The Council of Europe’s Eurimages Fund has joined forces with the Locarno Film Festival this year to present the second edition of its Audentia Award for best female director, a press release has announced. The award — which was inaugurated at the Istanbul Film Festival last year — consists of a cash prize of 30,000 euros (about $35,000 USD), and is part of the Eurimages’ efforts to promote greater gender equality in the film industry.
Hosted by a different international film festival each year, the Audentia Award takes its name from the Latin for “courage” or “bravery” — “vital qualities for any woman wishing to pursue a career in film directing,” in the words of the press release. The prize intends “to celebrate women who have had the courage to make that choice, by giving their work greater visibility and inspiring other women to follow in their footsteps.”
“Ten films have been pre-selected from across all Locarno Festival’s categories and all films by female directors to compete for the second edition of the Prize,” according to the release. Films up for the award include Noémie Lvovsky’s “Demain et tous les autres jours,” the story of a nine year-old girl dealing with the increasingly erratic behaviour of her troubled mother, and Sonia Kronlund’s playful documentary portrait of Afghan filmmaker Salim Shaheen, “Nothingwood.”
Locarno’s artistic director, Carlo Chatrian, has been vocal about the need to improve the representation of women directors in international competition. “I think we need diversity to understand the world we are living in,” Chatrian commented last year. “Female directors, female scriptwriters, female producers bring this diversity. It’s not the only issue, but for sure it’s a kind of enrichment that cinema has to go into.”
Check out the list of films nominated for this year’s Audentia Award (courtesy of Eurimages) below.
“Amori che non sanno stare al mondo” by Francesca Comencini (Italy)
“Demain et tous les autres jours” by Noémie Lvovsky (France)
“Laissez bronzer les cadavres” by Hélène Cattet (France)
“Abschied von den eltern” by Astrid Johanna Ofner (Austria)
“Milla” by Valerie Massadian (France)
“Anatomia del miracolo” by Alessandra Celesia (France/Italy)
“Nothingwood” by Sonia Kronlund (France/Germany)
“Nous sommes jeunes et nos jours sont longs” by Léa Forest (France)
“Pietra tenera” by Aurélie Mertenat (Switzerland)
“Sand und Blut” by Angelika Spangel (Austria)
