2024 Competition Winners

The 19th edition of the Festival has just ended. Over 15 days, we showcased 73 films from 22 European countries. We thank the filmmakers who came in great numbers to present their films in Paris, our dedicated and professional juries, our warm and enthusiastic audiences, our partners, the cinemas, and everyone who made this adventure possible.
The Festival is honoured to announce the prize winners of its 2024 edition

Prix SAUVAGE – selection of 9 recent European fiction films unreleased in France

The Jury, composed of Albert Serra – President (Spain), Sophie Semin (France), Henri Béhar (France), Monica Fantini (France), and Kristian Feigelson (France), awarded the SAUVAGE Prize and its dancing wolf statuette to Mia Engberg (Sweden) for the film Hypermoon (Sweden).

The jury chose to award the 19th Sauvage Prize to director Mia Engberg from Sweden for her film “Hypermoon” (2023). We felt that her film not only reflected one of the festival’s main themes, “Europe around Europe” set primarily between Stockholm and Paris, but also tackled a difficult and challenging subject based on a personal experience lived by the director. The film, with its multi-layered structure, its soundtrack, and its archival or rediscovered images, transcends the boundaries between fiction, documentary, and experimental cinema. Based on an intimate experience brought into the public space and forming part of a trilogy that deserves to be shown in France, this film struck us as a true cinematic perspective. “Gratulerar!”(Congratulations!)

Prix LUNA – selection of 9 recent European fiction films unreleased in France

The student and young professionals jury awarded the LUNA Prize to Ena Sendijarević (Netherlands) for the film Sweet Dreams (Netherlands / Sweden / France  – La Reunion) / Indonesia).
This film captivated us with the complexity of its narrative and its formal mastery, its baroque aspect, and its enchanting score. All these elements transported us into a strange, unsettling, and offbeat world on the border between history and dreams.

Prix PRESENT – selection of 9 recent European documentary films

The jury, composed of Eva Charlotte Nielsen – President (Norway), Ania Szczepanska (France / Poland), and Béatrice Kordon (France), awarded the PRESENT Prize and its dancing wolf statuette to Otilia Babara (Moldova / Belgium) for the film Love Is Not an Orange (Belgium).
From the video correspondence exchanged between exiled mothers and their loved ones back home, Otilia Babara takes us into the intimacy of families, into the silence of the unspoken, and reveals the traumas of post-communist Moldovan society. She paints a portrait of families torn apart and sacrificed by history, as well as that of a country in its painful transition towards capitalism. This film is a beautiful philosophical puzzle about being together and separation, but also about the role of cinema in crafting a family and national narrative.
The Special Mention is awarded to Zara Zerny (Denmark) for the film Echo of You (Denmark).
In an era where old age is gradually becoming invisible in the social sphere, with our modern societies considering that the lives of elderly people are now behind them, this film brings a cheerful contradiction. The delicate craftsmanship of this film, its intertwining confessions of unsettling intimacy, its staging of time and memory, and its corporal choreography, are an invitation to overcome stereotypes, prejudices, as well as one’s own fears.

Prix SAUVAGE CORTO – selection of 25 short films of recent European production
The jury, composed of Knutte Wester – President (Sweden), Vassili Schemann (France), and Thiphaine Robion (France), awarded the SAUVAGE CORTO Prize and its dancing wolf statuette to Risto-Pekka Blom (Finland) for the film Oh No, Lasse Falls! / Lasse kaatuu, voi ei! (Finland).
In this film, we enter a truly unique cinematic universe. A balance between humor and tension, political issues, and narrative history. The actors’s performances, lighting, scenography, and choreography all work together in this film to truly embrace short film formats. The film engages in dialogue with real events and a real history while offering us a mirror. Through the invented historical fiction, we encounter our own contemporary world.
The Special Mention is awarded to Fabian Krebs (Czech Republic) for the film A Symphony (Czech Republic).
We decided to award a special mention to a film that seeks to expand the language of cinema. Through rhythm and dialogue, the legacy of avant-garde film presents itself to us in a film that can speak to everyone. The film shows us the condition of workers in a new way. It is a true attempt at cinema in just a few minutes.
A second Special Mention is awarded to Marleen van der Werf (Netherlands) for the film Grief / Rouw (Netherlands).
This film took us to a special place, both on land and within ourselves. Seeing it in the cinema was an experience we had never had before. In the film, sensitive photography gives us the opportunity not only to be there with the filmmaker but also to encounter our own history. The jury wishes to award a special mention to Grief by Marleen van der Werf. Congratulations to Grief by Marleen van der Werf.