Award Winners Movies that Matter Festival 2021
These are the competition winners of the Movies that Matter Festival 2021. Most films can still be watched On Demand this weekend. Check the overview here:
Fly So Far
Winner Activist Documentary Award
Inspiring portrait of Teodora del Carmen Vásquez from El Salvador. After her baby was born dead, she was convicted to thirty years imprisonment for aggravated homicide. In prison she finds out that she is not the only one. Together, the women decide to take a stand.
The Activist programme is organised in collaboration with our main partner Amnesty International.
Night of the Kings
Winner Camera Justitia Award
When a shy young man arrives at Ivorian Maca Prison, where the inmates rule, the Boss orders him to become the next ‘Roman’: the storyteller. He soon finds out that it is a matter of life and death. Raw, energetic and brimming with creativity, a viewing experience like nothing else.
Shadow Game
Winner Dutch Movies Matter Award
Impressive documentary following several teenage boys who fled their home countries and are trying to find protection in Europe. Stories of hardship and exploitation, but also of endurance, warmth and human spirit. Stories of present-day Europe we should not look away from.
Dutch Movies Matter is made possible by VEVAM, copyright organisation for directors.
Watch Over Me
Winner Grand Jury Documentary Award
Impressive, deeply moving documentary about a Delhi palliative care team visiting terminally ill cancer patients at home. Counselor Maniamma, nurse Sini and doctor Reena help them make the time they have left as pain-free and dignified as possible, while preparing them and their family members for the inevitable end.
Grand Jury Documentary is made possible in part by broadcaster BNNVARA.
Quo Vadis, Aïda?
Winner Grand Jury Fiction Award
Impressive and heartbreaking drama about the hours leading up to the Srebrenica genocide of 1995. Aïda works as a translator for the Dutch-run UN base. She is torn apart between her duties for the powerless Dutchbat soldiers, and the desperation of her fellow-villagers – especially her husband and two sons.
Gagarine
Winner Students’ Choice Award
Sixteen-year-old whiz-kid Youri lives alone in the cité Gagarine, which will soon be demolished. While the tenants prepare for eviction, Youri starts making his urban fantasy come to life. Visually daring meditation on life in the banlieues, and the power of following your imagination.
The film can no longer be watched On Demand. Later this year, Cinéart will release the film in theaters.
Grand Jury Documentary is made possible in part by broadcaster Leiden University.
Nothing About My Mother
Docs Up Fund Award
8 projects from 8 countries (Iran, Kenya, Poland, Bosnia, Israel, Hong Kong, Colombia, Tunisia) were submitted at the Rough Cut Service section of Movies that Matter. They were all at an amazing high level of quality, with relevant topics and issues, great cinematic and narrative story telling.
After a lot of thinking, a grant of 1500 euro was given by Docs Up Fund to Nothing About My Mother by Salem Trabelsi and Latifa Robbana Doghri (Tunisia).
The film is about an abused and harassed child by her parents. Sirwa is adopted by a family while her mother and father are in jail. The main character Sirwa, as all of the others, is incredible thrilling. The directors radical choice, not to show the face of Sirwa as she is growing up, is very challenging and all the shots are very cinematic.