The MovieSquad IFFR 2010 Award, given by the festival's young people's jury, has been given to Canadian debut feature J’ai tué ma mère.
Made by 20-year-old Xavier Dolan, the drama about a gay Canadian teenager's fraught relationship with his mother is in IFFR's Bright Future strand and has already won more than ten festival prizes, including at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight.
The prize was decided by jury members Roos Meijer (15), Matthijs Koster (17), Aideen Hearn (17), Max de Wolf (17) and Uriël Matahelumual (16).
The jury's statement about the winner suggested that “J’ai tué ma mère is not just a film, but a piece of art. The film has a very recognisable theme, which we are sure a lot of teenagers can identify themselves with. The director combined all film elements in the best possible way. Music, use of different coloured images and dreamy scenes give something extra to the story. Moreover, the use of poetry gives depth to the story and helps explain the behaviour of both the mother and son.”
The MovieSquad Award includes € 2,000.00 to spend on the promotion of the film among young people in The Netherlands.
The jury also praised Tiger contenders Alamar (Pedro González-Rubio, Mexico, 2009) and R (Michael Noer & Tobias Lindholm, Denmark, 2009).
More about J’ai tué ma mère here.