Stefano Cipani's drama, about a boy with Down syndrome, won the first-ever European Film Academy youth prize to be handed out virtually due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Italian children's film My Brother Chases Dinosaurs has won this year's Young Audience Award from the European Film Academy.
The drama follows Jack and his brother Gio, who has Down syndrome. When he was a child, Jack's parents told him his brother was a special being with superpowers but as he gets older, Jack begins to doubt them and is almost ashamed of him. Stefano Cipani adapted the film from the best-selling biographical book by Giacomo Mazzariol.
Overall, 2,000 young jurors from 32 European countries voted My Brother Chases Dinosaurs as this year's best European film for young audiences.
Because of the stay-at-home orders in place across most of the continent amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, this year's award ceremony was a virtual event. The 12- to 14-year-old jury members watched the nominated films online and the winner was announced via a virtual ceremony streamed live April 26 on the European Film Awards website.
EFA Productions, EFA’s in-house production company, is releasing My Brother Chases Dinosaurs and the two other EFA Young Audience Award nominees — Dutch feature My Extraordinary Summer With Tess and German drama Rocca Changes the World — across Europe on VOD platforms including iTunes, Google Play, Microsoft and Pantaflix as well as local and regional services including Balkan-based platform Cinesquare and Spain's Filmin!.
