With over 48,000 admissions, the 38th edition of the Fribourg International Film Festival (FIFF) draws to a close on Sunday 24th March at an all-time high. Including the parallel events and the online version running over the next three weeks, the historic 55,000 mark will be easily surpassed. On Saturday evening, the Awards Ceremony feted five of the 12 entries in the International Competition: Feature Films. The FIFF Grand Prix goes to Chen Yanqi's Day Tripper, an offbeat and absurdist chronicle of everyday life in China. Daniel Rodríguez Risco's Peruvian family dystopia Cuadrilátero, which had its World Premiere at FIFF, is a double winner, taking home the Special Jury Award and the Youth Jury Award COMUNDO. The Critics' Choice Award goes to Inshallah a Boy by Amjad Al Rasheed (Jordan), while the Colombian film La Suprema, directed by Felipe Holguín Caro, wins the Ecumenical Jury Award. The coveted Audience Award goes to the Bhutanese film The Monk and the Gun by Pawo Choyning Dorji. In the shorts category, Mrs. Iran's Husband, a documentary by Iranian director Marjan Khosravi, picked up two awards.
For the Jury of the FIFF International Competition: Feature Films, "Day Tripper is a wonderful chronicle of contemporary China, a country bristling with modernity yet paralysed by its past. With his irony-laced, deliciously cynical debut feature, young Chinese director Chen Yanqi has, in our opinion, the makings of a great film auteur." The members of this year's Jury were Iryna Bardakova (Ukraine), Flavien 'Mambo' Demarigny (France), Dieter Kosslick (Germany) and Carlos Leal (Switzerland, Spain).
The Peruvian fiction Cuadrilátero by Daniel Rodríguez Risco won the Special Jury Award and the Youth Jury Award COMUNDO. Many members of the film crew were in the audience on Saturday, so learned of their double win in real time. The International Jury called Cuadrilátero "a magnificent social, philosophical and political satire". Thierry Jobin, FIFF Artistic Director, adds, "The director sent us the film without any great fanfare… it ended up having its World Premiere in Fribourg. We sincerely hope that this win will take his career to new heights and that the film goes on to enjoy the same success as the Malaysian production Abang Adik, which also had its World Premiere at FIFF and picked up two awards at last year's edition. It was subsequently screened at around 30 international festivals, where it was spotted and eventually bought by Netflix."
There was one production in the International Competition: Feature Films which stole the public's heart: The Monk and the Gun by Pawo Choyning Dorji. The winner of the Audience Award, which is also Bhutan's 2024 Oscars entry, wittily charts the early days of the country's transition to a democracy and how these events rocked the innocence of the Bhutanese people. Distributed by trigon-film, The Monk and the Gun will be released in Swiss cinemas in mid-April. The winner of the Critics' Choice Award, Amjad Al Rasheed's Inshallah a Boy, will return to cinemas in French-speaking Switzerland in early May, and in German-speaking cinemas in early June.
Mrs. Iran's Husband was crowned the winner of the FIFF International Competition: Short Films. This documentary by Iranian director Marjan Khosravi respectfully gives a voice to the two wives of an Iranian shepherd who is planning to marry for a third time. The members of the International Jury – Teona Strugar Mitevska (North Macedonia), Lauriane Gilliéron (Switzerland) and Elie Grappe (France, Switzerland) – gave a Special Mention to another documentary, In Zainab's Heaven. This production which was filmed in Pakistan and directed by Ali Mehdi had its European Premiere at FIFF 2024.
The Festival's management team could not be happier, "FIFF opened with the promise that it would bring people together, and everything coalesced to make this happen", Thierry Jobin, FIFF Artistic Director, notes. "Giving the public an opportunity to come together in the streets of our city, in our partner restaurants, in other event venues, in exhibition spaces and, of course, in cinema theatres is about giving them the opportunity to rediscover the joy of shared experiences." According to the FIFF Artistic Director, the Festival team felt that this collective enthusiasm was particularly strong this year, "Everyone was singing from the same Hip-hop-inspired song sheet and I think that the public sensed this because they responded in their droves to our 10-day-long invitation to get together and talk about cinema." As always, FIFF was a chance for filmmakers from different countries and cultures to forge new links. Time spent at the Festival often leads to the emergence of synergies and new international collaborations.
The 38th edition is on course to break the Festival's previous admissions record. As Mathieu Fleury, President of the FIFF Association, explains, "Given the massive popularity of this year's films and with some screenings booked out every day, it is looking very likely that admissions to the 38th edition of FIFF will exceed 48,000, up from last year's 46,000 admissions." And these admissions do not count the Festival’s parallel events, notably the exhibition at the Graffiti Gallery which will run until the end of March. Fleury is thrilled with the public response this year, "FIFF 2024 delivered on its promise to serve up a best-of compilation set, featuring 100 films and lots of other events, and clearly the public vibed with this year's Hip-hop-themed edition."
For those wishing to prolong the FIFF experience, from Monday and for the following three weeks, Festival Scope will be showing a selection of films from the 2024 edition free of charge. The Hip-hop theme will continue on the Play Suisse platform, which will stream 13 films that have marked the history of Swiss cinema.
The 39th edition of the Fribourg International Film Festival will be held from 21 to 30 March 2025.
The awarded films are screened on Sunday 24th March in Fribourg and in Bulle.
Fribourg − Rex 1
11.00 am: Special Jury Award: Cuadrilátero
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1.30 pm: Best International Short Film Award: Mrs. Iran’s Husband and Grand Prix: Day Tripper
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4.00 pm: Audience Award: The Monk and the Gun
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Bulle – Prado 3
2.00 pm: Special Jury Award: Cuadrilátero
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5.00 pm: Best International Short Film Award: Mrs. Iran’s Husband and Grand Prix: Day Tripper
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8.00 pm: Audience Award: The Monk and the Gun
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