French director Léonor Seraille received the Bronze Horse award for Best Film for his film Jeune Femme at the 28th Stockholm International Film Festival. For Ahkeem by Jeremy S. Levine och Landon Van Soest was awarded the prize for Best Documentary.

Winners 0f 2017 Stockholm International Film Festival Award

STOCKHOLM XXVIII COMPETITION

Best Film: Jeune Femme by Léonor Seraille.
For its dynamic and astute study of a young woman perennially on the edge in modern society, featuring the most memorably vivacious character. A small-scale story that finds profundity in sharp specificity, along with comedy in tragedy (and vice versa.)

Best Debut: I Am Not A Witch by Rungano Nyoni.
For its bracingly unique style and story, a film that exposes its viewers to heretofore unforeseen settings and characters with a stunning clarity of vision. An unforgettable debut, which tackles issues of female repression and exploitation with both off-kilter humour and devastating pathos.

Best Director: God’s Own Country by Francis Lee.
For its beautifully naturalistic and understated approach grappling with themes of maturity, sexuality and acceptance, as well its pragmatic and sympathetic portrayal of farmers’ daily struggles.

Best Screenplay: No Date, No Signature by Vahid Jalilvand and Ali Zarnegar.
For its methodical exploration of the unspeakable ethical quandaries triggered by shocking tragedy, and its complex and systematic examination of issues of privilege (and lack thereof), guilt and culpability.

Best Cinematography: Paul Guilhaum for Ava.
For its wonderfully playful and idiosyncratic visual style that hearkens back to a wide swath of cinema history while still forging its own distinct aesthetic. A movie-lover’s movie filled with fantastic iconography.

Best Actress: Antonia Zegers for Los Perros.
For her subtle and multi-faceted portrayal of a wealthy woman grappling with shifting attractions and desires while wading into increasingly murky moral territory. A performer whose emotions brilliantly shimmer just under the surface.

Best Actor: Josh O’Connor for God’s Own Country.
For his brave and delicate portrayal of a character seething with rage yet capable of extraordinary empathy. A lived-in performance that captures the full arc of an unsettled young man coming to terms with his lot in life while learning to care for the people around him.

STOCKHOLM XXVIII DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

Best Documentary: For Ahkeem by Jeremy S. Levine och Landon Van Soest.
This film is a nonjudgmental, intimate and warm portrayal of love and hardship set against the backdrop of police brutality. It depicts, in a very organic way, what it takes to survive as young people today, with the odds stacked against them. Capturing the unpredictability of real life without forcing its morals on the audience.

STOCKHOLM XXVIII SHORT FILM COMPETITION

Best Short Film: Retouch by Kaveh Mazaheri.
This is a film defying genre definition – and still it’s a social realist, gender political thriller. With a delicate touch and a sense of humor, it questions traditional ideas on women’s place in society, in Iran and across the world.

STOCKHOLM LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award: Vanessa Redgrave
This year’s winner of the Stockholm Lifetime Achievement Award has been one of the most prominent actors in the world for over five decades and has been named ”the greatest living actress of our time” by Tennesse Williams. She is as brilliant in costume dramas and political documentaries as she is in works of some of the greatest auteurs in cinematic history. With astonishing force and great social commitment, Vanessa Redgrave has made acting her life’s work.

STOCKHOLM VISIONARY AWARD

Stockholm Visionary Award: Pablo Larraín
This year’s Stockholm Visionary Award winner is a versatile director with great artistic precision. With a sharp eye directed towards the history of Chile, Pablo Larraín has – via individual life destinies with universal reach – revealed corruption and political deceit on all levels of society. He has redefined the biopic and is constantly broadening our cinematic horizons. With seven brilliant films behind him, Pablo Larraín is a truly visionary filmmaker.

STOCKHOLM IMPACT AWARD

Stockholm Impact Award: Wild Roses by Anna Jadowska
For the sensitive depiction of a mother who refuses to abandon her true self, for the portrait of a revolting child that questions an utterly conservative society, for the visually exquisite style that contrasts with a world plunged in prejudice and moral coercion, the Stockholm Impact Award goes to Anna Jadowska for Wild Roses, a metaphor for human resilience.

STOCKHOLM RISING STAR

Stockholm Rising Star: Gustav Lindh
The 2017 Rising Star is awarded by the Stockholm Film Festival to a young actor who has already made a powerful impression in several films. With sincerity and a great sense of presence in combination with dramatic precision – he succeeds in touching our deepest emotions. We anticipate a marvelous future within the world of cinema – Gustav Lindh

1 KM FILM

1 Km Film: Nyforelsket by Ville Sörman.
This year’s 1 km film scholarship goes to a director with an original voice who accomplishes to put a face on the most complex contemporary emotions. With a visual energy and a sensible touch he cares about the characters on screen, and makes the audience care too. The winner of the 1 km film scholarship goes to Ville Sörman

1 Km Film Special Mention: Min Homosyster by Lia Hietala.
A Special Mention goes to a director who has an astute ear for authentic dialogue and manages to establish absolute tonal control between characters and settings. A special mention goes to Lia Hietala.

THE FIPRESCI PRIZE

The FIPRESCI prize: Based On A True Story by Roman Polanski.
The FIPRESCI award on the 28th Stockholm International Film Festival goes to the film that is marked with an exceptional quality of cinema language. The genre of ‘paranoic thriller’ is treated by the author as perfectly as it could be and allows him to research some extremely complicated issues without any loss of the enchanted energy of narration. The film considers the very process of an artistic creation as a sophisticated game between an artist and reality based on perpetual mutual manipulations and disguises. The formal brilliance is combined here with a crafty elaboration of every detail. So, the FIPRESCI jury is proudly and reverently announced that its award is going to Roman Polanski for the film D’après une histoire vraie (Based on a True Story).