On the Adamant by French director Nicolas Philibert and Anna Hints’ Sundance winner Smoke Sauna Sisterhood are among the five finalists for the LUX Audience Award 2024.
Organised by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinema since 2020, the LUX Audience Award combines the ratings of the European public with the ratings of MEPs, each accounting for 50% of the final result.
The five nominated films will be screened in cinemas across Europe with subtitles in the EU’s 24 official languages.
On the Adamant by French director Nicolas Philibert is a documentary about a unique day care centre: a floating structure on the Seine in the heart of Paris. While floating, this place is an anchor in time and space for adults living with mental disorders. The film invites us to get on board and meet the patients and caregivers who bring the centre to life day to day.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood by Estonian director Anna Hints tells the story of a group of women that gather in the safe darkness of a smoke sauna to share their innermost thoughts and secrets. Enveloped by a warm, dense heat, they bare all to expel fears and shame and regain their strength.
The other finalists are the fiction features 20,000 Species of Bees by Spanish director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren; In Fallen Leaves by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki, and The Teachers’ Lounge directed by Ilker Çatak (Germany).
The European Parliament established the LUX Film Prize in 2007 “to help distribute EU films with high artistic quality that reflect cultural diversity in Europe and beyond, and that touch on issues of common concern, such as human dignity, equality, non-discrimination, inclusion, tolerance, justice and solidarity.”
Announcing the nominations in Venice this week, European Film Academy chair (and independent producer) Mike Downey said: “We should all be proud of the very special traditions and imperatives of European cinema, and we feel very lucky that we have had, so far, a Parliament that stands with us to treasure and curate them with the respect and care they deserve. They stand strong behind the European values we all know and prize, and the five films we have selected here could not have been made anywhere else, but in the heart of the continent whose leaders do so much to support the European version of the Seventh Art.”
