2023-08-12 20:07:57
The Diablerets International Alpine Film Festival (FIFAD) experienced record attendance this year, welcoming close to 15,000 people for a week. The documentary “Mongolia, the Valley of the Bears” by Franco-Iranian director Hamid Sardar-Afkhami won the Grand Prix.
“At the ticket level, this edition was a hit,” rejoices the operational director of the festival, Solveig Sautier. “The result is positive, even if we still have to make up for the lean Covid years. The overall budget for the event is around 700,000 francs,” she said.
>> More information on the festival: At Les Diablerets, the 54th edition of FIFAD slaloms between performance and wildness
More than sixty films from fourteen countries and an exceptional set of guests kept the public spellbound from August 5 to 12, the organization noted in a press release on Saturday. She also underlines the “great success” of the nights in bivouac on the Diablerets glacier, the three cinema-concerts and the other activities offered by the festival.
A character that marks
Regarding the award-winning film, “Mongolia, the valley of the bears”, the festival highlights the strength of its main character, “one of those characters that you never forget”. This Mongolian gamekeeper must both watch over the bears and protect the herds they attack. An enlightened arbiter of the divergent interests of living organisms and a sentinel of climate change, “he knows how to read what the trees of the taiga say and how to use social networks to find greater support for his causes”.
FIFAD also awarded many other awards, including five Diables d’or: they awarded the French films “Nuptse, l’inaccessible absolu” by Hugo Clouzeau; “We walked underground” by Alex Lopez; “Corps à horns” by Vincent Bendetti-Icart and Hippolyte Burkhart-Uhlen; as well as the American film “Pasang, In The Shadow Of Everest” by Nancy Svendsen and the short film Egoland, by the Spaniard Ignasi Lopez Fàbregas.
“Death Trap on the High Road”
The Special Jury Prize was awarded to “Son of the Hunter”, a Swiss film by Juliette Riccaboni. As for the Narration Prize, it rewards “Forbidden to dogs and Italians” by Alain Ughetto. Finally, the Youth Prize goes to “Into the ice, an expedition to the end of the world”, by Andrew Opal (Spain).
Its special mention is attributed to “Nevia, an Sam Anthamatten story”, by the Austrians Daniel Schiessi and Elias Elhardt. Finally, the Public Prize goes to “Vertiges, a step towards freedom” by the French Clément Chauveau and Fabien Douillard, while the Erhard Loretan Prize goes to a Swiss film: “Piège mortal sur la haute route” by Frank Senn.
The 55th edition of FIFAD will take place from August 3 to 10, 2024.
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