Prizes to Bulgaria, China and Canada as Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival draws to a close.

Clermont Ferrand 2014

Scroll down for full list of winners

This year’s Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival has wrapped with an outlook that juxtaposes the gloomy with the optimistic.

During the closing night ceremony of the world’s biggest shorts festival, Jean-Claude Saurel - the president of organiser Sauve qui peut le Court Métrage - took the opportunity to lament the continuing cuts in budgets for French culture and cultural organisations and urged people to help protest against the current policies of the French administration.

However, with audiences for the festival at approximately 160,000 (up more than 5,000 from the previous year), there was still a sense of cautious celebration for the state of short film in France and beyond.

The festival’s International Grand Prix went to Bulgarian/German co-production Pride, Pavel Vesnakov’s powerfully acted story about a retired grandfather who finds out the boy he raised is gay and is forced to confront his values. The film also walked away with Clermont’s nomination for the forthcoming European Film Awards.

The National Competition Grand Prix went to Hu Wei’s La Lampe au Beurre de Yak, a French/Chinese co-production which has already proved popular on the festival circuit with its story of a photographer who takes pictures of people in front of various backdrops.

Noah, the Canadian short film which went viral a while back as it tells the story of a young man solely through a computer screen, won the Grand Prix for the festival’s experimental Lab section..

Next year, the 37th Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival will run from Jan 30 to Feb 7, 2015.

Full list of winners

International Awards

Grand Prix
Pride  Dir. Pavel Vesnakov , Bulgaria/Germany

Special Jury Prize
Juke-Box   Dir. Ilan Klipper, France

Audience Prize
Meu amigo Nietzsche  Dir. Fáuston da Silva, Brazil

Best Animation Film Award
Junk Head 1   Dir. Takahide Hori, Japan,

Mediatheques Award
Ud, spring over, ind   Dir. Thomas Daneskov, Denmark

Canal + Award
Sequence   Dir. Carles Torrens, United States/Spain

Best Comedy “Fernand Raynaud” Award
Meu amigo Nietzsche  Dir. Fáuston da Silva, Brazil

Jury Mentions

  • Les Jours d’avant   Dir. Karim Moussaoui, Algeria/ France
  • Namo    Dir. Salah Salehi, Iran
  • Olga   Dir. Kaur Kokk, Estonia
  • Zima   Dir. Cristina Picchi, Russia

National Awards

Grand Prix
La Lampe au beurre de yak  Dir. Hu Wei, France/China

Special Jury Prize
Molii   Dirs. Carine May , Mourad Boudaoud , Yassine Qnia & Hakim Zouhani , France

Audience Prize
Inupiluk   Dir. Sébastien Betbeder, France

Best Original Film Score - SACEM Award
Scars of Cambodia   Dir. Alexandre Liebert, France

Best First Film - Prix S.A.C.D. (Société des Auteurs Compositeurs Dramatiques)
T’étais où quand Michael Jackson est mort ?   Dir. Jean-Baptiste Pouilloux, France

Best French Speaking Animation - SACD Award
Lettres de femmes   Dir. Augusto Zanovello, France

Canal + Award
Trucs de gosse   Dir. Emilie Noblet, France

ACSE Award (National Agency for the Social Cohesion and the Equal Opportunity)

Todo se puede   Dir. Elias Belkeddar, France

Telerama Press prize
La Fugue   Dir. Jean-Bernard Marlin, France

Procirep’s Award for Best Producer
For ENVIE DE TEMPÊTE PRODUCTIONS, Frédéric Dubreuil for the film Inupiluk  Dir. Sébastien Betbeder, France

Special Jury Mentions

  • D’où que vienne la douleur    Dir. Khalil Cherti,  France
  • Ennui ennui   Dir. Gabriel Abrantes, France
  • Extrasystole   Dir. Alice Douard, France
  • Pedro malheur   Dir. Camila Beltrán,  France/Mexico
  • Sexy Dream   Dir. Christophe Le Masne, France
  • Lame de fond   Dir. Perrine Michel, France

Lab Competition Awards

Grand Prix
Noah   Dirs. Patrick Cederberg /Walter Woodman, Canada

Special Jury Prize
Montaña en sombre   Dir. Lois Patiño, Spain

Audience Prize
Noah   Dirs. Patrick Cederberg /Walter Woodman, Canada