Winner and Jury Report 2007
The winner of year's Joris Ivens
Award is STRANDED, directed by Gonzolo Arijon.
Jury Report
The Joris Ivens
jury members, Roberto Berliner, Vidyarthy Chatterjee, Ilan de-Vries, Jos Stelling, and Diane
Weyermann wish to acknowledge and thank IDFA director Ally Derks and her entire festival staff for a
superb festival and an extraordinary 20 years of dedication, commitment and passion in supporting
international documentaries. Ally and IDFA have been instrumental in creating a vibrant documentary
community of filmmakers, industry professionals and an engaged public audience. We thank you and
look forward to many more years to come!
We immensely enjoyed the opportunity to be
together to watch films this past week. We saw a variety of excellent documentaries from around the
world with a diversity of compelling subjects, forms of storytelling, and film aesthetics. These are
often difficult to compare, which makes the decision-making process very challenging. The films were
moving, poetic, sometimes humorous, sometimes devastating, provocative, beautiful, emotional and
engaging. We acknowledge all 16 filmmakers for their truly amazing and inspiring work.
After many hours of discussion and debate, we unanimously nominated the following 3 films for the
2007 VPRO Joris Ivens Award:
The faces of the lonely and dispossessed are imprinted in
our minds and in our hearts. A touching and beautiful film about despair, hope and love. SEPTEMBERS,
directed by Carles Bosch.
With powerful and visually stunning reenactments, limited
archive, a haunting sound design and emotionally compelling testimonies, we are immersed into an
extreme and terrifying fight for survival. This beautifully constucted film is both emotional and
poetic. STRANDED, directed by Gonzolo Arijon.
A sensitive, humane and cinematic story
about the struggle for existence in the face of immense change and an unknown future. With touching
characters and moments of pure poetry. UP THE YANGTZE!, directed by Yung Chang.
Before
announcing the winner, the jury will confer a Special Jury Prize:
A film of universal
relevance -- children in trauma -- constructed in a challenging, claustrophobic style that reveals
the director's remarkably disciplined aestheticism and opens a disturbing and touching world to the
viewer. HOLD ME TIGHT - LET ME GO, directed by Kim Longinotto.
And the winner of this
year's Joris Ivens Award is Stranded, directed by Gonzalo Arijon.