The Fragile House (Hai shang cheng shi) by Lin Zi, China is the winner of The Signs of Life Award ELECTRONIC-ART.FOUNDATION for the Best Film 2018 at the Locarno Festival. The Signs of Life jury awarded Lin Zi film for “an unnerving portrait of one family’s estrangement and avarice within China’s burgeoning upper-middle class”.
The Fundación Casa Wabi – Mantarraya Award was given to director Benjamin Crotty for The Glorious Acceptance of Nicolas Chauvin (Le Discours d’acceptation glorieux de Nicolas Chauvin), France “a film that plays with fact, legend — and fake news — in inventively madcap ways.”
Signs of Life aims to explore new grounds, narrative forms and innovative cinematic languages. Originally out-of-competition when founded in 2014, Signs of Life is a competitive section since last year. This year’s jury is composed by Emilie Bujès, festival director (Switzerland), Tiziana Finzi, curator (Italy) and Josh Siegel, curator (USA).