Atomic Ivan, Nuclear Savage and High Power received Rio de Janeiro´s Yellow Oscars

In typical Brazilian style with Samba and Caipirinha Magnifica ended the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival of Rio Janeiro 2013 in the cinema of the Modern Art Museum (MAM). A band of Rio de Janeiro’s famous Favela Mangueira, where Rio´s popular Samba was born, played for the selected audience with the presence of Atomic Bomb Survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the festival winners. In total six Films from six countries - Russia, India, USA, Estonia, Jordan and Germany - were honored with the Uranium Film Festival’s trophy, the Yellow Oscar. Between May 16th and May 26 the festival screened 52 documentaries and fiction movies from 19 countries.

The six award recipients are:

Best Feature Fiction Movie: ATOMIC IVAN – Russia, 2012, 91 min, Director Vasily Barkhatov, Executive producer, Viktoria Gromik, TELESTO FILM - Best Feature Documentary: NUCLEAR SAVAGE: The Islands of Secret Project - USA, 2012, 87 min, Adam Jonas Horowitz - Best Short Comedy: CURIOSITY KILLS - Estonia, 2012, 14 min, Sander Maran - Best Short Documentary: HIGH POWER – India, 2013, 27 min, Pradeep Indulkar - Best Animated Film: ABITA – Germany, 2012, 4 min, Shoko Hara, Paul Brenner - Best Student Film: NO TO A NUCLEAR JORDAN – Jordan, 2012, 7 min, Solenne Tadros.

Special achievement awards go to "Children of Uranium" (Romania), "Friedlich in die Katastrophe" (Germany), "Nuclear Waste" (Ukraine), "Unter Kontrolle" (Germany), "Der Bauch von Tokio" (Germany), "Hibakusha" (USA), "Hiroshima Nagasaki Download" (Mexico/Japan), "The Last Flower" (Iran), "Cesium Iblodet" (Sweden) and "War´s Dust - Uranium Beirut" (Italy).

Yellow Oscar Award to Atomic Ivan

“Atomic Ivan” is the Best Feature Fiction Movie of the Third International Uranium Film Festival 2013. The 2012 produced film Atomic Ivan by VASILY BARKHATOV from Russia won the Yellow Oscar 2013 in Rio de Janeiro. The romantic comedy “Atomic Ivan” is a debut film of famous theatre director Vasiliy Barkhatov from Moscow based on the script of world-known playwright Maxim Kurochkin. The Shooting of the film took place at the Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, about 200 km North West of Moscow, and at the Leningrad Power Plant 70 km close to St Petersburg. It was the first time that Russian’s nuclear agencies opened their doors to filmmakers. "Atomic Ivan is a combination of Visual Art, Comedy, Love Story and pure Nuclear Science", says Festival Director Norbert G. Suchanek. "Atomic love at a Russian power plant. Atomic Ivan is a beautiful, intelligent, romantic comedy, in the surrealistic stile that remembers me on Federico Fellini."

Suchanek: "The basic Story of Atomic Ivan is simple. The director of a nuclear power plant invites an Artist to develop a play together with the nuclear workers at the nuclear power plant. Imagine: A Fellini opera in a real nuclear power plant. Beside of all that the films transports important worth full scientific information about nuclear power and radioactivity. So there was no way! This film had to win a Yellow Oscar of the Uranium Film Film Festival 2013." The Executive producer of Atomic Ivan, Miss Viktoria Gromik from TELESTO FILM was present at the Award Ceremony in the Cinemateca of the Modern Art Museum (MAM) Rio de Janeiro. She said: "It is very important for us to receive this Award from the Uranium Film Festival Rio de Janeiro."

