Austrian filmmaker Feo Aladag won the Best Narrative Feature award for her debut feature When We Leave. The film’s star Sibel Kikilli was also named best actress.
Here’s what the jury said about the film:
When We Leave examines one woman’s struggle for personal freedom. It’s a theme that is often explored – but rarely told with such humanity, subtlety, craftsmanship or immediacy, as in tonight’s winning entry. When We Leave is a riveting and heartbreaking story of a woman trapped in an abusive relationship, who must not only free herself from that marriage, but also the cultural prejudices and judgments that would keep her there. Feo Aladag built the nuances of her film over a six year period. She rehearsed her actors for seven months. She immersed herself in every detail of a culture that is revealed to us in remarkable detail. The result is a film that balances complex social issues with honest human yearnings. Through the brutality, When We Leave is also a story of tenderness, the struggle for compassion, the inexorable pull of family and the need to love and be loved.
Women swept the doc categories with Ali Codina’s Monica and David winning the best documentary feature. The film is the story of a married couple living with Down Syndrome and their struggle with day to day living. I happened to have seen this one and it is so fascinating and educational.
Here’s what the jury said:
Monica & David takes an incredibly intimate situation and beautifully translates it in a way that makes you think about your own life. It’s a clear and observant look at a family and the purity of love, fueled by an organic sense of the sadness, joy and everyday humor that fill this epic journey that is life.
Julia Bacha got a special mention for her film Budrus about a non violent uprising to save a village in Palestine from being demolished by the Israeli separation barrier.
Clio Barnard won the best new documentary filmmaker award for her film The Arbor about British playwright Andrea Dunbar and her daughter Lorraine.
Here’s what the jury said:
Imagination is a word you don’t often associate with documentary filmmaking, but this director bends the boundaries of the form, beautifully crafting an innovative and detailed film wherein great storytelling is paramount.
I wish I would have been able to see more of the films. The ones I saw were fantastic (more on that next week.)
‘Leave,’ ‘David’ take home Tribeca awards (Variety)
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I’m so happy for all the women who won! Another wonderful film by a woman at Tribeca was “SNAP” by Carmel Winters. Hopefully, it will be released in the US.
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