An interfaith film jury, including an INTERFILM representative for the first time, awarded the Faith in Film Award at the Tromsø International Film Festival (January 13-19, 2025) to François Ozon's "When Fall Is Coming".
As their motivation, the jury said: "This year's winner addresses and reflects on themes such as grace and forgiveness. It is a solid film with high quality in every aspect. We are presented with a beautiful French rural landscape, characterized by autumn colors that form the framework for a gripping and bittersweet portrayal of old age, a life lived and the consequences of the past.
The plot starts out mundane and seemingly harmonious, before it steadily increases in complexity. Through a gradual build-up of intensity, the film keeps us captivated from start to finish.
The actors' performances are particularly strong, and with a relatively small cast of characters, the film gives room for close and deeply human portrayals of the characters. They are portrayed with care in all their imperfections, and each of them carries a past that catches up with them.
The actors' presence combined with closeness of the camera, means that the audience gets close to the characters' emotions. A strength of the script is the details: the everyday routines, the personal relationships and local surroundings that together create a sense of an authentic life.
During the plot, a life in harmony is repeatedly confronted with the past, which drives situations in which the main character is forced to act according to her convictions. The actions are colored by her unspoken motto "the end justifies the means".
One of the story's most outstanding qualities is its ability to open the audience's interpretations of the concepts of crime, punishment and reconciliation. This makes it a film that leaves a lasting mark and invites reflection.
We wonder what must one sacrifice to have an "ordinary" life, when the past is anything but simple?"
Members of the 2025 Faith in Film Jury were Mette Arnstad, actress and associate professor, representative for INTERFILM, Aslaug Eidsvik, media scholar, administrative director at Perspektivet Museum, and Carl Axel Reibo Gundersen, project manager for the Nordic Youth Film Festival at Tvibit. The award winner receives a haind-painted icon, made in the Carmelite monastery in Tromsø.