DOCVILLE 2020 - AWARD WINNING FILMS

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AWARD WINNING FILMS OF DOCVILLE 2020


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On Saturday  October 3rd,  a well-attended 16th edition of DOCVILLE was festively closed with the presentation of the DOCVILLE Awards and the premiere of Hi My Name is Jonny Polonsky by Otto-Jan Ham and Sjoerd Tanghe. It was a special edition of DOCVILLE as one of the first major national film festivals to take place physically since the lockdown. It remained exciting until the last days before the festival whether it could continue. But despite the difficult circumstances and limited room capacity, the festival had a very successful edition.

DOCVILLE 2020 attracted 80% of last year's visitors. An unexpected success and a clear indication that the need for physical festivals, after many months of online events and screenings, is great.

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Award for Best Belgian Documentary


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Victoria, from directors Liesbeth De Ceulaer, Sofie Benoot and Isabelle Tollenaere, won the jury award for Best Belgian documentary, awarded by Sabam for Culture.

Jurytext: [..] In other documentaries, those feelings do not immediately surface. Then it comes down to bringing them out and depicting them with creativity and delicacy. And that's where our winner excels. What is the movie all about? There is a current social layer: the story of people fleeing an inhumane existence and choosing a life with many question marks. But that's just the surface. In addition, it is about capitalism, and how the wild dreams of entrepreneurs are not necessarily everything. It's about rich and poor, and how they can coexist. It's about community, and how people find each other. It's about time and space, and how the two influence each other. And it is certainly also about how flexible people are and how we can adapt to even the most bizarre circumstances. This is innovative, surprising, poetic, witty and convincedly optimistic cinema.

 

Mother from Kristof Bilsen received an honorable mention.


Jurytext:  Some documentaries choose a subject where the strong emotions spring out naturally. Then it is a matter of subtly measuring these emotions and guiding them in the right direction. Our Honorable Mention, MOTHER, is an excellent example of this.

 

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Award for Best International Documentary


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Norwegean documentary The Painter and the Thief from Benjamin Ree won the jury award for Best International Documentary, and will be purchased by national broadcaster Canvas. This award is Academy Award(tm) Qualifying.

 

Faith from Valentina Pedicini received an honorable mention. 

Jurytext:  As Jury of the International Competition we have chosen 2 young makers instead of established names. The 2 makers are a woman and a man who have made 2 very good films, completely different films that show the diversity of the documentary genre show. It is perhaps not surprising that we have opted for 2 films in which both intimacy is central. One film is about 2 characters who, despite being very far from each other in their lives, opt for an unconditional friendship. The second film shows intimacy in a more cinematographic way, within an extreme religious community. After a very long discussion between the jury members chose 2 makers each on their own risk-taking: the winner is THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF and the Special Mention goes for FAITH.

 

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Award for best ConScience Documentary


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Collective from Alexander Nanau won the Jury award for Best ConScience documentary.

Jurytext: The judges of the ConScience competition fell unanimously in favor of a documentary that exposes the mechanisms of fraud in a thrilling film that drags you along like a police thriller. Our winner shows a hopeful human struggle for justice by zooming in on the mechanisms of corruption in a world where power and money are ruthlessly victims. The documentary makers follow three passionate investigative journalists from a sports newspaper who stand up for victims of tampering with disinfectants after a fire in a nightclub in Bucharest. And all without a single dash of background music.

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Audience Award


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The Audience Award goed to The Cave (Feras Fayyad)

 

Top-15 (scored on a maximum of 5)

1

The Cave

4,9/5

2

The Painter and the Thief

4,8

3

The Truffle Hunters

4,7

4

My Rembrandt

4,7

5

QT8: The First Eight

4,6

6

Honeyland

4,6

7

Citizen K

4,5

8

Cinema Pameer

4,5

9

The Forum

4,5

10

Feels Good Man

4,5

11

Human Nature

4,5

12

Hunting for Hedonia

4,4

13

The Reason I Jump

4,4

14

Collective

4,4

15

iHuman

4,4

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