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January 17, 2023 -
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34th PSIFF
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Saint-Omer Receives FIPRESCI Prize;
Ali Junejo & Oksana Cherkashyna Receive FIPRESCI Acting Prizes;
Alcarràs Receives FIPRESCI Screenplay Prize;
The Damned Don’t Cry Receives New Voices New Visions Award;
To Kill a Tiger Receives Documentary Award;
Riceboy Sleeps Receives Young Cineastes Award;
Chile '76 Receives Ibero-American Award;
Liquor Store Dreams Receives Local Jury Award;
Dirty Difficult Dangerous Receives MOZAIK Bridging The Borders Award
Palm Springs, CA – The 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) announced this year’s juried award winners on January 15. The festival lasted from January 5-16, 2023, and screened 134 films from 64 countries, including 27 premieres. The line-up includes 35 International Feature Film Oscar® Submissions, Talking Pictures, New Voices New Visions, Modern Masters, Queer Cinema, Cine Latino, True Stories, World Cinema Now, and more.
The jury award categories included the FIPRESCI Prize for films in the International Feature Film Oscar®Submissions program; Best Documentary Award for compelling non-fiction filmmaking; New Voices New Visions Award for unique viewpoints from first- and second-time directors; Ibero-American Award for the best film from Latin America, Spain or Portugal; Local Jury Award for the film which promoted understanding and acceptance between people; Young Cineastes Award for a film chosen by our Youth Jury; and the Mozaik Bridging the Borders Award for a film that is successful in bringing the people of our world closer together. The Audience Awards for Best Narrative Feature and Best Documentary Feature will be announced on the evening of Sunday, January 15.
FIPRESCI PRIZE
A special jury of international film critics reviewed 35 of the 93 official submissions for the Academy Awards®International Feature Film category that were selected to screen at this year’s Festival. The films in the competition were as follows:
Iñárritu
Mitevska (U.S. Premiere)
Jury Statements:
Best International Film:
We award the Best Picture Prize to Saint Omer for using the ostensibly narrow framework of a heightened legal docudrama to expertly interrogate issues of society, culture, race, and gender. As screenwriter and director, Alice Diop delivers a film that explores different dynamics of Black women in contemporary France, drawing empathetic lead performances from Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanga (whose characters never interact, save for one momentous glance). By harnessing the skills of her technical team, Diop turns Saint Omer into a shrewd, cogent, ambitious, and overwhelming film that teases a metafictional awareness while remaining clear-eyed and unsentimental.
Best International Screenplay:
In its rich harvest of the detail of agricultural life, Alcarràs conveys remarkable authenticity and empathy. Screenwriters Carla Simón and Arnau Vilaró conjure a family portrait of the complex dynamic within a fracturing clan, including the bittersweet sense of generational change (all the more amazing given that the main cast consists of non-professional actors), while also making a political argument that connects the dots of the many intricacies of an economic system that seems rigged against the best efforts of these hard-working people.
Best Actress in an International Film:
With a strong sense of pacing and spatial movement, in the frequently occurring long takes with ever-so-slow and meticulously subtle camerawork, we award the Best Actress Prize to Oksana Cherkashyna in Klondike for her performance as Irka, a pregnant woman. When the increasing pressures of the surrounding chaos in Eastern Ukraine in 2014 reach her doorstep, Cherkashyna’s portrayal weaves both the physical and psychological, encompassing everything from palpable inner fears (in the shape of domesticity) to literally giving birth next to a machine gun.
Best Actor in an International Film:
We award the Best Actor Prize to Ali Junejo in Joyland for his intimate, thoughtful, and nuanced performance as Haider, a man grappling with his diverging sense of self and familial responsibility. Junejo emerges as the film’s most flexible and dependable performance owing to his generosity and earnestness with each cast member, both in behavioral and linguistic choices. His ability to convey the ambivalent paradoxes of Haider while delivering a performance of such searing clarity and empathy recalibrates the vivid textures of Joyland away from the social realism of its larger goals, turning it into an evocative character study in a performance of quiet complexity.
FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film: Saint Omer (France), Director Alice Diop
FIPRESCI Prize for International Screenplay: Alcarràs (Spain), Screenwriters Carla Simón & Arnau Vilaró
FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actress in an International Feature Film: Oksana Cherkashyna from Klondike(Ukraine)
FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor in an International Feature Film: Ali Junejo from Joyland (Pakistan)
The FIPRESCI jury members were Andrew Kendall (Film Columnist, Stabroek News), Anders E Larsson(Writer, Editor, and Festival Director of Lund Fantastic Film Festival) and Robert Horton (Film Critic, Herald and Seattle Weekly).
BEST DOCUMENTARY AWARD
The Documentary Award is presented to the director for the most compelling non-fiction filmmaking from among those selected to screen at the festival. The films in competition were as follows:
Jury Statement:
Because of its powerful story, rich cinematic approach, and its commitment to the community, the jury has decided to award To Kill a Tiger. The filmmaker's sensitivity to the subjects' experience and their poignant capture of shifting tones is a superb use of the genre, resulting in a remarkable story profiling an enduring father-daughter bond exemplifying a social evolution.
Best Documentary Award: To Kill a Tiger (Canada), Director Nisha Pahuja
Best Documentary Award Special Mention: Butterfly in the Sky (USA), Director Bradford Thomason, Brett Whitcomb
The films were juried by Diana Cadavid (Director of the LALIFF and the FICCALI), Amir George (Filmmaker, Black Radical Imagination) and Robin Robinson (Film Festival Programmer).
NEW VOICES NEW VISIONS AWARD
The New Voices New Visions Award focuses on films that the festival programming team felt represent the most distinctive new directors who have emerged in the last year. Each of the following 9 films in competition represents the filmmaker’s debut or second feature:
Aitch Alberto (U.S. Premiere)
Maksim Nakonechnyi (U.S. Premiere)
(North American Premiere)
Premiere)
Jury Statement:
This film begins with protagonists that are not necessarily sympathetic on a surface level but who we come to at least understand and respect by the end, and not because they’ve changed, but because our perception of them has changed. Instead, we as an audience have been forced to grow and expand our own vision. For these reasons, the jury awards the New Voices New Visions Award to The Damned Don’t Cry by Fyzal Boulifa.
New Voices New Visions Award: The Damned Don’t Cry (France/Belgium/Morocco), Director Fyzal Boulifa
New Voices New Visions Special Mention: Our Father, the Devil (USA), Director Ellie Foumbi
The films were juried by Lauren Wissot (Film Critic, Filmmaker Magazine and IDA), Violet Lucca (Film Critic, Harper's Magazine), and Monica Trasandes (Director of Programming, GLAAD).
IBERO-AMERICAN AWARD
The Ibero-American Award is presented to the best film from Latin America, Spain or Portugal selected to screen at the festival. The award aims to highlight the creativity seen in modern Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American films. The films in the competition were as follows:
Jury Statement:
For capturing the revolution against Pinochet not at the front lines but instead inside the unlikely gilded cage of a privileged woman’s awakening, for showing how the personal is political, with clever cinematic imagery, we award Chile ‘76.
Ibero-American Award: Chile '76 (Chile/USA), Director Manuela Martelli
Ibero-American Special Mention: Blanquita (Chile), Director Fernando Guzzoni
The films were judged by Manuel Betancourt (Author, The Cardboard Kingdom), Rebecca Sun (Senior Editor of Diversity and Inclusion, The Hollywood Reporter), and Trey Shields (Senior Programmer at the Philadelphia Film Festival/Society),
LOCAL JURY AWARD
The Local Jury Award is presented to the film, which promotes understanding and acceptance between people. The films in competition were as follows:
Jury Statement:
The local jury award is presented to a film that encompasses a spirit of community and neighborliness. We believe this was best exemplified by the transparent depiction of the complexities and beauty of living and thriving within a historically multicultural community confronting daily social injustices, as shown in Liquor Store Dreams by So Yun Um.
