Film Festivals

18th New Horizons Intl Film Festival: Isabella Eklöf’s Holiday Wins the Grand Prix

Published on August 4, 2018

The jury made up of Fred Kelemen (chairman, German director and cinematographer, and the subject of a retrospective at last year’s New Horizons), Valeska Grisebach (Western), Anna Jadowska (Wild Roses), Michał Marczak (All These Sleepless Nights) and Claudia Landsberger bestowed the Grand Prix on Isabella Eklöf‘s Holiday – the film we were big on at Sundance back in January continues to be a festival favorite.

The winner of the Audience Award was An Elephant Sitting Still (Da xiang xi di er zuo), directed by Hu Bo, who died tragically last year. An Elephant Sitting Still was his only film.

During the awards ceremony in Wrocław, a letter was read out from Béla Tarr, one of Hu Bo’s film teachers. “Hundreds of Chinese directors got in touch with me, but when I met him, I knew: he’s the one! … In his eyes, you could see his extraordinarily strong personality. … Although we lost him, his films will remain with us forever.”

Next year’s edition will take place from 25 July through 4 August.

Related Topics:2018 New Horizons Intl. Film Fest, Holiday, Isabella Eklöf

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).