On Saturday, November 21, 2020, the closing ceremony of the 21st Mezipatra QFF took place online (just like the whole festival for the first time). Which films were chosen by our main and student jury? In the International Feature Film Competition, the German drama No Hard Feelings (Futur Drei), which we screened at the opening, was awarded. The Audience Award went to the Belgian road-movie Lola (Lola vers la mer). In the International Short Film Competition, the student jury awarded the French film Hugo at 6:30pm (Hugo 18h30). Among the students, the French animated film Genius Loci also scored and the jury awarded it with Special Recognition. Congratulations to the winners for receiving the prizes from the design duo DEHEM! If you haven't seen all the films yet, you have until January 5 at Aerovod, where most of them still remain.
International Feature Film Competition: No Hard Feelings
The winner of the main competition was the German drama No Hard Feelings (Futur Drei) by the director Faraz Shariat about the lives of young queer immigrants in Germany. The film won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale IFF and was awarded by the main jury consisting of the industry manager of the Dok Leipzig festival, Brigid O'Shea, director Marián Amsler and journalist Barbora Šichanová. What led them to the decision?
"Although we were not able to meet in person this year as jurors, we unanimously chose a film about family, identity, belonging, love and loss in the environment of immigrants in contemporary Germany. The film deals with questions of stereotypes and stigmatization of certain groups of society, shows in all purity human empathy and apathy, beauty and ugliness, as well as the efforts of individual characters to succeed in a world whose reality is often cruel," said the jury.
Audience Award: Lola
The audience award goes to Laurent Micheli's film Lola (Lola vers la mer), which we released into Czech distribution this year under the Queer Kino brand. The Belgian road-movie Lola sensitively and without stereotypes depicts the trans main character, the free-spirited Lola, on her way to honoring the memory of her dead mother and building a relationship with her conservative father.
International Short Film Competition: Hugo at 6:30pm
The winner of the short film section was the French film Hugo at 6:30pm (Hugo 18h30) by directors Simon Helloc and James Maciver. It follows a young actor Hugo, who is given the task of telling a story at the casting. But the statement must be improvised. Thus begins a deeply personal confession of friendship, sex and reconciliation. The student jury appreciated the overall message of the film:
"It is said that human emotion is a complex matter of endless corridors filled with impressive memories but also compartments of regret and error. We decided to choose a film that provided us not only with an important theme, but also with a message of love and especially hope,” agreed director Natália Antoňáková, audiovisual artist Kryštof Blabla and model and singer ISAAC.
International Short Film Competition (Special Recognition): Genius Loci
The animated film Genius Loci by Adrien Merigeau received special recognition from the student jury: "We would like to give special recognition to the film for its abstract poetry surrounding natural emotional chaos, mental health, exceptionally innovative imagery, its comprehensive form and use of film language."
