Kinship Rings

Athina Rachel Tsangari, Teresa Villaverde and Simon Field award the Bildrausch Ring of Film Art to Lucrecia Martel’s Zama and Lav Diaz’Season of the Devil, «two films that equally and magnificently defend and advance cinema and its possibilities, and hence life itself. Although aesthetically quite distinct from one another, each is an utterly unique creation of cinematic genius. These two films confront the histories of their countries that have forsaken and scorned their own. We love the image of these two film-makers, working across the globe from another, wearing their Bildrausch kinship rings.» An Honorable Mention goes to RaMell Ross for Hale County This Morning, This Evening. Zama opens in Swiss theatres on June 7, 2018. | more

The first Honorary Award for Visionary Cinema goes to Paul Schrader

For over forty years, Paul Schrader has defined the great art of subverting Hollywood from the inside – emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. At his closing ceremony, Bildrausch paid homage to the grand auteur with the newly introduced Honorary Award for Visionary Cinema. The Award was presented by Dominik Graf.

A Bildrausch Ring of Film Art for Ang Panahon ng Halimaw (Season of the Devil), by Lav Diaz

In 1976, Ferdinand Marcos issued a presidential decree that led to the creation of a paramilitary group. This terrorist militia subsequently murdered nurses like Lorena, but also poets like Hugo. Shot in black and white, Season of the Devil is an additional contribution about the history and present of Lav Diaz’ homeland and alternates between opera, musical and musical theatre. | more

A Bildrausch Ring of Film Art for Zama, by Lucrecia Martel

The end of the 18th century, Asunción in Paraguay, an outpost of civilisation in the midst of wilderness: Don Diego de Zama, a lowly official in the Spanish colonial administration, wants to get away. By focusing on the power structures of a social microcosm, Lucrecia Martel creates a kind of anti-costume drama, in which the forced boredom of the tragic hero finds its equivalent in the Kafkaesque machinations of the ruling class. Zama opens in Swiss theatres on June 7, 2018. | more

A honorable mention for Hale County This Morning, This Evening, by RaMell Ross

Hale County is located in Alabama, in the so-called Black Belt, and thus in the midst of the historic South with all its unfortunate memories. Here, the photographer and filmmaker RaMell Ross has among other things worked as a teacher and basketball coach. During his tenure, he met his protagonists – Quincy, a young family father and Daniel, who dreams of a sports scholarship – long before he decided to capture the reality of these two men and the black community of Hale County with his camera. Ross – who in the good old independent tradition was responsible for the directing, production, screenplay, cinematography, sound-recording and editing of his film – worked on his experimental documentary for five years. | more

THE OFFICIAL FESTIVAL TRAILER BY LAV DIAZ His award-winning slow cinema is invited to the most prestigious festivals around the world. The acclaimed Philippine director, winner of the Bildrausch Ring of Film Art 2018 and outstanding story teller Lav Diaz created Bildrausch’s official trailer.