FOR THE DOCUMENTARY SECTION A SUCCESS FOR AMMAR KANDIL’S “PROJECT ICEMAN”
Best Actors Emilie Kroyer Koppel and Benett Vilmányi, Best Director Award to Erika Calmeyer, Students Award to Serbian “Where the Road Leads.” Also on stage at the former Annunziata Convent was Best Director 2022, Russian Lena Lanskih, who couldn’t pick up the award a year ago because of the war
SESTRI LEVANTE (GE) – The french movie “The sixth child”, by director Léopold Legrand, wins the Riviera International Film Festival 2023, the festival that awards the best under-35 filmmakers now in its seventh edition, whose prizes were presented at a ceremony this afternoon – Sunday, May 14 – at the former Convento dell’Annunziata on the shores of Sestri Levante’s beautiful Baia del Silenzio. Legrand’s work, to which also the Audience Award goes, stars Sara Giraudeau, Damien Bonnard and Judith Chemla and tells the story of Franck, a scrap dealer who lives among a thousand economic difficulties in the suburbs of Paris with his wife Meriem and five children, with a sixth on the way. But it is also the story of Julien and Anna, wealthy lawyers unable to have children, and the unthinkable agreement between the two families.
Double awards also to the Norwegian thriller “Storm”, with directos Erika Calmeyer winning as best directos and actress Ana Dahl Torp receiving the special prize from the jury, chaired by British actress Emily Mortimer. Best actors are the Danish actress Emilie Kroyer Koppel, starrig in “Unruly” and the Hungarian actor Benett Vilmányi, starring in “Larry”, while the aspiring young actors and directors of Accademia09, for the second year in a row a RIFF partner, awarded the Students Award to the Serbian film “Where the Road Leads,” by Nina Ognjanović. To the only Italian feature film in the competition, “Rispet” by Cecilia Bozza Wolf, goes the new Baia del Silenzio – Redelfi Award.
The Documentary Section awards “Project Iceman”, a U.S. production directed by Egyptian Ammar Kandil that follows step by step the feat at the limits of human possibility accomplished by Anders Hofman, an amateur triathlete who set out from Copenhagen to become the first man able to complete an Ironman in Antarctica. The Austrian production “Patrick and the wale”, directed by Mark Fletcher and produced by Wolfgang Knöpfler, wins the Sky Documentaries Award. Special mention of the jury, chaired by Michela Andreozzi, for the Filipino movie “Delikado,” by Karl Malaukanas.
Like every year, the Riviera International Film Festival also gave special awards to some of its most distinguished guests, awarding the Icon Award to Emily Mortimer and the Vision Award to artist Vanessa Beecroft and screenwriter Ludovica Rampoldi. Also taking the stage during the ceremony was Russian filmmaker Lena Lanskih, who was finally able to collect the award she won in 2022 for best director with the film “Unwanted.” Unable, a year ago, to leave her country due to the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, this time Lanskih was able to obtain a special visa for artistic merit and reach Sestri Levante together with her mother.
The Riviera International Film Festival 2023 issued a total of 8 thousand tickets, of which 5 thousand only at the Cinema Ariston and 3 thousand between masterclasses, panels and talks, almost always sold-out. Above all, large crowds flocked to Sestri Levante to see up close the casts of “Mare fuori” and “Blanca” or to attend the meetings with Vanessa Beecroft, Anna Foglietta and Antonio Scurati.
«Exceptional numbers, which fill us with pride and repay us for the great work carried out every year by our splendid team – remarks with satisfaction Stefano Gallini Durante, President of the Riviera International Film Festival –. The RIFF is now a solid and recognized reality and the results touched this year urge us to relaunch, in view of 2024, the request for a new movie theater in Sestri in which to screen more and more films and, finally, to show the public even the most beautiful television series, which now constitute an increasingly important part of our event».
«It was a record edition in terms of attendance at the cinema, masterclasses and talks – adds Vito D’Onghia, Executive Director of Riviera International Film Festival –. The event is growing year after year and even the trade media are starting to take notice of us. With each edition, RIFF consolidates its relationship with the territory more and more, bringing international movie stars to the shores of the Baia del Silenzio for seven years now for an event that represents an added value for the entire Tigullio region».
