The Ecumenical Jury at the Fribourg International Film Festival 2025 awarded its CHF 5,000 prize to the Chinese film "My Friend An Delie" (Wo de Peng You an Delie) by Dong Zijian, which also won the special prize of the international festival jury. The festival's Grand Prix and the Critics' Choice Award also went to a Chinese film, "Black Dog" (Gou Zhen) by Guan Hu. The Audience Award went to "Nawi" by Toby Schmutzler, a Kenyan-German co-production.
For the 39th edition of the Fribourg International Film Festival, which took place from 21 to 30 March 2025, Festival Director Thierry Jobin and his dedicated team have once again programmed a wide variety of international films that are rarely shown in regular cinemas: 108 films from 52 countries, including 17 world, 3 international, 5 European and 42 Swiss premieres. The crime films in the Genre Cinema section took a particularly unusual but revealing look at the world's cultures and political systems under the theme of "Murders and Mysteries". This included the documentary film "Chain Reactions" by Alexandre O. Philippe (2024), which won an award in Venice.
The "New Territory" section, which presented a sensitive and fascinating cross-section of contemporary filmmaking from Sri Lanka with nine feature-length and four short productions, deserves special mention. As festival director Thierry Jobin explained, filmmakers from the country were also involved in the film selection, who were consulted by Keerthigan Sivakumar, director and curator of the section. The films made in the country itself, but also in exile, made it clear that the tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities have persisted since the civil war that raged from 1983 to 2009. At the same time, however, national filmmaking gives reason for hope. The curator of the section spoke of "films that shed light on the ambivalent influence of the West on Sri Lanka, the complex structures, religious and cultural beliefs of the country's various communities, poverty and discrimination and love." By programming both Tamil and Sinhalese films, the festival created a space for tolerance and reconciliation, which was well received by the audience.