IOSIF DEMIAN

There is much talk and praise still going on for the cinematographer who shot the documentary Water Like A Black Buffalo in 1970 and The Stone Wedding in 1973.

A Girl's Tears, a feature he made in 1980, is quoted in the history of cinema as an innovative film from the point of view of its narrative structure.

The film made it in the Cannes Festival official selection, in the Un Certain Regard section, a success which the communist press chose to ignore.

He completed  Rainbow Balloons in 1982, but the film never passed the successive censorship scrutinies.

However, his work as a cinematographer and the innovations in cinema language has endured.

Its author has emigrated to Australia in the 1980. Today he travels between Australia, where he is one of the most respected cinematography professors, and his native Romania. He relishes to talk about past projects and future ones. Recently, he confessed in an interview: ''I had this folly - to be the one who made something singular.''

For the folly of having made a singular contribution to the Romanain cinema and beyond, Astra Film is honoured to bestow the 2017 EXCELLENCY AWARD to IOSIF DEMIAN.

Libera Nos

Federica Di Giacomo, France, Italy, 2016

We want to give our award to Federica Di Giacomo’s Libera Nos. Libera Nos stands out as a complex, non sensational film that, like an onion, reveals layer after layer of the complex relationships among the Catholic Church, satanic possession, profound believers, and magical exorcism.

With great respect for both healers and the possessed, Libera Nos gets us thinking about where we go and what we do to cope with the darker forces within all of us.

Another Year

Shengze Zhu, China, 2016

We want to give an honorable mention to a film of great discipline, in which a bold, formal structure draws us into the everyday life of a working class chinese family : Another Year by Shengze Zhu.

Communion

Anna Zamecka, Poland, 2016

Taking into consideration the need to draw specific attention to the complexity of human relationships inside of a family struggling with many of the challenges we can all recognize in our own way, while respecting each of the characters integrity, a young filmmaker builds a close and intimate portrait of a home. With the wish to respond to the desire to build confidence in documentary filmmakers who prove to be extraordinarily resourceful and talented in their first film, the jury gave its heart to a cinematic artwork that takes us inside of this intense emotional setting through a masterfully crafted audiovisual language, engaging the audience into an intense empathic journey. The ASTRA FILM AWARD for the best film in the CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN section goes to Communion.

The Dead Nation

Radu Jude, Romania, 2017

The Award for the best film in the Romanian section goes to the most formally innovative film that attempts to expand the boundaries of documentary cinema. By allowing history to become intensely personal, by telling of public events through the voice of a victim rendered unable to impact upon the events he witnessed, by asking the audience to negotiate the meaning of each scene through the push and pull of still image and sound, The Dead Nation makes the tragic persecution of Romanian Jews into a first person present day experience.

Shindy Music

Andrei-Nicolae Teodorescu, Romania, 2017

For a film that celebrates popular culture through a fascinating portrayal of the transmission of musical tradition, and provides a rarely optimistic vision of life in three Roma communities. Shindy Music shows young people attempting to unlock the door to a future by exploring their own musical potential.

Phoenixxx

Mihai Gavril Dragolea, Romania, 2017 

For a film that avoids both voyeurism and the traps of prudish condemnation of sex workers, as well as simplistic affirmations of unconventional choices. PhoenixX allows its characters to come forth and speak their mind while showing them transcending demeaning stereotypes in the struggle to become full human beings.  

Homecoming

Noam Sobovitz, Israel, 2017           

In a selection dominated by the themes of family & belonging - to a place, to a culture, to a small community - I have picked the film that I found most relevant to these themes  and the most anchored in the complex realities of the world we live in. The Award for Short Film goes to Homecoming by Noam Sobovitz.

Education

Emi Buchwald, Poland, 2016 

Like drops of water infinitely reflecting, Education blossoms from a microcosm of children’s faces in school to  wider views – homes, parents and cosmos. The camera circles in double movements that bring the viewers closer, inward as the children study and outward with their growing knowledge grows of the poetic world.

Urban Cowboys

Pawel Ziemilski, Poland 2016 

Visually immersive, the film creates a world that combines elements of cinematic poetry and social realism. Keeping a close eye to the main character, the director delivers an emotional experience that is exposed by bridging the sorrow of loss and redemption. The award goes to Urban Cowboys.