After two days with the spotlight mainly on the music, SPOT shifted the focus to film on Sunday with a packed Øst for Paradis (East of Eden, the art cinema in Aarhus) setting the stage of the second edition of SPOT Film.
As expected “Montage of Heck” about Kurt Cobain was the big crowd-puller, but the other documentaries as well as the fiction films drew large audiences too. For the industry delegates the high point was the award show in the evening where two films and an idea for a film won SPOT Film Awards.
Best Fiction Film: Ártún
Icelandic Gudmundur A. Gudmundsson took home the prize for best fiction film in the category SPOT The Film with his autobiographical “Ártún”, a subtle and accurate coming-of-age story about the boy Arnar’s quest for the first kiss, which suddenly entails more than he had imagined.
In their motivation the jury, which consisted of Janus Metz, Pernille Fischer Christensen and Chris Tidman, said,
“The prize for best short fiction film goes to a warm and humoristic story, gracefully crafted in a light-hearted tone. The subtle cinematography and charming character work, with its nuances of shame, freedom, rebellion and bravado reveals a heartfelt vulnerability of the young main characters and shines a light on the innocence of youth. Congratulations to Artun by Gudmundur Gudmunsson.”
Best documentary: ‘Skin and Bones’
In the non-fiction category SPOT The Documentary, the jury decided to give the award to Michael Dinesen’s ”Skin and Bones”, an intimate and taboo-breaking film about three friends who all suffer from muscular dystrophy on a road trip that has partying and seeing prostitutes as its main priorities.
The Jury’s words about the winner were,
“The prize for best documentary goes to a deeply moving and courageous film. A film made with humour, sensibility and human insight. The jury wants to thank everyone involved in this film – most importantly the three main characters – for insisting on reminding us of the most basic fact, that life is there to be lived. The winner is ”Skin and Bones” by Michael Dinesen.”
DKK 100,000 for Maria Winther Olsen
The third prize of the night was awarded in the pitch contest SPOT The Talent, where five young film talents fought hard for the prize of DKK 100,000 and production facilities for a feature film. Earlier in the day the five young finalists had pitched their ideas to a jury consisting of editor and director, Jacob Schulsinger, film consultant Jakob Høgel, head of Aarhus Film Værksted Morten Hartz Kaplers and head of Filmby Aarhus (the regional film and media centre of Westen Denmark) Carsten Holst.
The winner was a happy and overwhelmed Maria Winther Olsen, who on top of the prize was also promised development support worth of DKK 150,000.
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Photo: Ida Binnerup