Two ECFA Awards in one country, given within the course of one week. This could only be Germany!
In September the LUCAS Int. Festival for Young Film Lovers in Frankfurt am Main celebrated its 41st edition, as probably the oldest German festival of its kind. This year the ECFA Award went to the Norwegian documentary TONGUE CUTTERS by Solveig Melkeraaen, about kids working as cod tongue cutters in factories on the Northern coasts and islands of Norway. A fascinating report about tradition and modernity in a globalised world.
The Lucas ECFA jury were Evangelia Themeli (Greece), Nicola Jones (Germany) and Mika Anttolainen (Oulu, Finland).
At the Schlingel Festival in Chemnitz, the ECFA Award went to MATTI AND SAMI AND THE THREE BIGGEST MISTAKES IN THE UNIVERSE, a German film by Stefan Westerwelle. “This film tackles problems such as the difficult communication between children and parents, mothers and fathers, the clash of cultures and the awkward situation of not feeling at home in your own life. Protagonist Matti is gifted with a striking emotional intelligence, inviting both boys and girls to share in his intimate thoughts about family and his philosophical questions about the universe. Matti and his parents finally managing to get out of their bubble of a rather down-trodden, lower class environment unharmed, seems to be the very miracle that this film captures.”
The Schlingel ECFA jury were Cecile Sandten (Germany), Jitendra Mishra (India) and Pantelis Panteloglou (Greece).