It may be an economic crisis, the excesses of politicians and judges, the disgrace of banks, the unfair eviction of gaztetxes, the failure of the favorite football team… But people want to laugh, leave the cheerful movie theater. It has been seen in the projections, where the public has enjoyed ridiculous moments, and it has felt in the vote, with the Public Prize to the humorous and optimistic The Artist of French Michel Hazanavicius. And rightly so. The Artist is a nice film about a silent film actor who hasn’t been able to adapt to face-to-face cinema in the late 1920s. It's a black-and-white, black-and-white film, but the prejudices don't fool you -- I also had before I got into the room -- recovering and adapting the style and the mute movie gestures, it's a magical, fresh story told at a good pace.

When it comes to choosing Europe’s best film, the public has awarded a non-Baladan humor capable of telling deep stories with grace: The Lebanese director Nadine Labaki, for his part, has released Et maintenant on va où? Work. Labaki has been able to speak from the beginning about the difficult coexistence between two communities. Along the same lines, Telmo ESNAL added to the usual black humor drama, tragedy and thriller, Urte berri on, AMONA! in an original, surprising and savage proposal.

In general, Zabaltegi has reaped very well: The award for the best novel director has been for the German The river used to be a man and the Youth award for the British Wild Bill, although they also deserve special mention Nader and Simin, the excellent Iranian film separation, the wild British drama Tyrannosaur and Le Havre, with a look typical of the Finnish Aki Kaurismaki.