Sorda (Deaf), Eva Libertad’s Spanish drama about a deaf woman expecting a child with her hearing partner, has won the LUX Audience Award from the European Parliament, beating out Joachim Trier’s Oscar champion Sentimental Value and Jafar Panahi’s Cannes winner It Was Just an Accident.
Also nominated for the LUX Audience Award were Brendan Canty’s Irish drama Christy, and the French feature Love Me Tender from director Anna Cazenave Cambet.
The LUX award, voted on by the European public and sitting members of the European Parliament, was awarded Tuesday night in Brussels.
“Director Eva Libertad gives us an unforgettable window into the life of a deaf woman navigating motherhood in a world not built for her,” said European Parliament vice-president Sabine Verheyen in a statement. “Led by a stunning performance from deaf actress Miriam Garlo, the film challenges us to listen differently and to build a Europe where no one is left unheard.”
Libertad said she hoped the LUX award would help “focus on the deaf community, and the diversity of people in Europe, and to promote inclusion policies that improve their living conditions.” She said she was confident that society is “changing its view of diversity,” seeing it not as “a problem” but as a source of “human wealth.”
British producer Mike Downey, who served as a honorary president of the selection panel for the award, said there was a strong sense of “social and political responsibility” among the panel, the European Parliament and European film industry to use great European cinema “as a vehicle for disseminating truths about democracy and the world we live it. Long live European Cinema.”
It’s the second big audience prize for Sorda, which took the Panorama Audience Award for best feature film at last year’s Berlin Film Festival. Produced by Distinto Films, Nexus CreaFilms, and A Contracorriente Films, Sorda is being sold worldwide by Madrid-based Latido Films.