Yellow Oscar to Nuclear Savage

The November 2011 released documentary “NUCLEAR SAVAGE: The Islands of Secret Project 4.1” by US-Filmmaker Adam Jonas Horowitz is extraordinary. A brilliant accusation against a terrible crime. Atmospheric testing of atomic bombs and using local populations as guinea pigs are crimes against humanity. Nuclear Savage is a must-see documentary for everybody, no matter if your are in favour of nuclear power or against. Adam Jonas Horowitz shot his first film in the Marshall Islands in 1986, and was shocked by what he found there, in this former American military colony in middle of the Pacific Ocean. Radioactive coconuts, leaking nuclear waste repositories and densely populated slums were all the direct result of 67 Cold War U.S. nuclear bomb tests that vaporized islands and devastated entire populations.

Yellow Oscar to High Power

The 2013 finalized documentary “High Power” is an important, well made film that can give worthwhile impulses to current “nuclear question” in India. For that it received the Yellow Oscar in the category best short documentary of the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro 2013.

Pradeep Indulkar, director of "High Power", is an Indian engineer, who has been working during 12 years for India's nuclear program. High Power tells the disturbing story of the local population of Tarapur in the state of Maharashtra, where India’s first nuclear power plant was constructed in the 1960s. Local fishermen families lost there land, their fishing grounds and health. Pradeep Indulkar´s short documentary about the Tarapur Atomic Power Station had to be made. “It is an important, the nuclear discussion stimulating documentary, that comes at the right time, when thousands of people in South-India struggle against a new nuclear power plant at Kudankulam is the state of Tamil Nadu”, says Festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “High Power is Pradeep Indulkar´s first documentary, and we hope to see more documentaries by him in future.”

“Apart from all the sorrows and distress my film brought to you, this is a golden moment of my life as a film maker”, said Pradeep Indulkar during the Award Ceremony in the Museum of Modern Art cinema. “At this moment I remember and thank all my friends and well-wisher who helped in making of High Power. I also thank to all those Indian people who contributed even a smallest amount to make our trip happened. I thank you all who supported this film with as a great audience. I thank Rio, I thank Brazil and I accept this award on behalf of all the nuclear affected people of Tarapur and I dedicate this award to all those farmers and fishermen who lost their land, home and life for nuclear power plant. “

Yellow Oscar to Curiosity Kills

Sander Maran is a promising filmmaker from Estonia (Baltic Film and Media School). His 2012 produced short comedy ”Curiosity Kills” already received the Audience Award of Helsinki’s H2T Festival. Now it won the Yellow Oscar of the third International Uranium Film Festival of Rio de Janeiro in the category “Best short comedy”. Synopsis: “A 10 year old boy is fascinated by his father's spooky looking chemistry suitcase and decides to play with its contents. One thing leads to another and the boy's pet rat ends up attacking the family. Curiosity kills.”

“Films about radioactivity are normally boring for teenager and students”, says festival director Norbert G. Suchanek. “Curiosity Kills is different. It is horror  comedy, which made the festival audience, mainly students from upper-class colleges, laugh and scream. And beside of that, curiosity kills gives valuable information: Radioactivity is dangerous and can change the genetic code of living beings. And every radioactive material must be stored and handled with great care. If not, the consequences can be terrible.”

Yellow Oscar to Abita

The best Animated Film of Rio de Janeiro’s Uranium Film Festival 2013 is, ABITA, a beautiful animated film directed and produced 2012 in Germany by Shoko Hara and Paul Brenner from the Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg in Ravensburg. This animated short film deals with the dreams of Fukushima children who can’t play outside because of radioactive contamination. Brazilian Professor for animated film and festival judge Leo Ribeiro: “I selected Abita, because it is a very poetic and sensitive movie and very well done.”

Yellow Oscar to No to Nuclear Jordan

Best Student Film of the 3rd International Uranium Film Festival is “NO TO A NUCLEAR JORDAN” by young director Solenne Tadros from the International Academy-Amman. Student productions about nuclear issues are still very rare - especially in the Middle East. The Yellow Oscar 2013 is given to Solenne Tadros to stimulate other film students and film schools world-wide to follow here example to deal with this for human mankind important but very complicated and often risky nuclear issue. In addition the festival jury hopes that “No to Nuclear Jordan” will improve the public discussion about Nuclear Energy in the Kingdom of Jordan, where the construction of nuclear power plants and uranium mining are in the planning.

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