Award of Excellence for “La forteresse” in Yamagata
15.10.2009
“La forteresse” was honoured with an Award of Excellence at the renowned Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, which was held in the Japanese mecca for documentary films from October 8-15, 2009. Swiss director Fernand Melgar was in Japan to receive the trophy, endowed with 3,000 Swiss francs, on October 14. Fifteen films participated in the international competition. This is already the sixth major award for “La forteresse”.
The Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival was founded over 20 years ago and is held every two years. It ranks as the most important festival for non-fiction films throughout all of Asia. The 1,141 festival entries underwent a stringent selection process, from which 15 films were chosen for the international competition, including the films “La mere” by Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov as well as the film the “Staub” by German filmmaker Hartmut Bitomsky (coproduction: Dschoint Ventschr, Zurich). In the past 20 years only three other Swiss film directors have been selected to participate in the competition of this prestigious festival: Richard Dindo in 1989 with “Dani, Michi, Renato und Max”; Peter Mettler in 1995 with “Picture of Light”; and Erich Langjahr in 1997 with “Sennenballade” and in 2003 with “Hirtenreise ins Dritte Jahrtausend”.
The five-member international jury was comprised of cinematographer Nurith Aviv (France/Israel), as well as directors Garin Nugroho (Indonesia), Karel Vachek (Czech Republic), Yoshimasu Gozo (Japan) and Wu Wenguang (China). They presented the awards, praising “La forteresse” for ist “convincing position”.
The social relevance of the film and Fernand Melgar’s sensitive portrayal of the subject matter have generated a great deal of appreciation for the film on a national and international level. Apart from the fact that the film has already been seen by almost 50,000 cinemagoers in Switzerland, it has also been honoured with numerous international awards, beginning with the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition in Locarno, then the Grand Prix in Teheran and in Montréal as well as the Audience Award in Florence.
Zurich, October 15, 2009
Ciné-Portrait von Fernand Melgar
The five-member international jury was comprised of cinematographer Nurith Aviv (France/Israel), as well as directors Garin Nugroho (Indonesia), Karel Vachek (Czech Republic), Yoshimasu Gozo (Japan) and Wu Wenguang (China). They presented the awards, praising “La forteresse” for ist “convincing position”.
The social relevance of the film and Fernand Melgar’s sensitive portrayal of the subject matter have generated a great deal of appreciation for the film on a national and international level. Apart from the fact that the film has already been seen by almost 50,000 cinemagoers in Switzerland, it has also been honoured with numerous international awards, beginning with the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present Competition in Locarno, then the Grand Prix in Teheran and in Montréal as well as the Audience Award in Florence.
Zurich, October 15, 2009
Ciné-Portrait von Fernand Melgar