34th Recontres Henri Langlois Winners Bared

The winners of the 34th edition of the Recontres Henri Langlois International Film School Competition were announced in a simple ceremony at the Main Auditorium of the TAP Scene Nationale de Poitiers (France).

The top prize, the Gran Prix du Jury, went to Frozen Stories by Grzegorz Jaroszuk, a student from Poland's PWSFTviT film academy. The humorous tale of two misfits set against a harsh Polish winter also won the Prix du Public (Audience Choice).

Reaching Out to Mama by Olga Tomenko, a film student of the VGIK Russia, bagged three awards in different categories. The 27-minute short feature that essays the poignant search for a mother's love received the Prix de la Mise en scene (Best Director Prize), the Prix Decouverte de la Critique Francaise (Crtics Choice Award), and the Prix du Jury etudiant (a Special Award from the local academe).

Other winners include L'Exchange by Maria Steinmetz of Germany's Hochschule fur Film und Fernsehen Konrad Wolf and Abuelas by Afarin Eghbal from the UK's National Film & Television School (NFTS) -which both shared Prix Special du Jury (Special Jury Prize). A Romanian film scholar from the Hochschule fur Film und Fernsehen Munchen, Anca Miruna Lazarescu was awarded the Prix du Scenario (Best Screenplay) for her Silent River; which focuses on the desperate plight of illegal border crossers from Central Europe.

South Korea's Sae-Mi Yang of the Chung-Ang University got the Prix Wallpaper Post for her full-length feature Broken Pieces on a unsual triangle between schoolgirls.

All the winners recieved cash awards from the festival's sponsors, as well as from the city of Poitiers.