Film: Film Festival Locarno: Germans awarded several times

Double success for the feature film “White Snail” realized by producers from Austria and Germany. The Lovestory of the Austrian-German directing duo Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter was awarded twice on Saturday at the end of the 78th International Film Festival Locarno. The socially critical drama won the special prize of the jury and the Belarusian main actor duo Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov received one of the two awarded awards for the best spectacle. In addition to Berlin, Cannes and Venice, Locarno is one of the most important European film festivals.

Another film was given a special mention of German filmmakers: the German-Georgian community production “Dry Leaf” of the Georgia-based director Alexandre Koberidze. The experimental film was also awarded by the jury of the International Critics Association Fipresci. In the young competition “Pardi di Domani”, the German-Iranian film essay “Blind, in the eye” of the director’s team Atefh Kheirabadi and Mehrad Sepahnia won the Youth Jury Prize.

The Grand Prize of the Film Festival, the Golden Leopard, went to the Japanese feature film “Two Seasons, Two Strangers” by director Sho Miyake. The Abbas Fahdel from Iraq was awarded for the direction of his documentary “Tales of the Wounded Land”. Another prize for outstanding spectacle went to Manuela Martelli from Chile and Ana Marija Veselčić from Croatia in the feature film “God will not help”. The prices were awarded early Saturday afternoon. The golden leopard is presented in a gala in the evening.