Leonard Retel Helmrich’s star continued to rise as he accepted the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for Position Among the Stars (Stand Van De Sterren) at an awards ceremony in Amsterdam on November 26, 2010.
It is the first time in the film festival's history that a director has won the award for feature-length documentary twice: he also won with The Shape of the Moon (Stand Van De Maan) in 2004. The Dutch director also took home the Dioraphte IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary.
IDFA Jury Gives Its Verdict
Position Among the Stars, which opened the Amsterdam film festival last week, is the final part of Retel Helmrich’s trilogy about Indonesia and the mixed Muslim-Christian Sjamsuddin family.
The IDFA jury described the movie as “clear, complete, poetic and not without humor.” It continued: “The filmmaker has patiently dedicated 12 years of his life to observing the lives of his subjects. With its beautifully observed details, the film is an example of how a master documentary maker can distil the essence of his subject. Retel Helmrich takes the time to be with his subjects, to take part in their lives, while maintaining his own view.”
Trilogies have been striking chords with film festival judges this year. Honey (Bal), the final part of Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu's autobiographical trilogy, earned him the Berlinale's Golden Bear in February.
NTR IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary
The award for Best Mid-Length Documentary went to Boris Gerrets for People I Could Have Been and Maybe Am (The Netherlands), in which the director, also Dutch, filmed conversations with strangers in London on his mobile phone.
IDFA Award for First Appearance
Monster Jimenez received the IDFA Award for First Appearance for Kano: An American and His Harem (Philippines), a bizarre tale about an American who assembled a harem in the Philippines and is now in prison for rape.
Public Broadcaster IDFA Audience Award
After pulling in votes for the duration of the film festival, Lucy Walker’s Waste Land (England / Brazil) was finally crowned winner of the IDFA Audience Award. The uplifting movie focuses on the garbage collectors who work on the world's largest garbage dump in Rio de Janeiro, and Vik Muniz, the art photographer who captures them.
IDFA Award for Student Documentary
Eva Küpper took home the IDFA Award for Student Documentary for What's in a Name (Belgium). Küpper follows New York performer Jon Cory, who has taken extreme physical steps to blur sexual and gender boundaries.
IDFA DOC U Award
A youth jury selected Jan Tenhaven’s Autumn Gold (Germany / Austria), in which five senior athletes prepare for a competition in Finland,as the winner of the DOC U Award.
IDFA Award for Best Green Screen Documentary
The winner of IDFA’s new environmental competition category was Michael Madsen’s Into Eternity (Denmark / Sweden / Finland) by Michael Madsen. The film is a mythic message – and perhaps cautionary tale - for future generations about Onkalo, an enormous depot being built deep underground, where Finnish nuclear waste is due be permanently stored.
In this same category, the jury also gave an honorable mention to Risteard Ó Domhnaill for her portrayal in The Pipe (Ireland) of local activists in Ireland who resist the construction of a gas pipe line by an oil multinational.
Watch Movies for Free
Film festival fans who have so far been unable to secure movie tickets have another chance to catch a couple of documentaries. IDFA and Solar Cinema, the first mobile movie theater powered by solar energy, have organized an additional screening of Into Eternity and The Pipe. Watch both movies for free between 5pm and 8pm on November 27 at the Block Party on Utrechtsestraat, a short walk from the IDFA tent on Rembrandt Square.
IDFA 2010 closes on Sunday, November 28.
Cecily Layzell - Cecily Layzell is a food and travel writer and founder of restaurant review site www.eat-amsterdam.com.
