Tabi to Hibi, the latest feature from Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake, has won the Pardo d’Oro, the Locarno Film Festival’s main competition award.
Miyake is the fourth Japanese winner of the top prize in the festival’s history after Masahiro Kobayashi’s The Rebirth (Ai no yokan) in 2007, Akio Jissoji’s This Transient Life (Mujō), which was one of four films to share the prize in 1970, and Teinosuke Kinugasa’s classic Gate of Hell (Jigokumon) in 1954.
The festival’s awards were announced this afternoon. Tabi to Hibi is based on the manga Mr. Ben and His Igloo, A View of the Seaside by Yoshiharu Tsuge. The film was produced by Masayoshi Johnai. The official synopsis reads: In summer, Nagisa and Natsuo meet by the sea. Their vacant gazes reflect each other as they exchange awkward words and wade into the rain-drenched ocean. In winter, Li, a screenwriter, travels to a snow-covered village. There, she finds a guesthouse run by Benzo. Their conversations rarely connect, yet they set off on an unexpected adventure.
In Locarno’s parallel competition, Concorso Cineasti del Presente, Hair, Paper, Water…, a documentary co-directed by Truong Minh Quy and Nicolas Graux, won the top prize. Shot over three years on a vintage Bolex camera, the film is a rich portrait of an elderly, unnamed woman who, born in a cave more than 60 years ago, now lives in a village caring for her children and grandchildren. The film captures her daily life and the transmission of her fragile native language, Rục, to the younger generations, as she dreams of her deceased mother calling her home to her mountain cave.
Hair, Paper, Water… was produced by Thomas Hakim and Julien Graff of Petit Chaos, the company behind Payal Kapadia’s groundbreaking feature debut All We Imagine As Light, alongside Julie Freres. Italian-based sales company Lights On is handling the project.
Elsewhere, White Snail by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, which competed in the main Competition, won the Special Jury Prize, and Abbas Fahdel won Best Director for Tales Of The Wounded Landed.
Scroll down for the full list of this year’s winners in Locarno.
Discussing the crop of winning titles, Locarno head Giona A. Nazzaro described this year’s festival as an event that celebrated “the enduring and gentle power of cinema and its manifold ways of bringing communities together to share the wonderful gifts of peace.”
“We are grateful to all the directors who trusted the festival with their works. It allowed us to create a forward-looking edition, with its gaze firmly set in the future,” said in a statement. “We are certain these works will stand the test of time and become beacons of hope for young talents that are just starting to dream the films they want to make tomorrow. A festival is like building a better tomorrow. One film at the time”.
Full winners list:
Concorso Internazionale
Pardo d’Oro – Grand Prize of the Festival and City of Locarno
to TABI TO HIBI (TWO SEASONS, TWO STRANGERS) by Sho Miyake, Japan
Special Jury Prize – Cities of Ascona and Losone
to WHITE SNAIL by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria/Germany
Pardo for Best Direction – City and Region of Locarno
to Abbas Fahdel for TALES OF THE WOUNDED LAND, Lebanon
Pardo for Best Performance
to Manuela Martelli and Ana Marija Veselčić for BOG NEĆE POMOĆI (GOD WILL NOT HELP) by Hana Jušić, Croatia/Italy/Romania/Greece/France/Slovenia
Pardo for Best Performance
to Marya Imbro and Mikhail Senkov for WHITE SNAIL by Elsa Kremser and Levin Peter, Austria/Germany
Special MentionDRY LEAF by Alexandre Koberidze, Germany/Georgia
Concorso Cineasti del Presente
Pardo d’Oro – Concorso Cineasti del Presente
to TÓC, GIẤY VÀ NƯỚC… (HAIR, PAPER, WATER…) by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, Belgium/France/Vietnam
Best Emerging Director Award – City and Region of Locarno
to Cecilia Kang for HIJO MAYOR, Argentina/France
Special Jury Prize CINÉ+
to GIOIA MIA (SWEETHEART) by Margherita Spampinato, Italy
Pardo for Best Performance
to Aurora Quattrocchi for GIOIA MIA (SWEETHEART) by Margherita Spampinato, Italy
Pardo for Best Performance
to Levan Gelbakhiani for DON’T LET THE SUN by Jacqueline Zünd, Switzerland/Italy
Pardi di Domani
Concorso Corti d’Autore
Pardino d’Oro WePresent by WeTransfer for the Best Auteur Short Film
to A VERY STRAIGHT NECK by Neo Sora, Japan/China
Concorso Internazionale
Pardino d’Oro Arts3 Foundation for the Best International Short Film
to HYENA by Altay Ulan Yang, USA
Pardino d’Argento Arts3 Foundation for the International Competition
to STILL PLAYING by Mohamed Mesbah, France
Pardi di Domani Best Direction Award – BONALUMI Engineering
to PRIMERA ENSEÑANZA (PRIMARY EDUCATION) by Aria Sánchez and Marina Meira, Cuba/Spain/Brazil
Medien Patent Verwaltung AG Award
to FORCE TIMES DISPLACEMENT by Angel WU, Taiwan
Concorso Nazionale
Pardino d’Oro SRG SSR for the Best Swiss Short Film
to O RIO DE JANEIRO CONTINUA LINDO (RIO REMAINS BEAUTIFUL) by Felipe Casanova, Belgium/Brazil/Switzerland
Pardino d’Argento SRG SSR for the National Competition
to TUSEN TONER by Francesco Poloni, Switzerland
Best Swiss Newcomer Award
to L’AVANT-POSTE 21 by Camille Surdez, Switzerland
Locarno Film Festival Short Film Candidate – European Film Awards
O RIO DE JANEIRO CONTINUA LINDO (RIO REMAINS BEAUTIFUL) by Felipe Casanova, Belgium/Brazil/Switzerland
First Feature
Swatch First Feature Award
to BLUE HERON by Sophy Romvari, Canada/Hungary
Pardo Verde
Pardo Verde
to MARE’S NEST by Ben Rivers, United Kingdom/France/Canada
Special Mentions
TÓC, GIẤY VÀ NƯỚC… (HAIR, PAPER, WATER…) by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, Belgium/France/Vietnam
UNE FENÊTRE PLEIN SUD (A SOUTH FACING WINDOW) by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir, France/Mongolia
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