The Port of Ghent Public Choice Award goes to ‘Pride’ by Matthew Warchus and the Canvas Public Choice Award goes to ‘Il Capitale Umano’ by Paolo Virzì. Raphaël Crombez’ short film ‘Perdition County’ took home the ACE Image Factory Audience Award for Best Belgian Student Short Film.

Matthew Warchus’ ‘Pride’ wins the Port of Ghent Public Choice Award
The irresistible British crowd-pleaser ‘Pride’ also picked up the Cannes Queer Palm Award earlier this year. At the 41st Film Fest Gent, the film was introduced by actor Andrew Scott, who was welcomed by a horde of loyal fans. True to form, the audience voted en masse for this feel-good comedy, a gem of a film with a healthy dose of Full Monty-esque humour. The film obtained an average score of 4.74 out of 5. The prize is € 5,000 in distribution fees for a Belgian distributor and a media campaign worth € 11,500.
The film will be screened in cinemas in Belgium from 5th November 2014 onwards.

'Pride', which is based on a true story, sheds light on the unexpected and unlikely alliance between striking miners in Wales and a group of gay activists. The film is set against the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, in a small Welsh village, where a group of gays and lesbians from London – calling themselves LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) – turn up in an old minibus to show their support for the miners by personally handing over funds they have raised. The trouble is that the local villagers, conservative government and right-wing tabloid press are not exactly progressive thinkers.


The Canvas Public Choice Award goes to ‘Il Capitale Umano’ by Paolo Virzì.
Quality Belgian broadcaster Canvas attracted attention at Film Fest Gent with its own public award. Canvas chose a number of films from the complete festival programme that tied in with the channel’s values. ‘Il Capitale Umano’ by Paolo Virzì received the most votes from festivalgoers, which means it will be bought and broadcast by Canvas, a prize worth at least € 12,500. This film also ranked eighth in the audience favourites with a score of 4.48 out of 5. Last June, the film won the David di Donatello award – the Italian ‘Oscar’ – for best film.
The film will be released in Belgium on 21st January 2015.

‘Il Capitale Umano’ is an intelligent and stylish thriller combined with a biting critique of class-based society. It all starts on a dark snowy night in northern Italy, where a cyclist is run off the road and ends up injured in a ditch. We then see how this event impacts two very different families, that of the middle-class banker Dino and his teenage daughter and that of the capitalist mogul Giovanni and his wife Carla. The result is an enticing and extremely cleverly constructed whodunnit that Virzì drives to a devastating climax.


ACE Image Factory Audience Award for ‘Perdition County’ by Raphaël Crombez
Film Fest Gent organised the fourth edition of the Best Belgian Student Short Film Competition on Sunday 19th October. The winner of the ACE Image Factory Audience Award was ‘Perdition County’ by Raphaël Crombez, who studied at the LUCA School of Arts. The prize is a grading session to a value of € 6,500 for a future film project at the ACE Image Factory post-production house. ‘Perdition County’ tells the story of a soldier in a plundering militia who deserts to regain his humanity.

From 5th November on Lumère releases The Wind Rises on both DVD and Blu-ray.

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Writers: Hayao Miyazaki (comic), Hayao Miyazaki (screenplay)

Stars: Hideaki Anno, Hidetoshi Nishijima, Miori Takimoto 

Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world's most innovative and accomplished airplane designers. The film chronicles much of his life, depicting key historical events, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan's plunge into war. Jiro meets and falls in love with Nahoko, and grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo.

From 21st October on Imagine

Director: Roberto Andò

Stars: Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

In this chilling story about world politics, Toni Servillo defies expectations playing two roles, imbuing each character with brilliant nuance and astonishing attention to detail. In the first, he personifies political failure in the role of the disgraced ideologue and party leader, Enrico Oliveri. In the second, he embodies the shrewd genius of a madman as Oliveris unhinged twin brother who seizes control of the nation amidst the void of his brothers disappearance.

As the national election approaches, Enrico Oliveri has plummeted in the polls and his supporters and adversaries alike begin to acknowledge his impending downfall. Unwilling to face the failure of his party and his nation, Oliveri vanishes into the night. The party leadership tries to hedge for time by concealing Oliveris disappearance with a series of acrobatic sidesteps. In a desperate move, right hand man Andrea Bottini seeks out Oliveris look-alike twin brother, Giovanni Ernani, a prolific author and philosopher who is freshly released from an insane asylum. Slowly and steadily, Giovanni insinuates himself into his brothers public persona, impersonating Oliveris every tick and mannerism exquisitely yet slightly imperfectly. Giovanni quickly surpasses his brothers political prowess with an eerie talent for rallying the masses through fearless and heroic speeches. As Andò shifts between the failure of the sincere intellectual and the heroics of a madman, he probes the driving forces behind our contemporary global political reality leaving behind a rich web of questions in this unpredictable and provocative thriller.

Arrow Films, the distributors of The Hunt, A Hijacking and Love Is All You Need, are pleased to announce the release of the German celebrated classic war movie, Stalingrad, available on demand & digital and on Blu-ray & DVD from 3rd November 2014. This release will mark the first time that Stalingrad has been made available on Blu-ray in the UK.

In the spring of 1942 German troops advance deep into the Soviet Union, en route to Stalingrad. Hitler, seriously misjudging the tenacity of the Red Army, is convinced that the city can be conquered before winter. Inadequately clothed and without sufficient food, the Nazi troops literally freeze and starve to death, largely abandoned by their leaders. For the soldiers Fritz, Hans, Rollo and GeGe the struggle for life has just begun. Gunfire and bombs are only one part of this hell; most of the soldiers will lose the battle against hunger and cold.

The film presents this turning point in World War II as a vast tableau of horror in which the average German soldier was as much a victim of Nazi evil as were the Soviet people.

"Stalingrad" has some of the most virtuosic battle scenes to be found in a modern war film

(The New York Times)

Jazz Life, the label founded by Brighton duo Blood Red Shoes, will release its first single on 1st December. Available on 7” only, Tigercub’s single ‘Centrefold’ will be the first release through Jazz Life outside of Blood Red Shoes’ album earlier this year. Also hailing from Brighton, Tigercub recently toured with Royal Blood and were billed as Radio 1’s ‘Next Hype’ act by Zane Lowe

“We've always talked about the idea of having our own label, and after 10 years we now have the time and the resources to do it properly,” reflects Blood Red Shoes’ Steven. “For us it's not just about releasing our own records but also supporting new and emerging artists that we like, regardless of genre, hopefully bringing them to the public's attention and fostering a much-needed sense of community amongst artists in what can be a very competitive universe. We'll be releasing 7" singles to start with but we're not only focused on records, which is why we've called it Jazz Life and not Jazz Life "records. The first band we've signed is Tigercub from Brighton, but after that we're just gonna make it up as we go along and improvise. Jazz Life forever.”

Produced and recorded by the band in Berlin, and mixed by American indie god John Agnello, Blood Red Shoes’ latest eponymously-titled album came out in March and is the follow up to 2012’s album ‘In Time To Voices’.

soundcloud.com/tigercub/centrefold