French-Senegalese filmmaker Alain Gomis‘ Dao, an expansive family saga spanning Europe and Africa, has been awarded the Golden Spike for best film at Spain’s 71st Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci), while Marine Atlan’s acclaimed debut La Gradiva received the Silver Spike.
‘Dao’ (Credits: Valladolid International Film Festival)
‘Dao’ wins the Golden Spike at Valladolid’s 71st edition
Unfolding between a wedding in France and an ancestral memorial ceremony in Guinea-Bissau, Gomis’ three-hour film blurs fiction and documentary, gathering a sprawling cast of professional and non-professional performers to explore family ties, migration and the pull of inherited traditions. The international jury praised the film’s distinctive cinematic form, citing its use of rhythm, duration and movement to create an intimate yet immersive atmosphere.
Dao, which world premiered in competition at Berlin, marks Gomis’ return to fiction features after Félicité, winner of the 2017 Berlinale Grand Jury Prize. Variety’s Guy Lodge called the new film the director’s “most vibrantly expansive and accessible” work. The Party Film Sales handles international sales, while Janus Films holds North American distribution rights.
‘La Gradiva’ takes Silver Spike plus two more prizes
Atlan’s La Gradiva premiered at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, where it won the top Grand Prix, before receiving the Melbourne International Film Festival’s Bright Horizons Award in August. At Valladolid, the French-Italian feature also picked up the José Salcedo editing prize for Guillaume Lillo and the Rainbow Spike, recognizing LGBTQ-related cinema. Set during a French school trip to Naples and Pompeii, the film follows teenagers navigating desire, insecurity and the last moments of adolescence.
Other winners: Argentine filmmaker Lisandro Alonso earned the Ribera del Duero best director award for Double Freedom, while acting honors went to Alba Rohrwacher for Stéphane Brizé’s A Good Little Soldier and Swann Arlaud for Emmanuel Marre’s A Man of His Time. Spanish debut Salen las lobas, directed by Claudia Estrada Tarascó, emerged as a double audience favorite — taking both the Meeting Point Audience Award and the Seminci Youth Prize, and arriving in Spanish theaters on Dec. 11.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
