For the third consecutive year, the Stockholm International Film Festival gives the Stockholm Impact Award in collaboration with the city of Stockholm. Culture commissioner Roger Mogert was given the honour to hand over the award to the winning director Anna Jadowska for daring to reflect on the times we are living in and for focusing on burning topics.
This year’s award ceremony took place with an entire Impact day at Kulturhuset, with exciting seminars and film shows. Polish director Anna Jadowska was honoured with a monetary price of one million SEK as well as a beautiful award designed by the Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei.
“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.” A statement by the Stockholm Film Festival jury.
“Thank you so much for this award, I’m very honoured. A special thanks to the Stockholm International Film Festival, the festival director, organizers, the city of Stockholm and members of the jury. I had a long and difficult journey with this movie and to receive this award means a lot to me since it will give me the opportunity to do another film.” Winning director Anna Jadowska‘s speech at the reception of her price.
Watch Your Living City’s exclusive video of the award ceremony:
Director Anna Jadowska presents a powerful story about a woman facing the difficulties of following her own desires in a small, conservative and gossip-filled village. With striking forest imagery that beautifully captures light drizzling through branches, the film is an exceptional portrayal of a woman and her environment. While examining the plights of women in a conservative society, however, Wild Roses is also a touching depiction of the relationship between mother and daughter.
The other nominated movies and directors were:
- Searing Summer av Ebrahim Irajzad
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Cardinals av Grayson Moore & Aidan Shipley
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The Last Verse av Ying-Ting Tseng
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My Pure Land av Sarman Masud
Your Living City also had the opportunity to talk with the nominated Iranian director Ebrahim Irajzad about his debut film Searing Summer, a film visually loaded with colour and contrast and with a powerful story that focuses on the themes of gender inequality and marital conflicts. Watch our interview here:
The section Stockholm Impact Award is a collaboration between the Stockholm International Film Festival and the city of Stockholm with the purpose of highlighting the possibilities of film to create change and debate through the depiction of contemporary subjects. The prize amount of one million SEK will help the winner in the development of new film projects.
Last year the director Wayne Roberts (USA) won the award for Katie Says Goodbye and in 2015 the director Leena Yadav (India) won the award for Parched.
Here is the trailer of Anna Jadowska‘s winning film Wild Roses:
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