10th Budapest International Documentary Film Festival is ended – here are the winners

More than 10,000 viewers in Budapest and 10 other Hungarian cities watched 250 screenings of the world’s most prestigious films.

The official award ceremony of the 10th BIDF, closing on Sunday evening, took place on Saturday evening. At the award ceremony, the winners of the competition program and special prizes were announced. The organisers were delighted to inform the public that, immediately after the festival, the BIDF NET online distribution platform would be continuously expanding its selection of films from this year’s competition program and previous festivals.

This year, 45 films competed at the 10th Budapest International Documentary Film Festival.

Awards were announced in 8 categories

In the category: Your fight:

Main award: Seven Winters in Tehran/ Steffi Niederzoll

Special mention: Manifesto/ Angie Vinchito

In the category: Your desire

Main award: Home Game/ Smari Gunn, Logi Sigursveinsson

Special mention: Aurora’s Sunrise/ Inna Sahakjan

In the category: Your secret

Main award: Knit’s Island / Ekien Barbier, Guilhem Causse, Quentin L’helgoualc’h

Special mention: Dear Mother, I Meant to Write About Death / Siyi Chen

In the category: Your country

Main award: Lost Souls of Syria / Stéphane Malterre és Garance Le Caisne

Special mention: Paradise / Alexander Abaturov

In the category: Your faith

Main award: Four daughters / Kaouther Ben Hania

Special mention: Pure Unknowns / Valentina Cicogna, Mattia Colombo

Short films:

Main award: The Dream of a Horse / Marjan Khosravi

Special mention: Ode to Happiness / Jake Bellew

The award of the Senior Jury:

Vika! / Agnieszka Zwiefka

The award of the Students Jury:

Name Me Lawand / Edward Lovelace

BIDF 2024 audience award

After the last screening on Sunday evening, it was revealed that the 2024 audience award went to Lazaro and the Shark by William Sabourin O’Reilly, USA.

What is the film about?

“There has been no other film, produced either in or outside Cuba, that goes as deep into the fascinating underground of the most African Cuban cities, Santiago de Cuba.”

Lazaro and The Shark: Cuba Under the Surface is a feature documentary that brings us to the world of Conga Competitions in the Carnival of Santiago de Cuba – one of the poorest Carnival in the world. Lázaro, the leader of the Conga de Los Hoyos, is determined to win the coveted award bestowed to the neighborhood that presents the most spectacular Conga. Like leaders of rival congas, Lazaro must join with his neighbors and scour the strictly rationed marketplace to find the necessary materials to create a show-stopping performance. Director William Sabourin O’Reilly, an Afrocuban native to Havana, offers a rare window into communist Cuba, a country that is often romanticized, and almost always portrayed through the eyes of an outsider.

The BIDF team will make every effort to show the film again throughout the year for those who have not seen it during the festival!

For more information, kindly, visit the festival’s continuously updated webpage, Facebook and Instagram.

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