The awards for the 35th edition of the Marseille International Film Festival (FIDMarseille), announced today, have awarded Ico Costa's feature film the Prix Européen des Lycéens Fondation Vacances Bleues (Blue Holidays Foundation), aimed at new talent and the discovery of new cinematographies, and an honourable mention in the Prix de L'École de la 2e Chance, also known as the Prix de la Hope, supported by the Marseille Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts.

The juries for the Marseille Festival awards are made up, respectively, of secondary school students, this year involving students from schools in Greece, Spain, and Germany, and the region's vocational education system.

"O Ouro e o Mundo" is Ico Costa's second feature film and was shot in Mozambique, where the director has been working in recent years. The film made its international premiere at the Festival in Marseille, a few weeks after being awarded Best Portuguese Feature Film at the IndieLisboa festival.

Regarding the production of “O Ouro e o Mundo”, a French co-production, Ico Costa explained that the film was postponed several times due to the pandemic, and the circumstances on the ground ended up dictating that it be made with “a small team and minimal equipment”.

The Grand Prize of the International Competition at this edition of the Marseille Festival went to "bluish", an Austrian production directed by Lilith Kraxner and Milena Czernovsky, which has already been defined as a testament to Generation Z, by portraying two characters, in their twenties, who wander through a city, on dark winter days.

"If I Fall, Don't Pick Me Up", by Irishman Declan Clarke, won the Special Jury Mention in the International Competition. The feature film focuses on Berlin, in 1974, when young director Walter Asmus, then 32 years old, takes over as assistant to playwright Samuel Beckett, 68 years old, who for the first time will direct his classic "À Waiting for Godot". By editing the work on stage, the film documents the beginning of a friendship that did not end after the death of the Nobel Prize winner for Literature.

The Georges de Beauregard Prize, which pays tribute to the French producer and supports the post-production of a film in the International Competition, went to "Todo documento de civilización" by Argentine Tatiana Mazú González. The film revisits the memory of a teenager who disappeared nearly a decade ago at the hands of the police, in what she calls "a process of excavation" amidst the urban hustle and bustle of the city limits of Buenos Aires.

The film’s title comes from Walter Benjamin’s quote: “Every document [testimony] of civilization is at the same time a document of barbarism.”

In addition to "O Ouro e o Mundo", the Portuguese presence in the Marseille competition also included "Sob a chama da candeia", by André Gil Mata, co-produced by Portugal and France. The film has slow shots and little dialogue, and is the director's most recent feature film, after "The Tree", from 2018, and the short film "O Patio do Carrasco", from 2023.

The Doc Alliance programme, from a documentary festival platform of which FIDMarseille is a part, included "As melusinas à beira do rio", by Melanie Pereira, and "Like the glitch of a Ghost", by Paula Albuquerque, in addition to the Portuguese minority co-production 'shorts' "I stumble every time I hear from Kiyv" and "Smoke of the fire", both by Ukrainian filmmaker Daryna Mamaisur, who settled in Portugal.

The festival featured a retrospective of the films of Brazilian director Adirley Queirós and Portuguese director Joana Pimenta.