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Visual designers, science and student films awarded at Alexandre Trauner Art / Film Festival

17.10.2021.

The awards of the Alexandre Trauner Art / Film Festival were presented on Saturday evening, October 16, at the Szolnok Gallery. At the closing gala, the awards of the festival were presented in the presence of the creators. The award for best visual design was won by the Italian post-apocalyptic film The Land of Sons, which was won by the film’s production designer Daniele Frabetti. Second place went to the film Last Night in Soho by visual designer Marcus Rowland. The third prize was taken home by Dimitri Capuani, production designer for the film Pinocchio, who also worked with Martin Scorsese. Judit Csuti Varga received a special award for the production design of Kornél Mundruczó's film Evolution. Two main prizes were awarded in the scientific competition program: the Slovak film on light pollution, The Light of the Night and the film Italian Moon - Rocco Petrone and The Way of Apollo about the Italian-born importan NASA scientist of the Apollo program. The award for best student film went to the Doc Nomad program film, Tales of Men, an international documentary film team that explores the subject of masculinity.

Land of Sons
Land of Sons

The jury members of the European Feature Film Competition were Jean Rabasse, a French production designer, Peter Webber, an English film director, and Dávid Géczy film director.

The winner of the European feature film competition program is the Italian Land of Sons production designer Daniele Frabetti. The jury argues that the film is a conceptually brilliant sight of a nightmare-like, post-apocalyptic story that is even more frightening because of the detail and precision of the imagined world of the future. With minimal means, it takes us on a frightning journey into a future that is close to us because it is built from the wreckage of our own existence today - a real triumph. The cinematographer of the film was the hungarian Gergely Pohárnok.

Second place went to Edgar Wright’s: Last Night in Soho, created with impressive power, vigor, energy and technical feats, guides us to Soho in the sixties in London, which is the evidence that Marcus Rowland’s production design talent can take on vast resources and use them professionally.

Last Night in Soho
Last Night in Soho

The third prize went to the Italian Pinocchio, an often charming, sometimes dark and always picturesque adaptation of the classic children’s tale that holds many magical moments - such as the world of puppet theater - and a beautifully designed dream film that captures the twisted ingenuity of classic tales. Production designer was Dimitri Capuani, who worked alongside Martin Scorsese as art director in New York’s Bands and Hugo Cabret. The special prize was taken home by Judit Varga (Csuti), the production designer of the film Evolution. According to the jury, Kornél Mundruczó's latest film is a fine, powerful work that moves easily between shocking and surreal from the opening scene to the subduedly realistic home environment, which is broken by brilliant scenes interspersed with big moments.

The members of the jury of the festival's Spectacular Science and Student Film Competition were: László Ropolyi, philosopher of science, László Róbert Zsiros, disseminator of scientific knowledge and Orsolya Láng animation film director.

The slovakian Matej Pok’s movie The Light of the Night got the shared first place, which not only technically but also aesthetically directs our attention to one of today's less pronounced environmental harms, light pollution. The prize was shared with Marco Spagnoli's film, Italian Moon - Rocco Petrone and the Path of Apollo, which explores the story of NASA’s Italian-born launch operations director of the Apollo program.

Italian Moon - Rocco Petrone and the Path of Apollo
Italian Moon - Rocco Petrone and the Path of Apollo

The second place in the category is Bruno Tracq’s film Accompanying My Voice, which shows the preparations, practices, and some of the consequences of pain relief through hypnosis, in a hospital setting, with live, real-world actors.

Third place is Ágoston Kollányi's film: My Adventures in the World of the Tiny, which reveals the breathtaking macro shots of biologist Álmos Becz, who has been researching, photographing and filming the world of the tiny for years.

Antoine Morineu's film: Earth3, which shows how paradigm shifts in the scientific world work, while projecting the failures of a clearly pseudo-scientific view, is presented with lot of gags.

The winner of the Student Film category, Tales about Men, provides an insight into the universe of men: how they view their own identity, what their stereotypes and fears are. The film was made by an international documentary film team, Doc Nomad, by Botond Püspök, Charlotte Müller, Mónica Bustamante and Anantharkrishnan Pillai.

Tales about Men
Tales about Men

The shared second place has gone to the animated short film by Gergő Arany called Proximity and the French short film by Hugo Le Gourrierec: Pipo and Blind Love.

The third prize was won by Péter Goretic's short film: A Tale from the suburb.

Isidora Ratković received a certificate of appreciation for Why don't you dance? and Éva Darabos: Oh, my little panel! animated short film. The latter also received the Student Jury Award at the festival.

This year, the Alexandre Trauner Art / Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award was given to István Orosz, a Kossuth Prize-winning graphic artist and animation film director who has been awarded as the Artist of the Nation.

At this year’s festival, there have been screenings for 105 films in five days in the competition program. Of these, 10 films were screened in the European Feature Film Competition, 40 in the Spectacular Science category and 55 student films. In addition to screenings and awards, the festival also produced several professional programs, with book presentations and exhibitions this year, where the focus was on the work of production designers, science and student films from October 12th to October 17th.

Among other things, Tamás Kollarik's book Hungarian Producers I. was presented, which is about the Hungarian producers of Hungary and abroad, as well as the publication entitled The History of the Szolnok Film Festivals, edited by the festival director Éva Demeter. The namesake, Alexandre Trauner, was remembered through screenings and conversations.

The awards were offered by the National Film Institute. The main sponsors of the event are: National Film Institute, Hungarian Academy of Arts, Szolnok City Municipality and the Ministry of Human Resources.

October 17, 2021
Alexandre Trauner Art/Film Fesztivál
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