Christos Artemiou won first prize for best Cypriot short film for the second year running with ‘Kinds of Fathers’, as the 16th International Short Film Festival of Cyprus (ISFFC) closed in Limassol on Friday night.
Alexandra Matheou’s ‘Free Eliza (Notes on an Anatomical Imperfection)’ took three awards in the National Competition: second prize for best Cypriot film, the ‘Dinos Katsourides’ Directing Award and best performance for Grigoria Metheniti.
In the International Competition, first prize for best short film, worth 4,000 euros, went to ‘Family Feast’ by Nadir Taji.
The awards were presented at an open-air ceremony in Heroes’ Square, followed by a closing party. The festival ran from October 10 to 16 at Rialto Theatre and was co-organised by the Deputy Ministry of Culture’s Department of Contemporary Culture and Rialto Theatre.
National Competition
Artemiou’s first prize came with 4,000 euros and technical equipment. Ermolaos Fotiou’s ‘Runner’ won both the best cinematography award, for Lazaros Kenanoglou, and the festival’s first Peer Award, chosen by filmmakers and actors Marina Mandri, Panagiotis Kyriakou and Kamil Saldun.
Sofia Anastasiou’s ‘Valentinos’ won the Audience Award and an honourable mention from the jury.
International Competition
Second prize for best short film went to ‘Crazy For You / Loquita Por Ti’ by Greta Diaz Moreau, and the best director award to Marie Lukacova for ‘Orla’.
‘Mother Lidia / Mamita Lidia’ by Joaquin Nercasseau and Juan Bautista Tagle was named best documentary, and ‘Tropic of the Mourning Gecko’ by Stavros Markoulakis won the best Eastern Mediterranean film award.
The festival nominated ‘A Shot at Art’ by Ilke Paddenburg for the European Film Awards, and gave an honourable mention to ‘Without Kelly / Utan Kelly’ by Lovisa Siren.
Jury and other awards
Jury president Riina Mikkonen, executive director of Tampere Film Festival, used her speech to call for long-term material support for festivals and filmmakers, saying political decision-makers have the power to provide it.
“Kisses do not fill a hungry person’s stomach: long-term material support is needed,” she said.
The jury also included Jing Haase of Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Mina el Naggar of MedFest Egypt, director Thanasis Neofotistos and artist Marina Xenofontos, who represents Cyprus at the 61st Venice Biennale.
‘Forbidden Fruit’ won the Shoot’n’Run Award, run by the Cyprus University of Technology’s School of Fine and Applied Arts with the festival.
This was the second edition under artistic directors Keti Papadema and Diomedes Koufteros. Alongside the competitions, the festival held special screenings, workshops and industry events, including the What’s the Story? Cyprus script development workshop, whose eight participants were presented at the ceremony.
