Editor

During the Northern Film Festival Awards Ceremony on Sunday, November 13, the winning films of the 33rd Northern Film Festival were announced. MAJORITY (ÇOGUNLUK) by Seren Yüce (Turkey, 2010) won the 15th Interregional Competition. Eight films, debut or second films, were selected for this year's Interregional Competition. According to the jury, the winning film shows ‘a great maturity in portraying the complex themes and true knowledge of the craft'.  Director Seren Yüce received the Matad'Or (a sculpture) and a cash prize of € 10.000. The second award of the evening, the Leeuwarder Courant Audience Award, went to HASTA LA VISTA! by Geoffrey Enthoven (Belgium). Belgian producer Mariano Vanhoof picked up the award in Leeuwarden. The 33rd edition of the Northern Film Festival closed with a gala screening of LA PIEL QUE HABITO by Spanish maestro Pedro Almodóvar. 

This year's jury comprises György Pálfi, Hungarian filmmaker; Belgian dancer, choreographer, singer and actor Sam Louwyck; Polish-Dutch filmmaker Urszula Antoniak; Greek Maria Hatzakou, producer of ATTENBERG and Giorgos Lanthimos' ALPS, and Dana Linssen, film critic of the Dutch national newspapers NRC and Filmkrant.

The jury statement of the Interregional Competition 2011 winner MAJORITY:
"For the jury it was hard to find thematic similarities in the eight films in the competition. Most of them were following one individual and exposed a harsh, bleak reality in often broken, disturbed and traumatised families. 
Of course we fought out little battles within the jury while deliberating. But, as you can see, we escaped unharmed and, more important, we got to a motivated agreement. The director has shown both a great maturity in portraying the complex themes and true knowledge of the craft. This is surprising for a first time filmmaker. This approach to tackle grand themes through observation of the life of an individual is both classic and modern. On top of that the directors choice to focus on an anti-hero and get away with it, deserves its proper respect."

The Belgian film HASTA LA VISTA by Geoffrey Enthoven won the Leeuwarder Courant Audience Award. The audience awarded HASTA LA VISTA! with a 9,66 out of 10. Other crowd favorites at the Northern Film Festival were SIMPLE SIMON by Andreas Öhman (Sweden, 2010), TYRANNOSAUR by Paddy Considine (UK, 2011), opening film KING OF DEVIL'S ISLAND by Marius Holst (Norway, 2010) and ADEM (OXYGEN) by Hans van Nuffel (Belgium, 2010). The audience showed a great appreciation of this year's films, with the top 20 of the Leeuwarder Courant Audience Award scoring an eight or higher.