YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 17, ARMENPRESS. Armenian filmmaker Shoghakat Vardanyan‘s “1489,” which follows the director’s family after her brother goes missing while serving in the army during the 2020 war, has won IDFA‘s best film prize.

The jury of the International Competition section of the documentary festival said that 1489 “acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief, and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see. And ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love.”

The film also won the FIPRESCI award.