At the 28th Montreal World Film Festival, the Ecumenical
Prize went to Eran Riklis’ The Syrian Bride
‘In the present-day Golan Heights, a wedding turns into
an epic drama. This film shows the courageous choices that
have to be made in order to overcome the emotional and political
barriers that separate families and peoples. The Ecumenical
Prize goes to a film of high artistic quality that confronts
injustice and has universal significance’, the jury commented.
〈The Syrian Bride〉
〈The Syrian Bride〉
The Ecumenical Prize is awarded jointly by the Catholic
and Protestant international organizations, SIGNIS and
INTERFILM since 1973. This year marks the 26th presence
of an international ecumenical jury at Montreal World
Film Festival. Ecumenical Prize also awarded in other
festivals around the world, notably in Berlin, Cannes,
Locarno, Karlovy Vary, Leipzig.
The Ecumenical Prize aims at promoting movies that distinguish
themselves not only by their artistic merit, but also
by their exploration of the ethical, social and spiritual
values that make life human. Meanwhile, 20 films were
being selected for world competition. Surprisingly, the
main themes of those competitive entries mostly were concentrate
on violence, revenge and hatred.
This year, more than 400 films from 70 countries and
regions were showed during the 16-day film feast, some
of them were world premiered in the festival. Therefore,
it was not surprised to see many people lined up outside
the cinemas for some screenings. Over 400,000 tickets
had been sold for various screenings. Meanwhile, acclaimed
movies from Canada and around the globe, including ‘The
Barbarian Invasions’, ‘Gaz Bar Blues’ and ‘The Triplets
of Belleville’ were screened free-of-charge under the
stars.
Members of Ecumenical Jury (Catherine WONG, the
third one on the right)
The members of the 2004 Ecumenical Jury were Philip Lee
from U.K., Viviane Borderie from France, Catherine Wong
from Hong Kong, Gilles Leblanc from Canada, Victoria L.
Obedkoff from Canada and Michael Bausch from USA.
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