NEWS

< back to news

Winner of the Awards Docúpolis 07

“Welcome Europe”, winner of Docúpolis 07
 
Amongst the huge variety of thematic of this years’ competitors, finally a story about immigration succeed the Docúpolis Award and convinced the jury, composed by Marc Roig, Maria Camí and Daniela Aronica. The documentary Welcome Europe by Bruno Ulmer from Belgium is the winner of this seventh edition and takes 6.000 euros as well as the recognition to be selected as best documental work amongst more than 600 competitors from all over the world.

Beyond the media coverage, which repeatedly connects the immigrants with poverty and insecurity, Bruno Ulmer made a portray of the odyssey of eight men searching the European dream to maintain their families. Three journeys crisscrossing from East to West, from South to North, always walking the tightrope, trying to answer the ultimate question: What does it mean to be a man?

The Jury of the Docúpolis Award was faced to a difficult selection by means of the high quality of works, the diversity of topics and narrative forms. Due to this they decided to gain a special mention to the south African documentary The Mother’s House.
The documentary, which filled the auditorium and the hall of the CCCB at the inauguration evening, narrates the story of Miché, an adolescent living in the Townships of Cape Town, where the post-apartheid still is notable. The Mother’s House deserves this special distinction by reason of the immediacy of its arguments, its protagonists as well as the social compromise of the work.

The Best First Documentary Award 2007 is allocated ex aequo, due to the difficulty of choose the very best work from over 300 competitors within this category. The winners are Encounter Point by Julia Bacha and Ronit Avni (USA) and A verdade do gato (The truth of the cat) by Jeremy Hammers. Both documentaries deal with latent social conflicts, one between Israel and Palestine, and the other tells about the labour exploitation on the fields of cane sugar in Brazil.

The aesthetic ShantyGARDENtown is the winner of the Best Short Documentary Gran Angular Award. The work of Cagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti (France) explains the search of the Turkish landscape designer Belemir Dalokay, who is, in reason of the problems of industrialisation in Ankara, exploring the placidness of the “Schrebergarten” in Berlin.

The new award within the official category of the international concurs, the OFF Docúpolis Award is gained to Roaming Around, a story about homeless children in Guinea, made by Brigitte Maria Bertele (Germany).

Honorific Awards

Within the huge official selection, the honorific prices coincide due to their reference to the South, about various topics and with different narrative techniques. The Human Right Award is given to A walk to beautiful by Mary Olive Smith (USA) about five women from Ethiopia, who were repudiated because of a childbirth accident. Descaminos by Marilia Roche, Luis Felipe Hernández, Alexandre Baxter, Joao Flores, Maria de Fátima Augusto, Leandro BHL, Armando Mendz and Cristiano Abud (Brazil) was selected as best Latin-American documentary. And finally the Award for Best Experimental Documentary (Tercer Ojo) was gained to the short A ilha da boa vida (The island of good life) by Merces Tomaz Gomes (Portugal) about the streets of Bombay.

As every year, the Audience Award of course chosen by the public, honours the most popular documentary of 2007: Djiarama.

Oficial Competition Awards:

  • Docúpolis Award Best Documentary: Welcome Europe – Bruno Ulmer (France)
  • Special Mention by the Jury of Best Documentary: The Mother’s House – François Verster (South-Africa)
  • Best First Documentary Award ex aequo: Encounter Point – Julia Bacha and Ronit Avni (USA) // A verdade do gato (The truth of the cat) – Jeremy Hammers (Belgium)
  • Best Short Documentary Award Gran Angular: ShantyGARDENtown – Cagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti (France)
  • OFF DOCÚPOLIS Award: Roaming Around – Brigitte Maria Bertele (Germany)

Honorific Prices :

  • Best Documentary concerning Human Rights: A walk to beautiful – Mary Olive Smith (USA)
  • Best Latin-American Documentary: Descaminhos (Dead End) – Marilia Rocha, Luis Felipe Fernández, Alexandre Baxter, Joao Flores, Maria de Fátima Augusto, Leandro HBL, Armando Mendz and Cristiano Abud (Brazil).
  • Best Experimental Documentary Award Tercer Ojo: A Ilha da boa vida – Merces Tomaz Gomez (Portugal)
  • Audience Award: Djiarama – Chus Barrera and Alícia Fernández Carmena