05 · 19 · 10

Armadillo by Janus Metz wins Cinépolis award

Clara Sánchez desde Cannes

The award of 5,000 euros was given to the producer Ronnie Fridthjof by Alejandro Ramírez, general director of Cinépolis and president of the Morelia International Film Festival, during a ceremony at Espacio Miramar.

Armadillo is the name of the Danish military camp in Helmand province in Afghanistan where the documentary was filmed.  It focuses on Meds and Daniel who are serving their first mission in Helmand at the camp. The production team was able to get unprecedented access to the enclave to follow a platoon of Danish soldiers at war.

Following the awards ceremony, Janus said in an interview, “It is a great honor to have won this prize. Everyone said this year there were excellent films competing in Critics’ Week. And it’s even more exciting because a documentary has not been chosen for this prize for 20 years.”

The director, who has won several awards including the IDFA for his documentaries Ticket to Paradise and Love on Delivery, said that Armadillo “is a very serious film about a very serious theme. I hope it attracts [people’s] attention and reaches an international audience.”

Winners of this award in the past six editions include:  Adieu Gary, by Nassim Amaouche (France, 2009); Snow, by Aida Begic (Bosnia - Herzegovina, Germany, France and Iran, 2008); XXY, by Lucía Puenzo (Argentina, 2007); Les amitiés maléfiques, by Emmanuel Bourdieu (France, 2006); Me and you and everyone we know, by Miranda July (United States, 2005); Brodeuses, by Éleonore Faucher (France, 2004); and Or (Món tresor), by Keren Yedara (France-Israel, 2004).

Critics’ Week is a parallel section of the Cannes International Film Festival whose mission is to search for and promote young talent. Among those who have participated in CW are Bernardo Bertolucci, Ken Loach, Wong Kar Wai, Jacques Audiard, Arnaud Desplechin, Gaspar Noé, François Ozon, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Julie Bertucelli.

As a result of the partnership between CW and the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), a selection of the winning films at the previous edition of FICM is shown at Critics’ Week. Likewise, FICM exhibits some of the feature films from CW, including, of course, the winner of the Cinépolis Prize.

The Morelia International Film Festival and Critics’ Week finalize their activities today at Cannes with a “Last Night” party to celebrate their strong ties with the winners.