Ian Gabriel’s Four Corners Continues To Garner International Awards

Ian Gabriel’s debut feature film, Four Corners, continues to garner international awards. Following the film’s Best Film win at the Niagara Film Festival in Canada last month, the South African thriller continued its award-winning streak taking 2nd Place for the ‘Best Film Gryphon’, Youth Jury Award at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy on Sunday night. Director Ian Gabriel’s film was the only South African picture selected to screen at the Italian festival, and was praised for ‘outstanding direction, cinematography, performances and music that gave a strong sense of the world of the film’. Four Corners was featured in the Generator 18 category, where the The Best Film Gryphon was won by Korea’s Joon ik Lee’s true story, Hope.

Giffoni is the largest youth orientated cinematic event in the world and allows young audience members to act as the jury and vote for winning films. This year saw a star studded event where Meryl Streep was awarded a Giffoni Fellowship Award while other attendees to the festival included Alan Rickman, Dylan O’Brian and the festival’s guest star Richard Gere, who hailed the festival as having ‘worldwide importance’.

“International cinema allows you to see the world from a richer and broader perspective than the typical American and Hollywood films youth have traditionally been exposed to. In this way, encouraging the next generation’s interest in these stories allows the broadening of global youth culture and I’m convinced that any good change we hope to see in the world will only come about through the actions of today and tomorrow’s youth” comments director Ian Gabriel.

This is the second Youth Jury Award presented to South African Director Ian Gabriel. His critically-acclaimed feature film, Forgiveness, received a Youth Jury Best Film Award at the Locarno International Film Festival in the year of its release. “It’s a special privilege to be recognised by youth audiences. With Four Corners it was always my intention to make a film that firstly addressed young people, as the film itself is about the choices young people must make. By voting for a film from the Cape Flats at an International festival in a beautiful Italian valley, this Youth Jury has proven that today’s young people want the windows of the world, no matter how distant, opened to them. ”

This week Four Corners will have it’s Quebec premiere in competition at the Fantasia Festival in Montreal. Meanwhile, Four Corners was released this month on DVD and is available in Musica stores nationwide.

By Andrew Germishuys

Founder of SAMDB | Actor | Armourer | Tech Enthusiast With over two decades in the film industry, I'm a seasoned actor and skilled armourer. I hold numerous certifications in acting and filmmaking, complemented by degrees and diplomas in IT and technology, giving me a unique blend of creative and technical expertise. When I'm not on set or in the workshop, you'll find me immersed in the world of gaming and VR, fuelling my passion for cutting-edge technology. Connect with me: X / Twitter Facebook Instagram Mastodon Threads Explore my work on SAMDB IMDb

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