth 5,000 euros, is accompanied by a fifteen-day writing residency at Villa Medici for the directors.
SPECIAL PRIZE OF THE JURY
El Gran Movimiento (2021) from Kiro Russo
With its second feature film, Bolivian filmmaker prodigy Kiro Russo films La Paz and the under-proletariat of miners with an astounding magical realism. The film tells how the character of Elder arrives in the big city seeking to be reinstated in his work at the mine.
The Jury Prize, worth 3,000 euros, is accompanied by a seven-day writing residency at Villa Medici for the director.
“The Prize for Best Film goes to a film that has managed, in a single coherent gesture, to combine the absolute urgency of resisting and fighting oppression with the demands of a cinematic eye. A film that questions and invigorates the very notion of the act of filming, a film that from its place of total commitments also questions our place as spectators. A film for which we are grateful for opening our eyes and for reminding us of the cost of resisting.”
“We have chosen to reward the Jury Prize to El Gran Movimiento for its singular filmmaking style and inventiveness. It’s a film with a true social sensitivity and we were impressed by his empathy.”
The jury (Teresa Catro, Mati Diop, Béla Tarr)
“Thank you for giving this award to Inside the Red Brick Wall, especially when the Hong Kong government is passing a lot of amendments as we speak to officially make films like this illegal to be shown in Hong Kong. Please continue to learn more about what is happening in Hong Kong, and we hope this, and other documentary films, can continue to be seen. Thank you.”
Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers
The winning films will be screened at the Villa Medici on Sunday 19 September at 11am (Inside the Red Brick Wall), 2.30pm (El Gran Movimiento) and 4.30pm (both films).
Images: M3studio