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After all was said and done, in the Semaine de la Critique, Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu walked away with the section's top prize, the Grand Priz, as best film.
The French Touch Prize of the Jury went to It's raining in the house by Paloma Sermon-Daï, while the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award went to Jovan Ginić for his part in Lost Country by Vladimir Perišić. The Leitz Cine Discovery Prize for short film was awarded to Boléro by Nans Laborde-Jourdàa.
This year's jury was headed by Golden Lion Venice winner Audrey Diwan and in a statement while awarding the top prize to Eu, jury member and Sundance Director of Programming Kim Yutani stated: "This is a film that expresses the internal becoming external --- and vice versa -- and how the transformation from girl to woman leads to fear and alienation, both within the individual and society. This film bursts through the traditional coming of age story with exuberant creativity, playful home and pure animal energy." Diwan herself added, that the film was 'irreverent and unconventional."
Tiger Stripes tells the story of a girl on the verge of becoming a woman, and how societal beliefs and superstitions create within her a beast, which in Eu's film takes on a very literal form. But away from its story, the film is about womanhood and how our power as women frightens societies which are built by men, for men, to please men. It's truly a masterpiece and one that needs to be savored again and again.
The first Jordanian feature to be screened in Canneswon one of the partners' awards the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution given to Pyramide Films, the French distributor for Inshallah a Boy by Amjad Al Rasheed. This will guarantee that French audiences will get to watch this understated gem.
Rounding out the prizes are both Iris Kaltenbäck's The Rapture which got the SACD Award, handed out by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques and Boléro by Nans Laborde-Jourdàa which received the Canal+ Award for short film, also ensuring that TV audiences will be able to watch the film in France.
The Rapture features a captivating performance by French-Tunisian-Algerian actress Hafsia Herzi, the winner of a César awards for Most Promising Actress in 2007 for her role in The Secret of the Grain by Abdellatif Kechiche.
