D’A Barcelona International Auteur Film Festival announces the winners of the festival’s 6th edition. D’A’s official jury formed by actress Natalia de Molina, Diana Santamaria, director of Capricci Films España and Matías Piñeiro, movie director, have given the 2016 D’A Talents Best Director Award to Venezuelan director living in Barcelona Andrés Duque for his film Oleg y las raras artes. The jury awards this movie for “the intimacy achieved in the journey and the defense of an indomitable character that awaits the death of the classic with optimism. Also for its music, the shirts, the dissonances and consonances of a director that makes of art something rough and sensitive”. The talents Award is given within the section of the same name with films from director with less than three films in their filmography and its endowed with 6,000 Euros for the director of the winning film.
Oleg y las raras artes also won the Point of View Gran Prize in Navarra along with Special Mention and Best Soundtrack in Cinéma du Réel. It’s not a classic documentary but a movie with Oleg Karavaitxuk’s unique voice that fascinates the viewers with stories from Russia’s past and his improvisations on the piano.
The jury gives a Special Mention to John From by the Portuguese João Nicolau for “his bet on an original fiction, vibrant and liberating” John From is an unusual proposal from Portugal, an adolescent comedy that little by little becomes an adventure movie that takes on the beginning of adulthood in a surprising way. João Nicolau has collaborated with Miguel Gomes and John From is his second film.
The Critics Award for Best Film in the Talents section given in collaboration with ACCEC (Catalan asociation of critics and film writers) goes to the film Baden Baden by Rachel Lang. According to the jury -formed by Marla Jacarilla, Víctor Blanes and Estanis Bañuelos – “Baden Baden from its sincerity and its link with a contemporary reality, is capable of achieving the accomplice smile of the viewer while trying crucial issues in the development of an individual”.
Besides, the critic jury gives a Special Mention to Oleg y las raras artes by Andrés Duque by “achieving a faithful portrait of the protagonist without losing an auteur gaze”
The Audience Choice Awards, granted from the votes of the viewers of all the films in the festival goes to the Japanese movie Happy Hour by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. A five hour movie that dissects the relationship of a group of friends. The director worked through improvisation workshops with the four non-professional actresses, that offer one of the best introspective portraits a group of women in their 30’s that we’ve ever seen on films.
