London festival crowns Mika Gustafson’s Paradise is Burning, Palestinian doc Bye Bye Tiberias

The main prizes for the London Film Festival’s various competition sections were announced on Sunday.

In its motivation note, the jury of the first feature competition including British director Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane), Rotterdam festival director Vanja Kaludjercic and composer/filmmaker Barry Adamson said about Paradise is Burning:

“A trio of arresting and naturalistic performances power this spirited tale of siblings enjoying the pleasures and pitfalls of life ‘home alone’. With their mother absent since Christmas, sisters Laura, Mira and Steffi are used to fending for themselves, finding joy in their freedom and endless illicit capers. Each is on the cusp of something new, but all their futures hang in the balance. Drawing out vivid performances from her young cast, director Mika Gustafson’s exquisite rendering of character and emotion is, quite simply, a revelation.”

Commenting on her prestigious award, the former Nordic Talents winner Gustafson said she was proud to receive an award handed out earlier to fellow female directors Julia Decournau and Andrea Arnold. “This gives me a lot of energy and courage to keep working and on my next project,” she observed.

Paradise is Burning had its world premiere at the last Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti section were Gustafson scooped best director.

The was film produced by Nima Yousefi for auteur-driven Hobab, in co-production with Finland’s Tuffi Films, Denmark’s Toolbox Film, Italy’s Intramovies, with support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

TriArt will release it in Sweden on October 27. Italy’s Intramovies handles sales.

Read our interview - Paradise is Burning’s Mika Gustafson on creating a poetic, playful and punk movie.

Meanwhile the French/Belgian/Qatari/Palestinian Bye Bye Tiberias by Lina Soualem about her relationship with her mother, renowned Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass (Succession) and their shared experience of separation and returning home was handed out the coveted Grierson award-best documentary.

Soualem said about her award: “I thank them [the jury] for celebrating the stories of the Palestinian women of my family, for having seen their struggles, felt their strength, mourned their losses, understood their complexities and accepted their contradictions. I thank them for having seen their humanity, and for deciding to highlight it.“

“The stories passed on by these women weave the history of a people deprived of its identity and constantly bound to reinvent itself. This is a story about vanished places, life-changing experiences, and scattered memories. By making this film, I followed the same path as the women in my family. Passing on our story has always been central for us. With our words, we fight against erasure. I wanted to seize their stories before they vanish into oblivion, to preserve the images of a world that is disappearing fast. Images that stand as proof of a denied existence. “

“At a time when we feel unseen, and more stigmatised than ever, at a time when we don’t know what tomorrow will be like, our films will always exist to remember us.”

The award for best film from the main official competition was given to Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist.