IDFA ’21: “La Casa” and “The New Greatness” pick up Forum awards

25 noviembre, 2021

By Realscreen
November 24, 2021

The Forum awards for this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) were bestowed on Wednesday (Nov. 24).

Filmmakers Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff’s project La Casa led the way, taking the award for Best Pitch, while Anna Shishova-Bogolubova’s The New Greatness was awarded Best Rough Cut.

La Casa bills itself as revealing an “unexpected multidimensional universe” inside a house in Chile, while a social revolt and global pandemic are ongoing. Maite Alberdi, Dirk Manthey and Alexandra Galvis are executive producers on the film, which is coproduced by the co-directors’ own company Perut + Osnovikoff Ltd. and Germany’s Dick Manthey Film, and financed by CORFO, Fondo Fomento Audiovisual and Market Chile.

“The award goes to a project that presents a unique perspective of an isolated space in a multifaceted form with nuanced sensory perception, though diverse visual and sound elements. The seclusion becomes a background for exploration of the many layers of relationships—with one another, the nature, the neighborhood, and the current social and political context of the contemporary world,” the jury said in a statement about La Casa.

The logline for The New Greatness, meanwhile, states it’s a documentary about young, free-thinking, honest people in present-day Russia, who are seen as a threat to the country’s regime. The film is a coproduction between Russia’s Ethnofund, Finland’s IV Films, Norway’s Piraya Film AS and Croatia’s Nukleus Film.

“The award goes to a project that represents the personal struggle of individuals against repressive power. Through closely observing the characters, the film becomes not just a testimony of events, but turns into an important tool to speak up and disclose the injustice and violation of human rights,” the jury said about The New Greatness.

The DocLab Forum Award went to Continuum VR by Daniela Maldonado, Tomas Espinosa and Paula Gempeler. Continuum VR is a coproduction between Colombia’s Aroa Studio and France’s CANVAR. The project is an invitation to immerse viewers in the lives and territories of six transgender women sex workers.

Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500.