Elena Martín Gimeno’s ‘Creatura’ Wins Europa Cinemas Best European Film Prize; Pierre Creton’s ‘Le Prince’ Scoops SACD Award At Cannes Directors’ Fortnight
UPDATED with SACD prize details: Spanish director Elena Martín Gimeno’s Creatura won the Europa Cinemas prize as Best European Film, while Pierre Caton’s Le Prince scooped the SACD for best French film at Directors’ Fortnight on Thursday.
The prizes were announced ahead of the evening closing ceremony for the non-competitive parallel Directors Fortnight section.
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The Europa Cinema label and SACD prizes are the key collateral prizes awarded to films world premiering in the section.
Under the Europa Cinema prize, the release of Creatura will receive the support of cinemas belonging to the independent exhibitor network representing 3,060 screens in 38 countries. The jury consists of four exhibitor members of the network.
Creatura revolves around a seemingly perfect couple who no longer manage to have sex, prompting one partner to probe her past and her sexual sexual awakening, from adolescence back to early childhood.
French writers guild SACD’s prize is reserved for the best French film in the selection. Coming of age tale Le Prince revolves follows the life and sexual awakening of a young gardening apprentice in a training centre in Normandy. It is produced by Adolfi and will be distributed in France by JHR Films.
Creatura and Le Prince were among 20 features world premiering in Directors’ Fortnight this year, which marks the inaugural edition of Julien Rejl as its artistic director.
Directors Fortnights’ final day hosted a special event with Quentin Tarantino and closes with Hong Sangsoo’s In Our Day, in the presence of the Korean director.
“Elena Martin Gimeno’s Creatura is a really well-written and impressive portrayal of a woman as she tries to come to terms with her sexuality and intimacy while reflecting on her childhood and teenage experiences. This is a subject that has been covered before, but each character is so multi-layered and believable that the film is easy to relate to – both the female and the male characters,” the Europa Cinema Jury said in a statement.
“There are challenging moments but there is humour too. It is dynamic and beautifully shot. We are sure that this is a film that will touch people all around Europe, and we welcome the opportunity of encouraging the career of a very talented director, writer and actress.”
Sold internationally by Luxbox, Creatura is a Vilaüt Films (Spain), Lastor Media (Spain), Elastica Films (Spain), Avalon P.C. (Spain) and S/B Films (United States) production.
The producers are Ariadna Dot, Marta Cruãnas, Tono Folguera, Maria Zamora, Stefan Schmitz, Emilia Fort, Ella Bishop, Pau Suris and Jake Cheetham.
The screenplay is by Elena Martín Gimeno and Clara Roquet, with photography by Alana Mejía González, sound by Oriol Donat, Laia Casanova and Leo Dolgan, production design by Sylvia Steinbrecht, editing by Ariadna Ribas (AMMAC), Editing by Ariadna Ribas (AMMAC) and music by Clara Aguilar.
The cast includes Elena Martín Gimeno (Mila), Clàudia Dalmau (Mila), Clàudia Borràs (Mila), Oriol Pla (Marcel), Alex Brendemühl (Gerard), Clara Segura (Diana), Marc Cartanyà (Gerard), Carla Linares (Diana)
Elena Martín is an actress, screenwriter and director from Barcelona. Her debut as a director for which she also took the leading role, Júlia ist, was praised by the festival circuit. As an actress, she starred in Watermelon Juice, Facing the Wind or Agatha’s Friends. On TV for HBO, she was in the writer’s room of Veneno, directed two episodes of Perfect Life and created an episode of En casa.
The Cannes Europa Cinemas Label Jury this year comprised Laurent Callonnec (Cinéma l’Ecran, Saint-Denis, France), Sofie Mercier (Sphinx Cinema, Ghent, Belgium), Viviane Thill (Ciné Starlight, Dudelange, Luxembourg) and Justė Vyšniauskaitė (Kaunas cinema centre Romuva, Kaunas, Lithuania).
The Label is also awarded in Berlin, Venice, Karlovy Vary, and at Locarno. Recipients of the Label honoured at Cannes in the past include: Un Beau Matin/One Fine Morning, A Ciambra, Mustang, 12:08 East of Bucharest, La Pivellina, Le Quattro Volte, The Repentant, The Selfish Giant, Les Combattants, Mercenaire and Alice et le Maire and A Chiara.
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