In addition to our World Cinema Jury Award for the best competition film and the World Cinema Audience Award for the highest-rated audience film, a brand new award has been added this year: the World Cinema Exchange Award, in collaboration with Het Filmgesprek.
This award provides a (further) stage for noticeable films about our views on mankind and the world. The award is presented to a film from the WCA programme that challenges the discussion about what it means to be human. The winning film's director will receive €2,500 for their next film. The nominated films are representative of the total festival programming and will be screened in Dutch filmtheaters after the festival:
Divino Amor - Gabriel Mascaro
Monos - Alejandro Landes
Nuestro tiempo - Carlos Reygadas
Rojo - Benjamin Naishtat
Sibel - Çağla Zencirci & Guillaume Giovanetti
The Swallows of Kabul - Zabou Breitman, Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec
Temblores - Jayro Bustamante
A Tale of Three Sisters - Emin Alper
An Unexpected Love - Juan Vera
The jury consists of
JAËLA ARIAN (1995) is a student of Biology at Wageningen University & Research. She founded film platform LA RIOT, which, in collaboration with Rialto, makes world cinema accessible to a younger audience. Jaëla also works at the Heerenstraat Theater in Wageningen. In 2015, she was a Venice Days jury member at Venice International Film Festival.
BOAZ VAN LUIJK (1979), a film reviewer for Dutch newspaper Nederlands Dagblad, always manages to find connections between films and life questions based on his background in Human Resource and Theology Studies. For many years now he has been hosting and leading monthly film talks in his hometown Dordrecht. He is also the owner of De Verwandering, an agency for meaning and purpose in life.
IOANA POPESCU (1993) is a PhD student at The School of Social and Political Science of the University of Edinburgh. She researches the relationship between aesthetic experiences and the process of re-humanisation. She is interested in how world cinema can facilitate an intercultural process of learning and dialogue. Alongside her study, Ioana co-develops interactive dance performances that explore how people interact with each other and with the environment around them.
The World Cinema Exchange Award is made possible by Het Filmgesprek, an initiative that invites viewers to investigate and further explore the perception of films through conversations about films and life questions.
