Faith in Film Award Tromsø 2022

At the 32nd Tromsø International Film Festival (17-23 January, 2022) the Faith in Film Award was given to "Medusa", directed by Anita Rocha da Silveira from Brazil. The award was established by the Centre for Art, Culture and Church, the Norwegian Church Academies and the Tromsø Church Academy in 2017. The 2022 Jury was composed by Ylva Liljeholm, Fartun Husseinand Morten Kjerstad.

The motivation of the jury reads: "In Medusa we get to follow a young woman, Mariana, during her journey from dogmatic sisterhood and perverted theology to physical and spiritual liberation. Medusa is thought provoking, funny, scary, entertaining, beautiful, frightening, youthful and not least a solid craft and a work of art that has obviously cost blood, sweat and tears to make. Medusa plays with genres, it juggles a large number of themes, it is politically timeless and at the same time it puts the finger on fascism in today Brazil. The jury would like to emphasize that the film reminds us that we as humans are not good or evil but nuanced. We are living beings who will always be influenced by the context we are put in. As humans we may be divided but the divine is in all of us. This piece of film art makes us as audiences want to be better humans tomorrow than we are today."

The film also won the Aurora Prize, the main award of the festival.