Local Jury Award: Liquor Store Dreams (USA), Director So Yun Um
Local Jury Special Mention: Mama Bears (USA), Director Daresha Kyi
The films were judged by Michelle Webb (Registered Nurse), Tim Vincent (California Prevention Training Center - Senior Consultant), Randy Florence (PD Area Chamber of Commerce, President & CEO), Barbara Sisto (Retired Educator), and Emily Alvarez-Zurita (CSUSB Student).
YOUNG CINEASTES AWARD
The Young Cineastes jury is composed of local students with talent and aspirations for making films and a sincere passion for watching and learning more about cinema and life at every moment possible. The films in the competition were as follows:
Young Cineastes Award: Riceboy Sleeps (Canada), Director Anthony Shim
The films were judged by Indi Chacon, Danica Palmersheim, Eli Salazar, and Kaitlyn Thompson.
THE MOZAIK BRIDGING THE BORDERS AWARD
At a time when physical, religious, racial, cultural, and economic borders divide the population of our planet, efforts to bridge those borders should be appreciated. In that spirit, Cinema Without Borders presents the MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award to a most successful film bridging and connecting the people of our world closer. The winner of the 2023 MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award, presented by Cinema Without Borders and sponsored by MOZAIK Philanthropy, will receive a cash award of $2500. The films in the competition were as follows:
MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award: Dirty Difficult Dangerous (France/Italy/Lebanon/Saudi Arabia/Qatar), Director Wissam Charaf
MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Special Mentions: The Happiest Man in the World (North Macedonia), Director Teona Strugar Mitevska
The films were juried by Bijan Tehrani (Writer, Director, Founder & Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders), Keely Badger (Executive Director of MOZAIK), Vladek Juszkiewicz (Film Producer, Founder, and Director Emeritus of the Polish Film Festival Los Angeles), Marcy Garriott (Independent Documentary Filmmaker), Granaz Moussavi (Iranian/Australian Poet, Writer & Filmmaker), Bambadjan Bamba (Actor, Filmmaker, Immigrant Rights Advocate).
The complete list of award winners are:
FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film of the Year
Saint-Omer (France), Director Alice Diop
FIPRESCI Prize for the Best Actor in an International Feature Film
Ali Junejo from Joyland (Pakistan)
FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actress in an International Feature Film
Oksana Cherkashyna from Klondike (Ukraine)
FIPRESCI Prize for International Screenplay:
Alcarràs (Spain), Screenwriters Carla Simón & Arnau Vilaró
Best Documentary Award
To Kill a Tiger (Canada), Director Nisha Pahuja
New Voices New Visions Award
The Damned Don’t Cry (France/Belgium/Morocco), Director Fyzal Boulifa
Ibero-American Award
Chile '76 (Chile/USA), Director Manuela Martelli
Young Cineastes Award
Riceboy Sleeps (Canada), Director Anthony Shim
Local Jury Award
Liquor Store Dreams (USA), Director So Yun Um
MOZAIK Bridging the Borders Award
Dirty Difficult Dangerous (France/Italy/Lebanon/Saudi Arabia/Qatar), Director Wissam Charaf
At this time, Palm Springs ShortFest is scheduled to return June 20-26, 2023.
About the Palm Springs International Film Society
The Palm Springs International Film Society is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit organization whose mission is to cultivate and promote the art and science of film through education and cross-cultural awareness. The Film Society produces the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) and Film Awards every January and Palm Springs ShortFest in June. In addition to curating the best in international cinema, PSIFF’s Film Awards has come to be known as the first stop on the campaign trail for the Academy Awards®, and our Oscar®-qualifying ShortFest is the largest short film festival and market in North America. Our festivals, year-round member screenings, and educational programs manifest our organization’s mission by nurturing and encouraging new filmmaking talent, honoring the great masters of world cinema, and expanding audience horizons. For Film Festival information, visit www.psfilmfest.org.
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