Denise Fernandes’ ‘Hanami’ wins the Smart 7 award ✨🐦⬛🎞️🏆
After seven films circulated through the seven festivals in the network throughout the year, their journey ends at the last European festival to take place: Thessaloniki IFF. It is at this festival that the SMART7 Jury announces the winning film.
‘Hanami’ is a Portuguese and Cape Verdean co-production, awarded Best Feature Film in the National Competition at the last edition of IndieLisboa.
According to the Jury, the SMART7 Award was given for its originality, in terms of its decolonial point of view. With a magical realist sensibility, the director portrays the life of a girl who contemplates Cabo Verde’s past, present and future in a very unique way, exploring the history of a community that has been instrumentalized by an imperialistic force for centuries.
ABOUT SMART7 AWARD
Aiming to foster the transnational circulation of European titles, the Smart7 film festival cooperation network features a Competition Section, presenting a selection of seven national films (one from each member country). One film will win the Smart7 Award, followed by a prize of 5,000 euros. The network is composed of the following film festivals: New Horizons International Film Festival (Poland), IndieLisboa International Film Festival (Portugal), Thessaloniki International Film Festival (Greece), Transilvania International Film Festival (Romania), FILMADRID International Film Festival (Spain), Reykjavik International Film Festival (Iceland), and Vilnius International Film Festival Kino Pavasaris (Lithuania).
Get to know more about this network here.