IFFR 2013: It's Awards Time! MATTERHORN, WADJDA, and More Win

This weekend saw the closing of this year's International Film Festival Rotterdam, and this means all of its awards are now known.

The three Hivos Tiger Awards for best film by a newcomer (only first and second features count) were won by the following:

My Dog Killer, by Mira Fornay (Slovakia / Czech Republic)
Soldate Jeannette, by Daniel Hoesl (Austria)
Fat Shaker, by Mohammad Shirvani (Iran)

Each of these winners takes home 15,000 Euro and some distribution deals, as for starters the Tigers will be shown on Dutch television in the coming year.

The UPC Audience Award surprisingly went to a Dutch film for the first time since 1998, and it was one of three Dutch films in the final top 10. But after being in second place for most of the festival behind Wadjda by the merest of margins, with its last screening on the last day Matterhorn by Diederik Ebbinge edged in first. Both films received a mean audience rating of 4.7 out of 5, which is incredibly high.

Wadjda by Haifaa Al Mansour (Saudi Arabia) may have ended as second, but it did take home the Dioraphte award for best film sponsored by the Hubert Bals Foundation. This means both films now go home with a cool 10,000 Euro prize each.

And of course there were plenty of other awards as well. You can visit the IFFR page for a full overview.

And now I'd better go hunt down Matterhorn, as I haven't seen it yet...