Audience Award for “Retour à Mandima” at film festival in Lisbon

Robert-Jan Lacombe’s 40-minute documentary film “Retour à Mandima” won the Audience Award for Best Short Film, endowed with EUR 1,000, at the 9th IndieLisboa Independent Film Festival (April 26-May 6, 2012).

07.05.2012

Robert-Jan Lacombe’s 40-minute documentary film “Retour à Mandima” won the Audience Award for Best Short Film, endowed with EUR 1,000, at the 9th IndieLisboa Independent Film Festival (April 26-May 6, 2012). The film by the former student of ECAL (Lausanne) resumes the cinematic inquiry with which Lacombe began questioning his departure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) 15 years earlier. His first film was honoured with many awards. In addition, Fabio Friedli’s animation film “Bon voyage,” produced at the Lucerne School of Art and Design, received a Special Mention in Lisbon.

“Retour à Mandima” premiered at the Solothurn Film Festival last January, and went on to receive an Honourable Mention at the International Short Film Festival in Clermont Ferrand. After having addressed his departure from the Democratic Republic Congo 15 years later in his preceding short film “Kwa Heri Mandima,” Robert-Jan Lacombe returned to Africa to film what has become of the friends of his youth.

The three-member Amnesty International Jury awarded a Special Mention to the animated cartoon film “Bon voyage,” which addresses the topic of immigration in a humorous manner. The film had already won awards at festivals in Winterthur, Baden, Solothurn and in Cambrils-Reus (Spain).

In addition, another animation film coproduced by Studio GDS in Geneva, “Kali le petit vampire” by Portuguese director Regina Pessoa, was honoured with one of the four Onda Curta Prizes, awarded to national productions by the Portuguese broadcaster RTP2. The Swiss band “The Young Gods” composed the film’s soundtrack.

Five Swiss film productions and one coproduction were screened in the programme of the Independent Film Festival in Lisbon, which also presented a retrospective comprised of twelve films by the members of the collective “Bande à Part Films” from the Romandy. SWISS FILMS, the promotion agency, collaborated as partner of this event.

Geneva, May 7, 2012

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