Berlinale 2024 - Sex and Shahid are the Arthouse Cinema Award winners • CICAE

On Saturday 24 February 2024, the juries of the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas (CICAE) at the 74th Berlinale announced the winning films of the Arthouse Cinema Award: Sex by Dag Johan Haugerud at the Panorama section; and Shahid by Narges Kalhor at the Forum section.

Sex by Dag Johan Haugerud is the winner of the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award 2024 in the Panorama section. The CICAE jury chose to award Sex and stated the following:

"The winner of the CICAE award is a movie with a strong but gentle sense of humor, with characters that know how to tell a story and how to listen to it. All of them, whether they are friends or lovers, are willing to express their feelings, without having to fear judgemental reactions. Those two chimney sweeps clearly worship each other in such a beautiful friendship. The film also gives space for tenderness within the couple, or in between father and child. How not relate to these families that could be ours?

The narrative unfolds with a balance of humor and introspection to challenge normative images of men and society in urban Norway. This approach not only engages the audience but also helps to question societal expectations surrounding sexuality. This is without mentioning the formal intelligence, combining very cinematic movements such as zooms and panoramics, mixed with majestic musical interludes. Altogether, it feels that we are witnessing the constant changes and questioning of a modern society.

We were so happy to learn that it was the beginning of a trilogy. Hopefully we will be able to continue hearing from those characters we got to love. The CICAE Panorama award goes to SEX by Dag Johan Haugerud."

The jury was formed by the following international members of the CICAE :

Victor Courgeon, cinéma Le Méliès (FR)
Anna Kruse, Capitol Marbourg (DE)
Ilona van Heeckeren, Natlab (NL)

Two chimney sweeps living in monogamous, heterosexual marriages both end up in situations that challenge their views on sexuality and gender roles. One has a sexual encounter with another man, without himself experiencing it either as an expression of homosexual longings or infidelity. The other suddenly experiences nocturnal dreams in which he is seen as a woman. This confuses and disturbs him. He begins to wonder to what extent the gaze of others shapes his personality and whether there are aspects of himself that he has suppressed, thereby limiting himself.In Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex, the chimney is swept before we get down to business. Whether hetero or homo, witty wordplay challenges normative images of men and society in modern urban Norway.

More information on the Berlinale website.

Directed by: Dag Johan Haugerud

Written by: Dag Johan Haugerud

Cinematographer: Cecilie Semec

Editing: Jens Christian Fodstad

Music: Peder Capjon Kjellsby

Cast: Jan Gunnar Røise, Thorbjørn Harr, Siri Forberg, Birgitte Larsen

Production:

International Sales:

Shahid by Narges Kalhor is the winner of the CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award in the Forum section. The CICAE jury chose to award Shahid and stated the following:

"The Arthouse Cinema Award 2024 goes to a unique and bold piece of filmmaking that manages to tear down conventions and borders. For its stylistically and thematically multi-layered approach that crafts a very honest and intimate film that uses self-irony while touching upon significant and consequential issues. For a director that manages to gracefully balance reality and fiction, humor and tragedy, various art forms and emotions into a powerful cinematic blend. The Arthouse Cinema Award 2024 goes to SHAHID by NARGES KAHLOR."

The jury was formed by the following international members of the CICAE :

Andrea Crozzoli, Cinemazero (IT)
Anca Caramelea, Cinema ARTA (RO)
Stefan Malešević, de Balie (NL)

A wildly clever film that’s part reality, part fiction, part theatre and part musical. Director Narges Shahid Kalhor directs an actor playing a version of herself. She doesn’t want to be called “Shahid” (martyr) anymore, and is determined to change her name. Then, her heroic great-grandfather turns up – given the title of martyr 100 years ago in Iran – from whom his descendants inherited the name. He wants to dissuade his great-granddaughter, and shadows her in her quest along with his dancing friends. The Bavarian district administration sends her to a psychologist, who also has a difficult name… In the end, everyone is hindered: the director by bureaucracy, the actor by the director’s demands, her great-grandfather by his descendant’s determination and the film by itself. The winds of history blow her round and round in circles, through the scenic German town and through her own film shoot, as stereotypes and privileges are shaken up performatively and inventively, all while having a lot of fun along the way. Ambiguous autofiction with visual arcs, songs and poems: a tragicomic, defiant act of self-empowerment in exile.

Directed by: Narges Kalhor

Written by: Narges Kalhor, Aydin Alinejad

Cinematographer: Felix Pflieger

Editing: Frank Müller, Narges Kalhor

Music: Marja Burchard

Cast: Baharak Abdolifard, Nima Nazarinia, Narges Kalhor, Thomas Sprekelsen, Carine Huber

Production:

The CICAE Arthouse Cinema Award was conceived as an impetus for a film to have a wider recognition as a work of art and to stand as a mark of quality for cinema-goers and cinephiles.