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International Independent Film Festival
Geneva
International Independent Film Festival
Geneva
19 – 28.01.2024

Competitions and prizes

Four prizes will be awarded at the end of the 25th edition of the festival. The films competing for the Critics’ Prize, the Young Adults' Prize and the Black Movie for Kids Payot Prize are chosen by the members of the Geneva programming team.

The winners will be announced during the closing night on Sunday January 28 at 18:00, in the presence of Greta Gratos, Master of Ceremonies. The awards ceremony will be followed by the screening of El castillo, by Martín Benchimol, Argentina.

Admission to the Ceremony is free, subject to availability (Alhambra, rue de la Rôtisserie 10).

The trophies were designed by the Geneva-based artist Cetusss.

Critics' Prize

The Critics' Prize, worth CHF 5,000.- offered by the City of Geneva's Department of Culture and Digital Transition, is awarded by an international jury composed of three cinema critics.

Members of the jury


Ian Mantgani

Ian Mantgani is a filmmaker and writer born in Sligo, Ireland, and raised in Liverpool, UK. In the 90s, Ian was one of the first online film critics and the first UK member of the Online Film Critics Society. Now based in London, he has written historical and critical essays for several leading publications, including Sight & Sound, BFI Online and Little White Lies. He directed the viral hit Kong in 60 Seconds (2010), a stop-motion remake of King Kong, as well as the Sundance London Award-nominated documentary This Film Was Shot on Digital (2012), about the transition from photochemical to digital film projection. His short horror film Nosepicker (2023) has recently screened at various international festivals, including Beyond Fest in the US and FrightFest in the UK. Ian is also a founding member of The Badlands Collective, a London-based curatorial group who organise special events, where forgotten 35mm films are screened. Guests such as Mike Leigh, Jonathan Glazer, Terence Davies, Elizabeth McGovern and Jan Harlan have been hosts at these events.

Laura Pertuy is a film journalist, programmer and translator. She holds two professional master’s degrees - in cultural journalism from the Sorbonne and in literary translation from Paris VII Denis Diderot - and has worked to promote French-language cinema in the United States, China and Sweden within the diplomatic network (2013-2018), while contributing to numerous periodicals as a journalist (Trois Couleurs, Studio Cinélive, Madame Figaro, Première, Slate, etc.) and English translator (Le Monde, The Huffington Post, CNRS, etc.). She returned to France as editor-in-chief at the Institut Lumière in Lyon, followed by various assignments as festival programmer (Bordeaux International Independent Film Festival, Poitiers Film Festival, Luxembourg City Film Festival, Paris Courts Devant...) and session moderator, notably at Cannes. Laura is currently General Secretary of the Collectif féministe 50/50, a movement that fights for parity, equality and diversity in the audiovisual and film industry.

Irina Trocan

Irina Trocan is a Film Studies Lecturer at the National University of Theatre and Cinema in Bucharest (UNATC) and freelances as a film critic, having contributed to Cineaste, Sight & Sound, photogénie, desistfilm. Irina produces academic and cinephile writing, having edited an anthology of documentary theory, The reality of fiction, the fiction of the real (Hecate Press, 2018, together with Andra Petrescu) as well as Romanian Cinema Inside Out – Insights on Film Culture, Industry and Politics 1912-2019 (Romanian Cultural Institute Press, 2019) and continuing research as a Fulbright and New Europe College fellow. Her doctoral thesis dealt with the affinities between video essays and art cinema. She has participated in festival juries at Oberhausen, IDFA, Transylvania IFF, Bucharest Experimental IFF and BEAST Porto.

Black Movie for Kids Payot Prize

A jury composed of three professionals active in the field of art and animation will pick the prizewinning film. The prize is worth CHF 1,000.- endowed by Payot Libraire.

Members of the jury


Peggy Adam

Comic book author and illustrator
Swiss Comics Artists Association

After studying at the Beaux-Arts school in Saint-Étienne, Peggy Adam went on to study at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, then at the École de l'Image in Angoulême. Her comics are mainly published by Atrabile. Her stories address the recurring themes of the complexity of human relationships and the place of women in society. She has illustrated a number of books for young people and also makes press drawings. Alongside her graphic work, she develops her universe through other media: cut-outs, paintings, paper sculptures and fabric volumes all contribute to her reflection on the themes addressed in her comic strips.

Mathieu Epiney

Director and musician
Website

Mathieu Epiney was born in Geneva in 1982. He studied graphic design at the École Supérieure d'Infographie (ARIES) in Annecy and has been working as an animation filmmaker since 2006. His short film Cyclopèdes (2014) won the High Swiss Risk Fantoche prize in Baden. His latest film L’Oiseau blanc (2023) is currently screened at festivals. At the same time, he produces video clips for Swiss and international bands as well as animated videos for various players in the Swiss cultural scene. As a musician, he has participated in the creation of several albums with various Genevan groups. He is also a member of the selection committee of Festival Animatou.

Albertine Zullo

Artist and illustrator
Website

Albertine Zullo was born in 1967 and lives and works in Geneva. She is a graduate of the École supérieure des Beaux-arts, ESBA (now HEAD). From 1996 to 2014, she was a lecturer in screen printing and illustration at the Haute école d’art et de design de Genève (HEAD). In 2014, she gave up teaching to devote herself entirely to her work. Albertine draws for the press, creates posters and objects, and collaborates with animated cinema and theater. She has published numerous books for both young people and adults, including several in collaboration with author Germano Zullo. Their books have won numerous awards, including the New York Times Best Illustrated children's book Award in 2012, the Bologna Ragazzi Award for Fiction in 2016 and the Hans-Christian Andersen Prize in 2020 for her body of work for young people. She regularly exhibits her work in Switzerland and abroad.

Children's Prize

This prize, awarded by a jury of 7-10-year-olds, goes to one of the Tour du Monde films.

January 24 : 13:30 - 17:30
Inscriptions : atelier@blackmovie.ch