UPDATE: Monsieur Lazhar wins audience award; FIPRESCI award goes to Neighbouring Sounds and NETPAC prize goes to Sentimental Animal.

The 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam presented its three equal Hivos Tiger Awards to feature debuts Egg and Stone by Huang Ji (China), Thursday Through Sunday (De jueves a domingo) by Dominga Sotomayor (Chile-Netherlands), and Clip (Klip) by Maja Milos (Serbia).

Clip also won the KNF Award from Dutch film critics.

The audience award went to Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar, which is in the Foreign Language Oscar race.

The FIPRESCI prize went to Neighbouring Sounds by Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil). The NETPAC jury’s top prize went to Sentimental Animal by Wu Quan (China). The MovieSquad Award voted by a young people’s jury went to Andrew Haigh’s Weekend.

The Tiger Compeition is for first or second features. This year’s Tiger jury was comprised of Eric Khoo, Tine Fischer, Samuel Maoz, Helena Ignez P. de Millo e Silva and Ludmila Cvikova.

Thursday Through Sunday was previously supported by Rotterdam’s Hubert Bals Fund.

The jury’s comments on the winners are:

Clip: ‘A vigorous, rebellious, authentic, honest and revealing film using modern means to depict in a punchy way the mobile generation, who capture their lives through images recorded on their phones. An emotionally disturbed main character in a fractured family, within a broken society. Clip provokes many questions and gives no answers.’

Thursday through Sunday: ‘In focus, this film is a very precise and gentle depiction of the intimate space of a family. We are captured in a journey seen through a child’s perspective, and recall the moments of our own childhood, at the same time experiencing and understanding all the complexities that adult life entails. The minimalistic story is revealed through the fresh angles of the camerawork. A gentle piece, rich with sensitive observations.’

Egg and Stone: ‘The director creates a sensation by telling the private story of a girl who unwillingly becomes trapped in a life in the margins. The taboo present in the film is broken by means of poetic language. The director does so with a convincing author’s approach and sensitive direction of non-professional actors. The beautifully framed, conscious choice of camerawork is relevant to storytelling, and unveils human secrets.’

Earlier in the festival, the Short Film Tiger Awards were given to Makino Takashi’s Generator (Japan), Mati Diop’s Big In Vietnam (France) and Jeroen Eisinga’s Springtime (Netherlands). A Special mention went to Charlotte Lim Lay Kuen for her short film I’m Lisa (Malaysia). The IFFR short film nominee for the European Film Awards 2012 is Im Freien by Albert Sackl (Austria).

The CineMart Awards were reported separately.