The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) awards its Grand Prix for Best Film of the Year to AMOUR, directed by Michael Haneke. The award is the result of votes cast by members of FIPRESCI, 225 critics worldwide, for any feature-length film premièred internationally during the previous year. The prize will be presented at the opening gala of the San Sebastian Festival’s 60th edition on September 21 at the Kursaal Auditorium.    

AMOUR will open the Zabaltegi Pearls section of this year’s San Sebastian Festival, after having carried off the Palme d’Or at the Festival de Cannes in May. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert, the film focuses on the relationship between Georges and Anne, two music teachers in their eighties whose love is put to the test when a stroke leaves her paralysed.

Klaus Eder, Fipresci’s General Secretary will present the award to Ramon Agirre, one of AMOUR’s actors, given that Michael Haneke is unable to attend the opening gala.

This is the second time that a film by Michael Haneke has received the FIPRESCI Grand Prix; at the 57th edition of the Festival his film Das weisse Band (The White Ribbon, 2009) also landed the accolade. 

In previous editions of the festival, the FIPRESCI Grand Prix has gone to films directed by some of the most important film personalities worldwide: Pedro Almodóvar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jafar Panahi, Kim Ki-duk, Aki Kaurismäki, Nuri Bulge Ceylan, Jean-Luc Godard, Cristian Mungiu, Roman Polanski and Terrence Malick.