A record breaking 90 films from (an also record breaking) 32 countries participated in the 6th Film Olympiad Grand Prix. 14 countries were represented for the fist time in Film Olympiad. This was the last Film Olympiad Grand Prix, before our 1st Film Olympiad annual event!
“Invisible” (Spain) by by Javier Vargas became the first Spanish and the first LGBTQ film to win a Film Olympiad Grand Prix. It totalled 6 Gold and 3 Silver Medals in 9 nominations, including awards in the categories of Best Student Film, Screenplay, Idea, Leading Actor.
It was the first time in Film Olympiad history to date, where both Finals and the semifinals were so tightly contested. “Do you feel a tingle?” by Lucia Valverde came as close second winning the Silver Medal. However, Lucia Valverde became the first woman director to win the Gold Medal in the director category. Her film was the first Luxembourgish film to win a Film Olympiad medal.
The Bronze medal final was won by “One Twenty, Twelve Hundred” (Iran) by Saeid Zarei. This made Iran the third country after the UK and USA to win multiple medals in the Best Film category.
The films are initially divided in 18 groups of 5 films each, seeded according to the Jury’s initial evaluation ratings.
32 of them are qualified to the knock – out stage. With only 5 knock-out wins, a film, becomes the Film Olympiad Grand Prix Gold Medalist.
Qualification to knock – out stage:
a) Best film from each group (18 films) b) Best rated 2nd placed films (14 films)
Knock – out stage:
Films are seeded according to their group stage position and ratings to the knock – out bracket. There are 5 rounds (Round of 32, Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Finals) and in each round films are re-evaluated.