Having watched all the competition films, the Tramway Film Festival Jury consisting of: Vivien Buchhorn (Chairwoman), Magdalena Hueckel, Kuba Mikurda has decided to award the following prizes:

CINEVERSO

Best Film – ‘Aqueronte’ by Manuel Muñoz Rivas

A film like a passage of life. Human beings meeting by accident, each one at a different moment in life, where happiness and sadness are intertwined. Water ang fog as a cinematic gesture of passing by – having a moment of calmness, having a moment to breathe – where normally in world of simultaneities and excessive demands – people are taking the time to look at each other and inside theirselves. An immersive film, sensual and full of light that shares hope.

Special Mention – ‘My Life is Wind (a letter)’ by Anahita Ghazvinizadeh

We were fascinated by the main protagonist – a refugee who begins to tell her story at a time when many other similar stories are ending. A hero who faces longing and loss in the seemingly welcoming landscape of West Virginia. We were particularly moved by the scene in which the performance triggers the protagonists hidden emotions. In the face of the ongoing refugee crisis the film challenges our illusion of being “white saviour”.

CINE SIN FINE

Best Film – ‘Mast-del’ by Maryam Takafory

The winner of Cine Sin Fine competition created an atmosphere that stayed with us for the whole festival. Transferring a vulnerable and traumatic situation into a carefully chosen text that becomes poem about love, intrigued us and affected our personal imagination. The film proves that formal gestures which seem well known to us, can still have transgressive force.

While the situation in Iran for women is unbearable dangerous and violent, two women are transferring a special closeness to us. Glimpses and censored Iranian film history transfer this to a passionate ode to cinema itself.

Special Mention – ‘Quebrante’ by Janaina Wagner

The special mention goes to a film that deals with an important topic, but does so with lightness and unpretentiousness; a film that tells a local story but deals with global issues; a film that shows that you shouldn’t be afraid of the dark, because you don’t have to get lost in it, but you can trust and then find something: magical realism at its best.

Warsaw, October 6, 2024