2012 TIDF Award-Winning List
International Feature Length Competition
Grand Prize
With My Heart in Yambo
Maria Fernanda RESTREPO｜Ecuador
A family tragedy. The persistent and determination of the director to fight for justice against government corruptions deserve a standing novation.
Merit Prize
Matthew's Laws
Marc SCHMIDT｜Netherlands
The director brings us to the inner world of the autistics, guiding us to reflect on the question: who is the mad one? Should we be questioning ourselves if the social norms that we the so-called “normal people” establish are really that normal?
The Man Behind the Book
LIN Jing-Jie｜Taiwan
This is a rare example of a film that units film art with literature, and succeeds beautifully.
Special Mention
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Alison KLAYMAN｜China ,US
The film reminds us that in spite of China’s phenomenal economic success, there are injustice and oppression everywhere that we should not ignore.
Drought
Everardo GONZALEZ｜Mexico
Beautifully lensed by the director, DROUGHT evolves from a gently-paced observation of life in a Mexican desert ranch to an inevitable narrative of tragic proportions.
International Mid-Length & Short Competition
Grand Prize
People I Could Have Been and Maybe Am
Boris GERRETS｜Netherlands
A fascinating story might be behind every person in the metropolitan surrounding. The director leads the audience with his cell phone camera into the intimate journey of two anonymous people’s life full of drama and surprises. The cell phone camera kept only necessary visual elements, and its rough image works well with their bumpy life. This film showcases the uniqueness of cell phone video, and demonstrates good storytelling is the only “High Definition” in filmmaking.
Merit Prize
Sumna's Letter
Hadar KLEINMAN-ZADOCK, Timna GOLDSTEIN-HATTAB｜Israel
During the journey to meet the birth mother she never knew, the subtleties of a young girl’s sensitive emotions are captured on the screen. The camera accompanies her every anxiety and expectation, disappointment and joy as revealed through her facial expressions, and evokes a cinematic power upon us. As we follow the passage of her soul, we discover the shimmer of cinema within a frail but brave will to face the difficult destiny that is forced upon her through state and social situations.
Grandma, a Thousand Times
Mahmoud KAABOUR｜Lebanon, Qatar, United Arab Emirates
This joyful documentary portrays a fascinating character and the family around her in an intriguing way. Despite dealing with loss, humor and the joy of living transcend throughout the whole film. The creative use of archives form this film into a beautiful journey where the past events are brought in front of the audience in a very natural way. Playing with the methods of the documentary storytelling tradition also remind the audience about the subtle ways which the film maker can affect the audience.
Asia Vision Award
Grand Prize
The Sound if Old Rooms
Sandeep RAY｜India, South Korea, US
Shot over a span of almost 20 years with a multifaceted stylistic approach, the film captivates our hearts by bringing us along on a life journey taken by an ordinary Indian family in a complex world. There are no dramatic pivotal moments in the storytelling. Life comes and goes as it always does. Yet it is the recurring thoughts and poems behind the story that we can relate to on a spiritual level.
Merit Prize
5 Broken Cameras
Emad BURNAT, Guy DAVIDI｜France, Israel, Netherlands, Palestine
Making use of home use camcorders, the director wrote a dignified statement, recording the ridicules and terrors he, his family, and friends experienced when fighting for their lost homeland in Palestine. 5 BROKEN CAMERAS becomes the witness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, revealing the truth behind the scenes.
Golden Slumbers
Davy CHOU｜Cambodia, France
Through retelling Cambodia’s Golden Age of Cinema that was completely destroyed during the Khmer Rough era, GOLDEN SLUMBERS succeeds in bringing back the shared memory once written off from the record, manifesting the important role played by documentary as a historical record.
Special Mention
Apuda
HE Yuan｜China
In extreme long shots without movement of the camera the audience is invited to open all their senses. Some of the shots are almost like paintings where the ambience and conversation challenge your imagination and sense of time. Because of this strong statement in artistic style, the jury likes to bring up a special mention to APUDA.
Taiwan Award
Grand Prize
Hometown Boy
YAO Hung-I｜Taiwan
The Juries awards the Grand Prize to HOMETOWN BOY directed by YAO Hung-I for its formal strategies in portraying the conflicts that are at the heart of the process of creating meaningful works of art. The struggle between the artist and his material is the struggle of the form becoming the witness in the world today as a creator.
Special Jury Prize
Boundary Revelation
LEE Li-Shao｜Taiwan
The Juries awards the Special Jury Prize to BOUNDARY REVELATION directed by LEE Li-Shao as the film manages successfully to reveal a shocking truth that has been hidden from the public so far without forgetting that the art of documentary is the art of cinema.
Special Mention
The Man Behind the Book
LIN Jing-Jie｜Taiwan
The Juries would like to award the Special Mention to THE MAN BEHIND THE BOOK directed by LIN Jing Jie for its heartfelt and compelling portrait of Wang Wen-Xin, a wonderful writer and linguistic innovator who dare to challenge the traditional form of literature.
Audience Award
Money and Honey
Jasmine LEE Ching-hui｜Taiwan
5 Broken Cameras
Emad BURNAT, Guy DAVIDI｜France, Israel, Netherlands, Palestine
With My Heart in Yambo
Maria Fernanda RESTREPO｜Ecuador
Taivalu
HUANG Hsin-Yao｜Taiwan
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Alison KLAYMAN｜China ,US
In the Fog
Sergei LOZNITSA｜Germany, Netherlands, Belarus, Russia, Latvia