Cervino CineMountain, the Oscar of mountain cinema goes to “After Antarctica”

Victory for “After Antarctica”

The Grand Prix des Festival – Conseil de la Valléeawarded to the best of the winning works of the main festivals in the sector, goes to American film AFTER ANTARCTICA, by Tasha Van Zandt, award-winning American director, cinematographer and producer, nominated for an Emmy Award for “Guns in America.” The film tells the life-long journey of the legendary polar explorer Will Steger. The first epic crossing of Antarctica on dog sleds, made in 1989 to raise awareness of the global public opinion on the environmental emergency. The enterprise relives in the splendid original films and in the memories of the leader of the expedition, Will Steger, a direct witness of the greatest changes in the polar regions of the planet. Images and words become memory, giving shape to a profound meditation on human destiny and that of our planet. The film also wins the Audience Award and the Grand Prix Circuit Audience Award, the most voted among the Grand Prix screened in the traveling circuit of the Festival in Chamois and La Magdaleine.

Reasons: “this extraordinary biographical story uses a complex and articulated narrative language to tell an extreme environment. Reminding us how important the concept of friendship between peoples is, especially nowadays ”.

Awards and mentions

Special mention to the Italian LA CASA ROSSAby Francesco Catarinolo, an Italian-Danish production that tells the challenge in the land of the Inuit by Robert Peroni, a former South Tyrolean explorer, who thirty years ago left everything to move to eastern Greenland by founding “La Casa Rossa”, a refuge that offers I work for the locals, left with nothing and an uncertain future.

Reasons: “This film is a painful and direct look at how climate change and political choices affect the social fabric of ethnic minorities and their future”.

At his first film, it is there Vietnamese Diem Ha Le (born in ’91) to win the Mountains of the World Awardfor the best foreign film, with CHILDREN OF THE MIST, an insight into one of the traditions of his ethnic minority, which lives in the mountains of the country: the “bride kidnapping”. Tracing the story of the protagonist, Hmong, the film describes the sudden transition from adolescence to the loss of innocence and independence to which girls are forced.

Reasons: “this film gives us an authentic story of unknown cultures and places, in a painful contradiction between popular traditions and the education of the new generations“.

Best Italian Film (Mountains of Italy Award) is UP THERE, by Bartolomeo Pampaloni, the seductive portrait of a hermit creator of beauty, Isravele, a semi-illiterate bricklayer, who has lived for twenty years in solitude, on the top of a mountain, far from a chaotic and devoid of spirituality Palermo. He abandoned his family, to dedicate his life to God and build a temple, on the ruins of an abandoned observatory but modernity, in the form of a commercial center at the foot of the mountain, threatens his peace.

Reasons: “is the story of a choice of life and a sincere faith told in a delicate and sensitive way that makes us reflect on the meaning of our daily life“.

Wins the Mountains Award tout-courtfor the best short film, NEST by Hylnur Pálmason, director of the masterpiece “Godland”. His short is a window on family life, which winks at the cinema of the origins: three brothers build a tree house together, experiencing the beauty and brutality of the seasons, as well as the conflicts and moments of joy lived in common. .

Reasons: “an original and light-hearted tale that tells an education and a spontaneity of other times“.

It is still a film about the effects of climate change that wins the SONY Award for Best Photography: the Canadian GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE, by Jacquelyn Mills, shot on 16mm and made using innovative eco-friendly film production techniques. Already acclaimed at the Berlin Film Festival, the film is a playful and irreverent journey to discover the rich ecosystem of Sable Island and its “keeper” Zoe Lucas, a biologist and environmentalist who has lived for over 40 years in this remote fragment of land. in the Atlantic Ocean.

Reasons: “through the power of images, the film triggers an extraordinary reflection on environmental issues“.

TORNby Max Lowe, wins the CAI Award for the best film of mountaineering, climbing, exploration. The director, son of the legendary American climber Alex Lowe, recounts his heartbreaking disappearance and the impact on the lives of his loved ones. After his father lost his life in an avalanche on Shishapangma, his best friend and climbing partner Conrad Anker, who survived the tragedy, fell in love and married his wife Jennifer. Today, Max, Alex’s director son, tries to understand the figure of his father and the relationships of his family.

There special mention goes to MATTERHORN THE BIG WALL by Ai Nagasawa, the film that tells the great mountaineering feat made on the south face of the Matterhorn by mountaineers François Cazzanelli, Emrik Favre and Francesco Ratti.

Climate change is also at the heart of THE SEED OF THE FUTUREwinner of the Film Commission VDA Award. The director Francesca Frigo follows the return of the scientist Giorgio Vacchiano in the woods of his childhood, in the Aosta Valley, driven by the desire to study the effects of global warming on alpine forests. Here, together with other researchers, he devises strategies to help the environment. In fact, saving trees means saving humanity.

Reasons: “the film offers us various ideas for reflection on the future that awaits us, using a narrative language that is not lost in rhetoric and tells the importance of balance. An important message, necessary for future generations“.

For the new section CineAdrenaline the public rewards the French ALPINE TRILOGY (DOGGYSTYLE), by Damien Largeron, Brian Mathé, Morgan Monchaud, with the famous Belgian climber Nicholas Favresse and his climbing partner Sébastien Berthe: together they undertake the arduous challenge of completing the Alps trilogy. The two set off on bicycles to tackle these three routes. , among the most difficult in Europe, accompanied by Kroux et Bintje, their dogs. A mix of fun, music and adrenaline that conquered the audience of the Festival.

Returned this year on CineMountain Kids Awardthe animated films voted by the little ones who have chosen this year PIROPIROthe free bird that meets Dalle, locked in a cage in a flower shop.