After last year’s successful edition, which marked the 10th anniversary of the initiative, the LUX Film Prize continues embracing an unpredictable variety of genres and tones from all over Europe.
Given out each year by the European Parliament to cast a spotlight on the diversity of European cinema and its importance in building social and cultural values, the 2017 edition has just kicked off at the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival with the unveiling of the ten films honoured with a place in its Official Selection.
The selected films:
120 battements par minute (Beats Per Minute)
Robin Campillo
France, 2017
Cannes Film Festival
A Ciambra
Jonas Carpignano
Italy, Brazil, United States, France, Germany, Sweden, 2017
Directors Fortnight
Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993)
Carla Simón
Spain, 2017
Berlin International Film Festival
Hjartasteinn (Heartstone)
Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson
Iceland, Denmark, 2016
Venice Days, Queer Lion Award
King of the Belgians
Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth
Belgium, Netherlands, Bulgaria, 2016
Venice Film Festival
Ostatnia rodzina (The Last Family)
Jan P. Matuszynski
Poland, 2016
Locarno Film Festival
Sameblod (Sámi Blood)
Amanda Kernell
Sweden, 2016
Venice Days
Slava (Glory)
Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov
Bulgaria, Greece, 2016
Locarno Film Festival
Toivon tuolla puolen (The Other Side of Hope)
Aki Kaurismäki
Finland, Germany, 2017
Berlin International Film Festival
Western
Valeska Grisebach
Germany, Bulgaria, Austria, 2017
Cannes Film Festival
The selection was unveiled by Member of the European Parliament Helga Trüpel, vice-chair of the Committee on Budgetary Control Martina Dlabajova, member of the Committee on Culture and Education Bogdan Wenta and LUX Prize coordinator Doris Pack.
Three thematic focuses can be identified from the films in the selection, which perfectly mirror what Europe and Europeans are going through at the moment. A batch of coming-of-age stories, about young characters opening their eyes to what surrounds them in order to understand reality and the societies and communities they belong to; a selection of socially engaged films that tackle timely topics in both heartfelt and intelligent ways, with touches of genre and even comedy; and portraits of the modern socio-political absurdity, crucial in the current post-truth era that we live in, stand out in the official selection.
Today, the film from the 2016 LUX Prize Competition that received the Audience Mention, the highest number of votes from audiences across Europe, was also announced – the acclaimed LUX Prize winner Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade. Voter Nora Perrin from France was randomly selected from among all the participants and invited to Karlovy Vary to announce the Mention.
From the 10 films in the Official Selection, 3 entries will be selected and announced at the Venice Days press conference in Rome at the end of July as those taking part in the LUX Prize Competition. These films will compete to be the winner of the 2017 LUX Prize, awarded on 15 November in Strasbourg, and will become the core of the 2017 LUX Film Days, which will take them to screen across all 28 European Union countries by the end of the year.
