Porte Bagage is the winner of Bergamo Film Meeting

16/03/2026 – The audience favoured Abdelkarim El-Fassi’s film, while the international jury presented the directing prize to Germany’s Thomas Stuber for The Frog and the Water

Porte Bagage [+see also:
film review
film profile], the fiction debut by documentary filmmaker Abdelkarim El-Fassi, has triumphed in competition at the 44th Bergamo Film Meeting. Handled by MMM Film Sales and voted for by the audience, the movie has claimed the Bergamo Film Meeting Award worth €5,000. Porte Bagage tells the story of a Dutch-Moroccan family who take their father – who is living with dementia – on one final, nostalgia-fuelled car journey to Morocco. Abdelkarim El-Fassi wrote the screenplay based on his own personal experiences.

The second and third prizes in the audience-voted feature film competition went respectively to Hidden People [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Miha Hočevar and Pieces of a Foreign Life [+see also:
interview: Gaya Jiji
film profile] by Gaya Jiji.

The international jury, composed of Gabriella Manfrè (producer), Patrice Toye (director) and Miguel Valverde (director of IndieLisboa), awarded their Best Director Prize worth €2,000 to The Frog and the Water [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Thomas Stuber. “With its poetic, funny and sensitive approach,” the jury’s explanation reads, “this film takes us on a journey in which ‘loneliness does not exist’: you just have to wait to find your soulmate. When a Japanese man meets a young man with Down syndrome in Germany, a very strong bond grows between them, which needs no words.”

In the Close Up section, the CGIL Bergamo Best Documentary Award, consisting of €2,000 for the film proving most popular among audiences, went to To Close Your Eyes and See Fire [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nicola von Leffern and Jakob Carl Sauer, while the La Sortie de l’Usine – CGIL Jury Award, presented by CGIL Bergamo’s union delegates to the documentary best addressing issues relating to the world of work and society (€1,000), was bestowed upon Azza [+see also:
film review
interview: Stefanie Brockhaus
film profile] by Stefanie Brockhaus. As explained by the jury, this is “A documentary which takes a highly sensitive and rigorous approach to depict the struggle of women still trapped in a patriarchal society. For Azza, learning to drive, and teaching this skill to other women, becomes a means for emancipation and freedom, both individual and collective. The film stands out for the care, profound delicacy and intensity with which it conveys the viewpoint of a young woman who is denied the possibility of choosing and building her own future. Azza proves itself to be a powerful and moving work, turning an intimate account into a universal, topical story which lends a voice to many women striving to win their autonomy. Through a forceful yet respectful authorial approach, the documentary interweaves personal and social dimensions, providing viewers with a space to reflect on identity, freedom and the right to self-determination.”

The full list of awards is as follows:

Competition

Bergamo Film Meeting First Prize
Porte Bagage [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Abdelkarim El-Fassi (Netherlands)