Venice Film Week
2021 Awards

Venice Film Week Unveils 2021 Award Winners

The Venice Film Week team would like to thank all of their guests for coming out to enjoy a week of new independent cinema from around the globe at the sixth edition of its festival.

This year, the festival was privileged to receive almost fifteen hundred entries. Twenty nine wonderful films made it to the final selection for 2021. After the jury members' lengthy consideration, the Venice Film Week is pleased to announce to you today the following films as its award winners for 2021:

Best Narrative Feature Film: In Ashes (Norway) by Kjetil Engh Aasen. “The life of Inger and her son Jonas is turned upside down when the man they thought they knew is suspected of unspeakable crimes against children. As painful questions arise, Inger realizes her son is slowly pulling away from her. Inger struggles to find a way back to her son, while at the same time, attempts to deal with her own conflicting feeling towards her husband.”

Best Documentary Feature Film: Boy from the Blaze (Spain) by Ignacio Acconcia. “Aleixo Paz A.K.A “Boy from the Blaze” is the survivor of a tragic accident that destroyed his life and that of his family. About to turn 18, without a job or an education, he spends his days in the darkness of his room. Consumed by pain and anger, his only hope is writing songs for an imaginary crowd. Inspired by a friend and encouraged by his mother, he will find the strength to go on stage and overcome his fears.”

Best Narrative Short Film: Ala Kachuu - Take and Run (Switzerland) by Maria Brendle. “Sezim (19) wants to fulfill her dream of studying in the Kyrgyz capital when she gets kidnapped by a group of young men and taken to the hinterland. There she’s forced to marry a stranger. If she refuses the marriage, she is threatened with social stigmatization and exclusion. Torn between her desire for freedom and the constraints of Kyrgyz culture, Sezim desperately seeks for a way out.”

Best Documentary Short Film: Celentano's Seasickness (Italy) by Saverio Cappiello. “Loredano, known as Celentano, due to seasickness has never been able to be a fisherman, his dream since he was a child. Now he works in a bar and waits for Alex, his nephew, who has recently started working as a fisherman, to give him a gift that initiates him into that world that is water and that he has never been able to touch.”

Best Animated Film: Forest (Ireland) by Dermott Burns. “Forest is an experimental short film rendered using real-time graphics. Through contrasting a vibrant virtual paradise with a dark reality, the film reflects upon humanity’s ignorance of their destructive nature on earth; the innocence of youth and the indifference of adulthood.”

Best Experimental Film: The Audition Room - White Background Script (Egypt) by Isan Maher. “Three young people have been invited for an audition. The thing that happens there leads them to involve their opinions on the screenplay...”

Best Music Video: Physical Thoughts (United States) by Anne Hollowday. “A dancer reflects on a recent injury. A dancer's body is their whole life. It is the sum total of their history, it’s the medium through which they make a living and it’s their method of creative expression. After a dramatic injury puts a professional dancer out of action for six months, she reflects on how our physical thoughts reveal who we are, perhaps even more than what we say. A meditation on authenticity, the creative life and facing one's own fears, Physical Thoughts is the document of an injury and a poetic distillation of wisdom for every artist.”

Best Italian Film: Chedly (Italy) by Francesco Castellaneta. “Chedly is a young Italian-Tunisian pizza maker who works in his father's restaurant. To make the money for reach his mother, who had returned to Tunisia years earlier, he turns to his cousin Nicolas, a drug dealer in a local gang. He scams the leader of the gang and, while he re-establishes the relationships with his father, he suffers the consequences of his scams.”

In addition to this, the Venice Film Week is also excited to announce that next to its main screenings, the festival is preparing some open air screenings for its 2022 edition. Something that is made possible with the generous support of the City of Venice. More info on this coming soon!

The Venice Film Week is an annual week-long event showcasing independent films with an edge. The event was created by independent filmmakers, for independent filmmakers, with the sole purpose to showcase and screen new and upcoming talent. The festival focuses on the unconventional, the unusual, the underground, the intuitive, the innovative, the minimalistic and the true artists of our time. The Venice Film Week would like to thank the Città di Venezia, Circuito Cinema and media partners for their continuous generous support.