Awards
The winners of the 19th Religion Today Film Festival have been announced in Trento on Saturday, 15 October 2016.
International Jury Awards
- Best FilmThis film deals with a very hot continuing issue about veil prohibition in french public schools from the point of view of a teenager struggling to define her own identity. The camera follows Mariam's everyday life in a realistic and graceful style, until she finds her own unique solution.
- Best short filmA profoundly moving film, that deals with major themes as death, love, loneliness, anger and hope, in a very mature and poetical style.
- best documentaryVisually remarkable, this film not only enters into the meaning of faith in God among the individual monks it portrays, but simultaneously exposes the sweeping changes in the world today where religious life has to find new meaning.
- Special Mention - Feature FilmA profoundly moving film, that deals with major themes as death, love, loneliness, anger and hope, in a very mature and poetical style.
- Special Mention - Short FilmThe film draws familiar, obvious lines to unite people from different cultural, religious backgrounds. With colorful characters, grotesque humor, and accurate cinema, the director demonstrates wittingly that cooperation is necessary to overcome a mutual barrier, through respect for every human being and their beliefs.
- Grand Prize In the Spirit of Faith in memory of Davide ZordanThe film, wisely and originally written, with gentle humor and accurate acting, manages to say in a very subtle way that charisma alone, devoid of kindness of heart and love for others is a very dangerous thing for humanity.
SIGNIS Jury Awards
- Signis prizeA documentary with high cinematographic quality which deals in a respectfull and delicate way with the life of a small community of Cistercian monks at the eve of a big decision. In a good cinematic language, the director engages us in the questions raised by their faith, doubts and the construction of the project for their future life. You don't have to be a monk to share theirs stories.
- Special mentionA very unusual short film which uses all the grammar of cinema (location, music, acting) to give us a message of solidarity through an everyday life situation. As the protagonist is trying to make a living reciting poems for the dead ones, the director cleverly opens our eyes on any society that can be a cemetery for the poorest.
Special Juries Awards
- Migrations and CoexistenceCinformi JuryA well-rounded vision of the migration phenomenon considering the country of departure and the one of arrival. Looks and perspectives interchanging themselves and expressing the reasons of migrations, the impact in the new cultural framework and the social economic relapses in homeland. Both the roles of Adil as a migrant and as film director give immediacy to the movie and stimulate an empathic relationship between the audience and the main character.
- Special MentionCinformi JuryMigrate and disappear. From the eyes our loved ones, but also to institutions that haven’t always been transparent. The drama of those seeking fortune out of their native country and very often lose their identity. The destiny of too many migrants, represented with an efficient balance between drama and some touches of irony.
- Religions & SocietyTrentino cinema coordination CinemAMoRe JuryFor the easy and brilliant narration that amuses and at the same time allows to present a picture of religion at the service of life.
- New OutlooksSalesian Pontifical University JuryThe movie represents the sad story of a French-Moroccan girl challenging institutions like family and school to protect her freedom of wearing the veil against the law which forbids religious symbols in public places. The topic is developed in an original way and it is extremely current. The technique of the movie is valid and through the editing the flux of the narration Is pleasant.
- Special MentionSalesian Pontifical University Jury“Slor” is a meaningful movie that underlines the prejudice towards Muslim women wearing nigab or burka. The movie pleasantly combines social criticisms and the typical characteristics of the comedy, also evoking the male figure, present but not at the centre, in a relationship of abuse of power over the female one.
- In the Spirit of PeaceProvincial Forum for Peace and Human Rights JuryThe jury assigns the AWARD “Nello spirito della pace” to the documentary DRAW NOT WAR for being able to show the importance of work among young generations in the spirit of coexistence in diversities. Catholics and protestants Irish, Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian from Bosnia, Israeli and Palestinian boys and girls born and grown in a context of hate and separation that could make a comparison with “the other” finding out that sometimes “the other” is similar to us. The jury not only did appreciate the effective narration of the different parts of the project, but also the intensity and techniques used in the three animated short films at the end.
- Special MentionProvincial Forum for Peace and Human Rights Jury“Zeal for Unity” presented good quality movies, moreover the jury appreciated this project for the value of an initiative that is trying to put in contact two nations in conflict trough the cinema. We want to thank the 12 film-makers coming from India and Pakistan that joined together for the first time to launch a message of peace and harmony, because we think that also through art, literature, music, culture and cinema, people can contribute creating the social background needed for dialogue, living together and peace.