The Awards evening of the 14th Luxembourg City Film Festival (LuxFilmFest) was held at Kinepolis-Kirchberg on Saturday 9 March 2024.
The evening started with a tribute award to Viggo Mortensen: delivered in a passionate speech in French, the laudator went through the achievements of Viggo on screen before he called on Gaspar Noe, an Argentinian filmmaker and screenwriter who lives in France, to present the award to Viggo. Gaspar Noe shared how he first met Viggo and of their common history with Argentina. Viggo himself then said a few words in French before he left the room for the remainder of the awards ceremony.
For the next hour the awards of the festival where given out, from the youth juries, the documentary jury, the Fipresci jury, the VR jury and eventual the main awards.
The VR Jury presented an award to the film Noire, and a special mention to the production The Fury; they said that after having seen all VR productions shown at the festival they had a "revived sense of hope for the (VR) medium".
A big winner of the evening was the film Terrestrial Verses by filmmakers Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami. They won the Fipresci award, given by a jury of international film journalists. Their film was supported by Luxembourg and Luxembourgish company Cynefilms, the producer of which was Cyrus Neshvad, last year's Luxembourgish short-listed nominee at the Oscars for his short film The Red Suitcase. After thanking and praising Luxembourg for its generosity and heart, the two filmmakers joked about who would get to take the physical award home with them. It was only a few awards later when they won a second award that the argument could be settled, as the two filmmakers now could each take home an award.
After the awards had concluded, Viggo Mortensen returned to briefly introduced his new film The Dead Don't Hurt, a western he wrote, directed, starred in and for which he even composed the music. Luxembourg actor Vickie Krieps, who also starred in the film, joined him on stage, suggesting to the audience that while they may know Viggo as a powerful actor, they will now get to know him as a maybe even better director.
14th Festival's List of Winners
THE GRAND PRIX AWARD by Orange — Terrestrial Verses by Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami
+ Special Mention for Performance the actor, Kauan Alvarenga, from Toll by Carolina Markowicz
+ Special Mention for Direction to the filmmaker Luna Carmoon for her film Hoard
THE DOCUMENTARY AWARD BGL BNP Paribas — Reas by Lola Arias
The 2030 AWARD BY AID & DEVELOPMENT — The Echo by Tatiana Huezo
The #audienceaward — Gasoline Rainbow by Ross Brothers
The INTERNATIONAL CRITIC'S AWARD (FIPRESCI) — Terrestrial Verses by #AliAsgari and Alireza Khatami, a Luxembourgish coproduction by Cynefilms.
The BEST IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE — Coloured, the Unknown Life of Claudette Colvin by Stéphane Foenkinos and Pierre-Alain Giraud + a Special Mention — The Fury by Shirin Neshat
THE YOUTH AWARD by Kinepolis Luxembourg — 5 Seasons of Revolution by LINA
THE SCHOOL JURY AWARD — Scrapper by Charlotte Regan
THE KIDS JURY AWARD — La Maison des Egarées by Shinya Kawatsura
The next edition of the Luxembourg film festival was announced to take place from 6 to 16 March 2025.
