The ifs graduation film »El Mártir« has been awarded the Grand Prix du jury in the International Selection at the Poitiers Film Festival (29 Nov. – 6 Dec.) in France. The award comes with a prize of 3,000 €.
In »El Mártir« (Director: Alejandro Mathé; Screenplay: Alejandro Mathé, Jose Alberto Arias Pereira; Producer: Anna Weber; DoP: Zoe Dumas; Production Design: Luca Wirtz; Editing & Sound Design: Leo Muheim), a young man explores his sexuality in the summer heat of a small Andalusian village through the half-naked figure of Jesus Christ. Elías is not only aroused by the images of Jesus and the martyrs — he wants to be like them. To draw closer to God, he begins to develop a masochistic inclination that increasingly dominates his life. The drama was funded by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
Just last November, »El Mártir« won an award in the Best Granada Cinematography category at the Festival Internacional de Cine de Granada. It had already been nominated for the First Steps Award 2023 in the Medium-Length Feature Film category and for the Michael Ballhaus Prize.
The Poitiers Film Festival traces its origins to the Rencontres Internationales Henri Langlois festival, founded in 1977, and is one of the oldest and most prestigious international festivals for film students and works from film schools in France.