“Faya Dayi” wins the Grand Jury Prize of Visions du Réel 2021

Discover the winners of this edition!

The Grand Jury Prize of the International Film Festival Nyon goes to the American-Ethiopian-Qatari co-production Faya Dayi by Jessica Beshir. In addition to the Grand Jury Prize sponsored by la Mobilière, Faya Dayi also grabs the FIPRESCI Award, presented for the first time at Visions du Réel. In the Burning Lights Competition, Looking for Horses by Stefan Pavlović is awarded the main prize, sponsored by the Canton of Vaud. Fisnik Maxville wins the national competition with Nostromo. The prize is presented by SRG SSR.

In her debut feature Faya Dayi, Mexican-Ethiopian director Jessica Beshir tells the story of Ethiopian peasants whose lives revolve around the cultivation of psychotropic cath leaves. “Interweaving an ancient Sufi parable with a rigorous meditation on labor, exploitation, and exile, and moving freely among different levels of reality and consciousness, Jessica Beshir has created a dreamlike fable for our own uncertain times,” said the international jury at the hybrid awards ceremony. The Special Jury Award of the International Feature Competition, sponsored by Région de Nyon, was awarded ex aequo to 1970 by Tomasz Wolski and Les Enfants terribles by Ahmet Necdet Cupur.


The top prize of the Burning Lights Competition, sponsored by the Canton of Vaud, was awarded to Looking for Horses by Stefan Pavlović. The Special Jury Award, offered by la Société des Hôtelier de la Côte, went to Natalia Garayalde for Splinters, while Sebastian Mez received a special mention for The Great Void

In the National Competition, Nostromo by Fisnik Maxville was awarded the SRG SSR prize. The Special Jury Award of the National Competition, sponsored by SSA/Suissimage, went to Chronicles of That Time by Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo.

The list of juries included filmmakers such as Kamal Aljafari (An Unusual Summer), Alejo Franzetti (Panke), Thomas Imbach (Nemesis) or Laila Pakalnina (In the Mirror); the producers Consuelo Frauenfelder (Un couteau dans le coeur, Yann Gonzalez) and Julie Frères (Drôle de pays, Clémence Hébert); industry delegates such as Savina Neirotti, Director of the TorinoFilmLab and Head of Programme at the Biennale College of the Venice Festival, Anna Berthollet (Lightdox) or Diana Tabakov, Executive Director of Doc Alliance Films, as well as programmers and curators such as Josh Siegel from MoMa, Sergio Fant from the Berlinale or Garbiñe Ortega, Artistic Director of the Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival.

Find here the full list of the winners and the prizes of the 52nd edition of Visions du Réel. 

The 52nd edition of Visions du Réel continues in Festival cinemas until Sunday, April 25 and online until Tuesday, April 27. The audience award and the admission figures will be communicated afterwards.