Lea Glob’s documentary Apolonia, Apolonia, about the Paris-born painter Apolonia Sokol, earned Best Film in international competition as the IDFA awards ceremony unfolded in Amsterdam tonight.
The prestigious honor comes with a €15,000 cash prize. Announcing the award, the five-member jury noted, “This film has characters who breathe life and take us on a journey, opening us up to the worlds of culture and art, of business and politics, of the mechanics of a success story.
It is infused with love.” Glob has been following Soko’s career for well over a decade. According to the Villa Medici website, the figurative painter is “known for her political stance on the art of portraiture, claiming the need to use it as a tool of empowerment and deconstruction of marginalization or domination.
That is why she addresses multiple issues such as feminisms, queerness, women’s representation throughout art history and body politics in general.” Simon Chambers won Best Directing in the international competition category for his film Much Ado About Dying, a tender and often hilarious look at the filmmaker’s colorful Uncle David in the last years of his life.
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