Marche avec les loups”, by Jean-Michel Bertrand, wins the 23rd Stambecco d’Oro (Golden Ibex) Award offered by Fondazione CRT (worth € 3,000) and the Junior Golden Ibex Award; both were awarded by the jury composed by the Festival audience. The French director, who attended the ceremony, explained: “The film, which features wild wolves filmed in their natural environment, was shot in two years in the French Alps. It encourages the audience to reflect on our relationship with nature, on the territorial behaviour of animals and humans, and how they encroach in each other’s territory. It intends to draw attention to such a broad and crucial topic.”
The ceremony brought the Festival to a close; this was a special, remarkable edition, with a sold out at every event and a jury composed by 869 registered members. In the complex context of the pandemic, this year’s edition is a challenge that Fondation Grand Paradis appears to have won.
“This year’s innovative formula, partly imposed by the health emergency, has stimulated our creativity – said Luisa Vuillermoz, Artistic Director of the Festival. It has prompted us to identify new narrative forms by experimenting with solutions that could become a feature of future editions. Thanks to the online events we have been able to bring Nature – which the Festival celebrates – not only to the Gran Paradiso area but to the wider world”. Ms Vuillermoz added: “As a symbol of this year’s edition we have chosen the mosaic image of an ibex eye composed by nature images. This has a strong metaphorical value: it represents our collective commitment against the pandemic and in favour of sustainability. Both challenges cannot be successfully addressed individually; they can only be tackled by working together”.
The award ceremony included a video interview with this year’s special guest, Enrico Giovannini, spokesman and co-founder of ASviS – the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development – who shared his views on the Festival’s theme, “New paths in the post-Covid 19 era – the challenge of sustainability”. On the topic of the Alliance’s commitment to the objectives laid out in the 2030 Agenda – which spells out the goals set by the heads of state and government to achieve sustainable development – Professor Giovannini said: “We are not respecting the principle of intergenerational equity. Our response to the current crisis may tip things in favour of those who are already in a position of power, rather than empowering the new European generations, as the EU encourages to do. We propose to change the Constitution by introducing the principle of intergenerational equity. This is a preoccupation that our forefathers did not take into account when drafting the Constitution, in the aftermath of World War II, because that was a time when economic growth seemed limitless. The general impression was that the younger generations would automatically be better off than the previous ones”.
In addition to the prizes awarded by the audience, the technical jury awarded the Automous Region Region of Aosta Valley Award, worth 1000 euros, to “The elephant queen” by Mark Deeble and Victoria Stone. The Gran Paradiso National Park Award, worth 500 euros, went to the short film “Plastic River” by Manuel Camia.
Additional information about the awards, the motivations and the full video recording of the event are available on www.27.gpff.it.