The Jury Award (worth € 7,500) at the inaugural World Cinema Amsterdam festival was awarded to Juntos by Nicolás Pereda (Mexico). Honey (Bal) by Semih Kaplanoğlu from Turkey (also winner of a Golden Bear in 2010) took the World Cinema Amsterdam NTR Broadcast Award, consisting of acquisition and a television broadcast, worth € 10,000. Honey (Bal) will be broadcast by NTR in the 2010/2011 season. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand) was given a special mention by the jury. Benda Bilili! from Congo/France won the festival’s Audience Award, worth € 7,500. The cash prizes are to support the winners with their next film projects.

The first ever World Cinema Amsterdam closed last night with the screening of Cinco días sin Nora at World Cinema Amsterdam Open Air. From 12 to 22 August, more than 6,1000 visitors in total saw 63 full-length and short independent films from Latin America, Africa and Asia in the Rialto cinema and on Amsterdam’s Marie Heinekenplein square. These included 31 Dutch premieres.

The jury was made up of Paula Astorga (general director Cineteca Nacional Mexico), Iwana Chronis (fund manager Hubert Bals Fonds) and Marten Rabarts (artistic director Binger Filmlab). They watched a total of nine films from nine countries: award-winners from renowned festivals such as Cannes or Berlin and films that have stood out elsewhere, and not previously seen in the Netherlands or Amsterdam.

The Award winners:

In Juntos, young, promising director Nicolás Pereda (28) tells the story of Gabino, Luisa and Paco, who share an apartment in Mexico City. When tensions mount, they decide to take a trip out of the city. They go looking for a stray dog, but seem to find something else instead. Pereda's Perpetuum mobile also screened at the festival. According to the jury: "Pereda is able, through intensive cooperation between director, actors, writers, camera and sound, to create a self-assured film rich in symbols, mystery and precision. In Juntos, he shows the human side to his characters, as well as telling a marvellous, fragmented story."

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, which also won a Golden Palm at Cannes in 2010, was given a special commendation by the jury. A film that, in the jury’s words: "not only seeks out the extremes of the camera, but also the expectations of the viewers. An original and aesthetic masterpiece." The film can be seen in cinemas from 21 October (Contact Film).

Honey (Bal) is the last part of director Semih Kaplanoğlu’s Yusuf trilogy, in which the director explores the inner world of six-year-old Yusuf, who lives with his parents in a remote mountainous area. He has a close relationship with his father and is hugely unsettled by a worrying dream about him. The film won a Golden Beer in Berlin in 2010 and will be released in the Netherlands from 14 October by EYE Film Instituut Nederland.

Benda Bilili!, a music documentary by the French directors Renaud Barret and Florent de La Tullaye, tells the inspirational story of a really remarkable band from Congo, Staff Benda Bilili. The members of the band are seven musicians who live on the streets; four of them became paralysed by polio when they were young. In Kinshasa – one of the poorest cities on the African continent – the seven musicians have to survive among all the poverty and crime. And they manage to do so, with verve, thanks to their music, an irresistible mix of blues, reggae and rumba, spiced up with African rhythms and using home-made instruments. The filmmakers have agreed to share their prize with the members of Staff Benda Bilili. The film is currently playing in Rialto.

World Cinema Amsterdam carries on
Until 15 September, World Cinema Amsterdam On Tour will be screening a selection from the Mexican Landscapes programme and the latest films from the competition programme as exclusive advance premières in Filmhuis Den Haag, Plaza Futura in Eindhoven, ’t Hoogt in Utrecht and Focus in Arnhem. On 28 August, NPS will broadcast the film Norteado by Rigoberto Pérezcano, from the Mexican Landscapes programme, on television, in cooperation with World Cinema Amsterdam.
The second World Cinema Amsterdam will take place from 11 to 21 August 2011.
World Cinema Amsterdam is a new initiative by Filmtheater Rialto (Amsterdam), screening the best independently produced films from Latin America, Asia and Africa at a single film festival.

www.worldcinemaamsterdam.nl
Twitter: @WorldCinemaAMS