The Malaysian film "Abang Adik" by Jin Ong won the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the Audience Award at Fribourg 2023. The Grand Prix of the Festival as well as the Critics' Choice Award went to "Plan 75" by Chie Hayakawa (Japan, France, Philippines, Qatar 2022), the Special Jury Award to "World War III" by Houman Seyedi (Iran 2022).
On 17 March, the Festival international du film de Fribourg opened with the French-Japanese co-production "Umami" by Slony Sow, which belongs to the Genre Cinema section. This year it was dedicated to culinary cinema. In total, the festival, which is characterised by its concentration on films of world cinema, i.e. from Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, showed 99 films in twelve sections. The Ecumenical Jury chose its winner from among the twelve long feature films in the international competition. The country focus was on films from the Republic of Moldova, the guest of honour Fatih Akin.