Astra Film Festival is honoured to be able to present the Excellency Award to the Romanian filmmaker Cristi Puiu for his outstanding contribution to world cinema.

His work as a filmmaker and as a speaker effects a kind of remarkable act of purification for all of us who are involved in cinema. Mr Puiu is not by chance a long-time friend and collaborator of this festival and the of documentary cinema. Astra Film Festival and he have been preoccupied for many years in a search for cinema, the one and only cinema which is experienced in some form of collectivity and has moments we can recognise as full of truth so forms a shared and binding bond. In this sense “there is only one cinema –he says, the term fiction and documentary are just administrative labels”.

Puiu has been present across the past 10 years at Astra Film Festival, in a great collaboration which has enriched the festival profile by inspiring many young filmmakers, but his work as a filmmaker can be felt across the strands of the documentary cinema we show. The most important link between the films he makes and the practice of documentary cinema is the position of filmmaker as witness. Earlier this week, speaking at this festival, Cristi said that the essential feature of his work lies in this process: the filmmaker creates a frame – and then is  present until something happens in that frame. That is to say: the role of the filmmaker, the director of cinema, is an art of presence;  but, more than that, what you are trying to allow to come into being is a moment in which the truth of a moment is revealed and transmitted by cinematic language in some form or other. We all know when we are in the presence of this truth - there is no education or training necessary for this; in this sense art is the most democratic and egalitarian of all human activities – the moment of recognition of the truth gives an exhilarating access to something that earlier generations called divinity.

Cristi combines a totally rigorous, conceptually formal and yet also improvisatory cinematic practice. He does this by being both utterly uncompromising about the way he works and totally open to ‘the moment’ of action before the camera that shape the language of the moving image.

Cristi works with a kind of relentless energy to cleanse the idiom, the position and practice of cinema in a world where celebrity, glamour, industry and the quest for wealth constantly muddies the essence of cinematic work.

For this, above all else, we hail his contribution and are proud to have this friend who defends what matters more than anything else in this confused world of cinema and human affairs.

The New Gypsy Kings

Astra Film Festival throughout the last 23 years was and is home for the most controversial and unsettling realities and stories we live in today thanks to the remarkable effort of the filmakers around the world who work for years to immerse themselves, to understand, and to present the unknown or inappropriately known communites of our society.  The process of knowing, understanding and accepting others is one of the hardest one. AFF embraces the effort of filmakers who are engaged in the mission to correct and deblock the communication between different parts of society.

AFF is honoured to offer the special prize for to Liviu Tipuriță for his film The New Gypsy Kings  for the effort of a dedicated filmaker, for his contribution to gain access and to present the little known backstage and story of MANELE singers  from Romania.

Changa Revisited

Our hearts were won by a film that finds the universal in a distinctive corner of the world, that connects the past and present and challenges the future.

For its rich simplicity, elegant editing and ability to bring us close to its characters with respect, humanity and quiet humour, our award goes to Changa Revisited by Peter Biella and Leonard Kamerling.

The Dazzling Light of Sunset

For a film depicting the life of a community through the eyes of a very dedicated working television reporter. It is a film from a filmmaker who proposes a creative cinematographical aesthetic and offers beautiful image compositions. It is a film made with a very repectful and subtle approach to the characters. The jury recognises the directorial skills of a rising talent in documentary filmmaking and award The Dazzling Light of Sunset by Salome Jashi with the Prize for the Best Central and Eastearn European Documentary.

SPECIAL JURY MENTION

For a film that brings attention to a very urgent topic in today's world, that of migration. The characters seemingly caught in a strange country and waiting to cross the border are filmed in beautiful long takes. With a mix of reality and fiction and employing fluid editing the director is able to present an inovative piece of filmmaking in short running time. 

The jury would like to give a special mention to Abdul and Hamza by Marko Grba Singh.

A Mere Breath

Prize for Best Film is awarded to a picture that delves deep into the moral and ethical challenges faced by a Romanian family. The expectations of a father who awaits a cure from God for the tragedy that blights his youngest daughter’s life provides the backdrop to the film.  Through seven years we watch the transformations of family dynamics, framed with a formal control that speaks of real cinematic talent. The filmmaker’s dedication to her story and her engagement with the faith of her subjects won her the trust of the family and has created a truly affecting film. In the end, we live the tragedy of a man who is willing to surrender his family’s destiny into the hands of God but in doing so comes near to suffocating those around him. The Prize for Best Film in Romanian Section goes to A Mere Breath by Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan.

Angela

Prize for Best Direction goes to a film with an effective, economical and confident direction about a young Roma girl. The intimate relationship established with the main character allows us to experience the inner world of a self-assured, articulate woman who struggles to be entirely her own person while meeting the expectations of her community. We discover her problems step by step through the revelation of answers to a series of mysteries that the director establishes and then handles with true skill. The director avoids the traps of manipulation so characteristic of films about the Roma minority. We are happy to award this prize to Angela by Botond Püsök.

1 Building and 40 People Dancing

In making this film, the author placed himself at an ideal distance from his characters, entering their privacy with deference. Through mature and assumed directorship, approach, characters, visual images and sound track converge into a whole, which represents the cinematic picture of the relationship lodger-lodging space. The Best Docschool Award goes to 1 Building and 40 People Dancing by Miki Polonski.

Those

While making use of props borrowed from the fantasy genre and employing a humorous tone, the filmmaker asks dead serious questions.  The answers of the protagonists reveal a disturbing reality and raise new questions still about 'the other' and eventually about ourselves. For the ingenuity of the approach of a current global issue transposed to the micro level of a local community, the jury awards this prize to the film Those by Krizstina Meggyes.