The festival did not lack the presence of well-known filmmakers, with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and director Sándor Sára both on hand. Many all-day-long screenings and discussions ended with concerts on Városház tér, turning Jameson CineFest into a leading film festival not only of Hungary but also Europe.
Jameson CineFest has outgrown the original venue of Művészetek Háza, and the three movie theatres of Béke, Uránia and the Main Hall were so packed during projections that film enthusiasts even sat on the floor and stairs. Festival director Tibor Bíró said the record attendance was nearly double last year, and Mayor Dr. Ákos Kriza thanked everyone involved in organising the festival and achieving its unprecedented popularity.
The high-quality program may explain this. The large variety of foreign films as well as Hungarian ones included, inter alia, English, Swedish, Icelandic, Kazakh, Israeli, Canadian, Colombian, Brazilian, Turkish, German, Spanish, Danish, Cypriot, Cuban, Russian, Romanian and Italian productions.
The competition program hosted 20 feature films, 13 documentaries, 33 short and experimental films, and 19 animated films, with special events such as the CineClassics section, the Slovak Animation Day, and the Made in Spain and Made in India programs. Sundance Channel, an American independent film distributor, also brought 61 short films. Many of these were premieres in Hungary.
CineClassics offered screenings of Vilmos Zsigmond’s “Deliverance” (1972), “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977), “The Deer Hunter” (1978), and “Bánk Bán” (2002). Hungarian diva Klári Tolnay, Orson Welles, Sándor Sára, Valdis Oskarsdottir and Alfredo Mayo also featured.
Entries for the film contest were judged by four juries that distributed nine awards. Zsigmond received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his oeuvre. The viewers’ choice was “Parador Húngaro”, the story of how director Patrick Alexander forged a friendship with a Hungarian immigrant in Colombia. The International Ecumenical Award went to “Bande de filles” (Girlhood) by French director Céline Sciamma, which focuses on peer pressure and identity crisis within adolescent young girl groups in the Parisian suburbs.
The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) awarded a Quebecois film, “Mommy”, directed by Xavier Dolan. The Dargay Attila Prize for the Animation Film Section went to Japanese director Yantong Zhu for her work “My Milk Cup Cow”. The award for Best Documentary went to Hungarian director Glória Halász, who introduced the life and work of a clown doctor in her film “Dr. Lala”.
The main prize in the Short and Experimental Film section was awarded to Guy Lichtenstein’s short film, “Birthday Present”, about an Austrian tourist girl meeting a local boy in Israel and them spending some time together in Jerusalem. One of the main awards, the Adolph Zukor Prize, was also given to a Hungarian movie, “For Some Inexplicable Reason” (Van valami furcsa és megmagyarázhatatlan) directed by Gábor Reisz.
Finally, both the Don Quijote Award of the FICC Jury and the Main Prize, named after Emeric Pressburger, were clinched by “Class Enemy”, a film of Slovenian director Rok Bicek, who in his speech advocated more Hungarian-Slovenian cooperation in filmmaking, and emphasised the importance of getting to know each other as neighbouring countries.
After the award ceremony, the screenings and the concerts, any attendees still not tired could take a sip of whisky in the Jameson Lounge.
Three Danish film directors will be in Budapest for question-and-answer sessions after their films are shown at the first Budapest International Documentary Festival in District VIII’s Corvin Cinema this weekend.
Andreas Johnsen’s “Ai Weiwei – The fake case“ will screen this Friday at 4.45pm. After 81 days of solitary detention world-famous Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is put under house arrest. He suffers from sleeping disorder and memory loss, 18 cameras are monitoring his studio and home, police agents follow his every move, and heavy restrictions from the Kafkaesque Chinese authorities weigh him down.
Erlend E. Mo’s “Four Letters Apart” tells how Marino, Martine and Victor attend a special class at their school for children with ADHD and other special needs. They struggle with attention, aggression and low self-esteem. Some of the children in the class have diagnoses and are being medicated, others have not. Screenings are this Friday at 6pm and this Sunday at 3.45pm.
In Emil Langballe’s “Beach Boy”, Juma is one of many so-called “beach boys” on the coast of Mombasa – boys who date older European “sugar mamas” because they hope to achieve money, success or a visa to Europe. Or at least try to live like the rich Europeans for a couple of weeks. Screenings are this Friday at 5.45pm and this Saturday at 5.30pm.
More information: www.bidf.hu
Film language details: (+36-1) 459-5050
