2015 FIPRESCI Grand Prix Winner

Today FIPRESCI announced the annual Grand Prix - Best Film of the Year award winner and to my HUGE surprise Mad Max: Fury Road is the winner! Yes, my spontaneous initial reaction was tinted with the unexpected as never imagined that this movie could share honors with films by Michael Haneke, Paul Thomas Anderson, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and more.

But when the surprise settles down the George Miller's film appears as a movie that absolutely deserves the award as film has all the markers for well-traveling between great cinema and entertainment movie, which makes film quite outstanding indeed.

Win is remarkable especially when you consider the finalists, as Miller's film was competing against Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Nie ying niang (The Assasin), László Nemes's Saul fia (Son of Saul), and Jafar Panahi's Taxi; but the 493 members of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) selected the most unexpected film from those four finalists.

Director George Miller says: “You could have knocked me over with a feather! It's lovely to have this great cohort of critics acknowledge our collective labours in this way”

The award will be presented to George Miller during the opening ceremony of the San Sebastian Film Festival on September 18 and film will have a special screening on the same date.