Slovak film Servants wins the Grand Prix of the 13th CinEast
At the Awards Ceremony of the 13th edition of CinEast (Central and Eastern European Film Festival in Luxembourg, 8-25 October 2020, www.cineast.lu), held at the Kinepolis Kirchberg in Luxembourg on Saturday 24 October, the International Jury awarded the Grand Prix to the film Servants by Ivan Ostrochovský (Slovakia/Romania/Czech Republic/Ireland) and the Special Jury Prize to the film Mare by Andrea Štaka (Switzerland/Croatia). The Critics’ Prize awarded by the Press Jury went to the film Stories from the Chestnut Woods by Gregor Božič (Slovenia/Italy). The winner of the Audience Award is the film Collective by Alexander Nanau (Romania/Luxembourg). The International Jury of CinEast 2020 was composed of the Polish director and scriptwriter Tomasz Wasilewski (President of the Jury), director of the GoEast film festival Heleen Gerritsen, Luxembourgish producer Jani Thiltges (CEO of Samsa Film), renowned film critic and the head of the selection committee of the Film Fund Luxembourg Boyd van Hoeij and Belgian director Zoé Wittock. The Press Jury was composed of Yasemin Elci (The Luxembourg Times), Elena Lazic (Cineuropa/freelance) and António Raúl Reis (BOM DIA/Contacto). Go here for biographies and photos of the members of the juries.
Zoé Wittock commented the jury’s decision regarding the Grand Prix winner Servants by Ivan Ostrochovský as follows: “For its suspenseful and nightmarish vision of a system that tries to control and regulate even morals and personal beliefs, and for a story that is performed by an outstanding ensemble and told through insidious use of sound and stark and appropriately totalitarian-feeling black-and-white visuals, we award the Grand Prix to Servants by Ivan Ostrochovský.”
As regards the Special Jury Prize for Mare, the jury member Boyd van Hoeij said: "For its subtle and atmospheric evocation of the not unhappy but still never satisfactory everyday routine of a mother and wife in Dubrovnik, played with characteristic nuance and intelligence by Marija Škaričić, we award the Special Jury Prize to Andrea Štaka‘s Mare.”
Yasemin Elçi commented the Press Jury’s verdict related to the Critics’ Prize for Stories from the Chestnut Woods with these words: “We were impressed by Gregor Božič’s control of all aspects of Stories from the Chestnut Woods, with the warm cinematography as well as the hypnotic soundtrack drawing us into the film’s atmospheric, beguiling world at the border between fiction and reality, dream and memory. The spirit of each character is revived with the introduction of surreal elements. The Slovenian director demonstrates a rare ability for constructing shots and narrative structures that consistently seduce the audience, and a rare eye for the everyday yet transcendent beauty of simple things like a game between old men, an ancient forest, an isolated house, or young women singing and dancing. We are all eager to see what this young director does next.”
The Press Jury also decided to award a special mention to the film Father by Serbian director Srdan Golubović.
The film Collective, co-produced by the Luxembourgish company Samsa Film, obtained the best results of the public votes and therefore won the Audience Award. Finally, the Audience Awards for the Best Short Films were awarded to: Lake of Happiness by Aliaksei Paluyan (fiction, Belarus / Germany / Spain), Way of Sylvie by Verica Pospíšilová Kordić (animation, Czech Rep.) and We Have One Heart by Katarzyna Warzecha (documentary, Poland).
