“Glory,” “Home,” “The Fixer” among Les Arcs Film Fest winners

PanARMENIAN.Net - Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Bulgarian comedy-drama “Glory” won the best film award, the Flèche de Cristal, at the 8th edition of Les Arcs European Film Festival which wrapped on Dec. 16 in the French Alps, Variety said.

Fien Troch’s Belgian drama “Home” picked up the Grand Jury Prize, while Adrian Sitaru’s Romanian drama “The Fixer” won a pair of prizes: A special mention and best actor for Tudor Istodor. Both “Home” and “The Fixer” played at Toronto, in the Platform and Contemporary World Cinema sections, respectively.

This year’s jury was president Radu Mihaileanu and comprised French actresses Mélanie Doutey and Mélanie Bernier, German filmmaker-actor Sebastian Schipper, French director Catherine Corsini, Icelandic director Olafur Darri Olafsson, and French composer Bruno Coulais.

Mijke de Jong’s timely drama “Layla M” won two prizes, the audience award and the best actress award for Nora El Koussour who plays a young Muslim woman who gets radicalized.

The best original music prize was awarded to Nicola Piovani for Caroline Deruas’s “L’Indomptée,” while the cinematography award went to Gösta Reiland for Erik Skojblærg’s “Pyromaniac.”

On top of winning best film, “Glory,” which also played at Locarno, won the prize prize. The director duo previously helmed “The Lesson.”

“Lady Macbeth” won the Cineuropa Prize, which goes to films co-produced by a country member of the MEDIA program or Eurimages program.

Constance Meyer’s “Rhapsody” won best short film from a jury composed of Antonin Peretjatko, Alice de Lencquesaing, Audrey Estrougo, François Theurel, Lola Bessis and Grégory Audermatte. Sebastian Torngren Wartin’s short “Ambulance” won a special mention.

Programmed by Frédéric Boyer and headed by CEO’s Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin and Guillaume Calop, Les Arcs celebrated the new generation of European women filmmakers through a program called “Nouvelles Femmes de cinéma.”

As part of the program, the festival invited 10 promising emerging European directors – including Houda Benyamina (“Divines”), Jessica Hausner (“Lourdes”), Pia Marais (“Layla”), Rachel Lang (“Baden Baden”) — to present one of their films and participate in roundtables. Veteran directors such as Daniele Thompson were also on hand at Les Arcs to participate in a panel discussion open to the public.

The festival also unveiled a European study on the emergence of women filmmakers across Europe. The study was made in partnership with the CNC, France Télévision and the Sisley Fondation, which announced during the festival the launch of an observatory on parity in European cinema.

Les Arcs kicked off on Dec. 10 with the premiere of Gaumont’s anticipated film “Patients” directed by Fabien Marsaud aka Grand Corps Malade, a popular French musician.

The festival drew 21,000 admissions and welcomed more than 700 film professionals who turned up for several industry events: The Coproduction Village Arcs 1950, the Film School Village, the Work In Progress and Les Arcs Summit.