A Pilgrimage Into Tibet by Mark Gould

“A Pilgrimage Into Tibet,” directed by Australian filmmaker Mark Gould, is a journey into an ancient culture condensed into a documentary that, in just under 30 minutes, illustrates the importance of cinema in sharing the stories of entire populations that would otherwise remain largely unknown to much of the audience. Mark Gould masterfully creates a project that we at the Sun Dance In Paris Film Awards will never forget. We will contribute to spreading the documentary by recommending the selection of “A Pilgrimage Into Tibet” to other festivals as well. We believe that Mark Gould’s idea of telling a story from Tibet deserves great attention for social reasons too. Combining sociology and cinema can sometimes yield admirable results in terms of civil rights, and “A Pilgrimage Into Tibet” is one of those cases. We also express our gratitude to the WILD FILMMAKER Community for suggesting we pre-select Mark Gould’s project, as independent cinema, through documentaries like this, achieves its unique and precious characteristic of being a “free space for free artists.”

TutuTango by Dorothee Elfring & Michael Finbar Sheehan

“TutuTango” is one of those projects that make our work an exciting journey of discovering free and inspired artists who share their art from all over the world without the pressure of having to “sell a product.” This condition allows artists to create what we at the Sun Dance In Paris Film Awards consider the purest form of art. The project by Dorothee Elfring & Michael Finbar Sheehan successfully combines photography, music, and dance into a poetic and moving music video. Our unanimous decision was to award “TutuTango” the highest scores, both for the courage demonstrated by the two directors in creating a new language and for the atmospheres present in the project. A big thank you to the WILD FILMMAKER Team, whose ability to always seek out original artists reveals experimental art forms that we will help to spread. Our appeal to all viewers of “TutuTango” is to let themselves be taken by the hand by this music video, hoping you experience the same emotions felt by the entire jury of the Sun Dance In Paris Film Awards.

Soul & Halloween (Rabbit Well Episode 6) by I-Jien Kou

The Sun Dance In Paris Film Awards has a unique prerogative: to particularly reward those projects that, through experimentation, manage to create a new kind of cinema. This is why we decided to recognize several awards for I-Jien Kou, who, with her two projects “Soul” and “Halloween (Rabbit Well Episode 6),” demonstrated that she is a director ready to surpass the expressive limits that an author often sets when creating a work. These expressive limits often stem from the fear of not being understood by much of the audience, but in the case of I-Jien Kou, they were absent. Her courage has been rewarded. “Halloween (Rabbit Well Episode 6),” despite being a debut project, did not suffer from the first-time effect that often occurs when a director is inexperienced. This is why we wanted to award it as both First Time Director and Best Animated Comedy, in addition to the production award. We also greatly appreciated the project “Soul,” where the director’s style is perceived as always experimental but very direct. Ultimately, we at the Sun Dance In Paris Film Awards believe that I-Jien Kou is an artist destined for a great international career. We were happy to support her with our awards.

Omnipotent Resolution by Uniqueness Heiress & Azia

Poetry, dream, dance, music. All these elements are what we admired in the project “Omnipotent Resolution” by Uniqueness Heiress & Azia. This music video transported us to another dimension, confirming that art can truly be the most powerful means to explore seemingly distant realms of one’s soul, which become very close thanks to the artwork created by an inspired and highly talented artist. In the 2024 edition of the Sun Dance In Paris Film Awards, we received various music videos, and “Omnipotent Resolution” is certainly among those we appreciated the most. The credit goes to the two artists who have also demonstrated great skill in distributing their work. It’s no coincidence that such an original project came to us from the WILD FILMMAKER Community, which has a dual mission of discovering artists with both aesthetic value and a vision of the world based on free thought. Our jury, both French and international, awarded “Omnipotent Resolution” the highest marks.