The Grand Off World Independent Film Awards is something of a youngster on the festival circuit, with this year’s event being its third edition, and the first where it casts it’s net outside of Europe and encompasses the entire world. Dedicated to showcasing independent short films, the event is slightly different from your average film festival in that it takes place over three days, during which filmmakers and guests can watch the shortlisted movies (out of more than 700 submitted hopefuls) that will go on to the award ceremony on the final day of the event. It proved to be a real boon for the filmmakers, as those who could make it found themselves mingling with colleagues from across the world talking about films and projects. And, occasionally, how nice the vodka is. What’s more, those in attendance got to see an eclectic selection of work, much of which was of a high standard.
The Ground Beneath
A highlight of those film nominated for best fiction was (eventual winner) The Ground Beneath, a strong Australian film about a boy growing up and the friends and enemies he encounters along the way. The subject of growing up is fast becoming a clichéd one in the world of short film, but is handled with confidence, power and a lack of overt sentimentality by director Rene Hernandez. Other nominees included Rúnar Rúnarsson’s brilliant short 2 Birds, a huge hit about a boy moving into adulthood after a party goes bad and a paean to hope and humanity, combined with a very bleak edge, and Discharged, an intense family drama about an Israeli soldier who visits his brother after leaving his mandatory national service.
A deserved winner in the Directing category was The Door (main picture), a stunningly beautiful and enormously moving film from Irish director Juanita Wilson. Inspired by the plight of those caught up in the Chernobyl disaster, it’s a measured tale of loss and has an absolutely heart-wrenching final scene. Ireland was also successful in the Best Script category, as Connor Clements picked up an award for James, yet another strong evocation of growing up and a powerful indictment on the archaic rules which prevent young children being given honest advice about sexuality.
Where The Sun Doesn’t Rush
On to the documentaries, a number that were extremely good, One Day Full Of Pain was a simple tale of a man in a Kurdish village who sets broken bones with the most basic of tools. With the juxtaposition of our protagonist causing immense pain, but only doing so in order to ultimately help his patients, the film was not only an interesting account of a unique individual but a reflection on how – in order to help us – some people must cause us great discomfort. Also excellent was Where The Sun Doesn’t Rush, a languid Polish documentary about a small village and Nyarma, the eventual winner of the category, that contained some epic cinematography in it’s depiction of reindeer farming in the Ural mountain region.
Asämara
Polish film Janek, about a dysfunctional relationship between a mother and her son, walked off with both the awards in the acting categories whilst the Animation gong was nabbed by the brilliant Argentinean film The Employment. Unfortunately, it’s one of those films that is ruined as soon as you talk about the plot, so let’s just say that it was full of clever ideas and never ran out of steam. The cinematography nod went to the Spanish film Asämara, a tender documentary following the plight of children in Africa, whilst Film Editing went to the amazing Summer Sunday. This drama tells the story of a bridge guard who brings his deaf son to work: but when his son wanders onto the bridge he faces a terrible decision. Wonderfully paced and acted, it’s an extraordinarily affecting and emotional film.
Marcel Łoziński
This year also saw the Grand Off institute its first Lifetime Contribution Award, the recipient being the legendary Polish documentary filmmaker Marcel Łoziński. His early films are an amazing dissection of a society that has become lazy and complacent under Soviet rule. These films include the astounding The King – in which a shopkeeper talks of his willingness to serve any regime – and Practice Exercises – in which Łoziński subtly provokes interviewees into revealing their thoughts on Poland in the mid 80s. These, and many others, reveal a passionate refusal for state control and an innate desire to have people reflect upon their own situation. Later works such as Poste Restante still contain that same passion but also tender ruminations on growing old and belief. A worthy winner of the first Grand Off Lifetime Contribution Award: it will be interesting to see who gets the nod next year.
As an event, the Grand Off World Independent Film Awards is still shaping its identity and finding its position in the film industry. As a meeting point for filmmakers, it is already doing an admirable job with plenty of attendees feeling enthused by the warm atmosphere and generosity of those involved. It is also providing audiences with an opportunity to see a range of films, on tour in numerous cities across Poland. It will be interesting to see how it builds upon its successes over the next few years, which it should do by increasing its international profile and providing for an even greater number of filmmakers. Of course, I’ll just be happy if the films are good and there’s a bit of vodka knocking about…
For more information about the festival go to www.grandoff.eu.
Grand Off World Independent Film Awards 2009 – Round Up (text) by Laurence Boyce is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
