The Ecumenical Jury at the 40th Fribourg International Film Festival awarded its prize, worth CHF 5,000, to the feature film ‘The Sun Rises on Us All’ (original title: Ri gua zhong tian, China 2025) by Cai Shangjun, which tells the bitter story of a former couple burdened by guilt. The festival’s Grand Prix went to “Divine Comedy” by Ali Asgari (Iran 2025), a satire on the absurdity of bureaucracy and censorship in Iran, whilst the Special Jury Award went to “My Father’s Shadow” (Nigeria, UK 2025), the feature film debut by Akinola Davies Jr., which follows two brothers and their father as they experience the turmoil surrounding the outcome of the Nigerian presidential elections in Lagos in 1993. ‘Honeymoon’ by Zhanna Ozirna (Ukraine 2024), about a young couple’s relationship during the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian civilian population, won the Critics' Choice Award and the Youth Jury Award.
The festival opened on 20 March with the Lebanese feature film ‘A Sad and Beautiful World’ (Nujum al'amal w al'alam, Lebanon, Germany, USA, Saudi Arabia, Qatar 2025) by Cyril Aris. It is dedicated to films from the Global South (Africa, Asia and Latin America) as well as from Eastern Europe. In addition to the two competitions for feature-length and short films, the festival programme included several parallel sections: Genre cinema, a tribute to the now-defunct film fund Vision Sud Est, the country focus ‘New Territory’ (this year on Colombia) and a selection from the festival’s first edition under the title ‘Decryption’, to mark the anniversary year. In addition, the winner of the newly established Fribourg Cinema Award, Kaouther Ben Hania from Tunisia, presented a selection of her favourite films. The director recently attracted international attention with her docu-fiction film “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, which premiered in Venice.