Honorable mentions of the Jury
Deutschland 2023, 26 Minuten von Jens Kevin Georg, Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
We want to give a shout out to a movie because it sends us on a bare ass rollercoaster.
Kruste tells of a family in which you have to prove yourself. Fascinating and bizarre, we experience a child who cannot escape the constraints of the family, but finds his own way to belong. And the film has a strong cast throughout, the actors are skilfully directed and the production design and imagery are unique.
The author and director Jens Kevin Georg has his very own style and we want to honor that with this honorable mention.
Türkiye 2023, 11 Minuten von Naz Çaybaşı
Within just a few minutes, we’re given a glimpse into the fate of a young Turkish girl. As she finds blood in her panties for the first time, we start to discover her role as a woman and her future in a male-dominated society. She desperately tries to fathom the meaning of her bleeding – will it kill her? With impressive images, credible acting, precise staging and an unexpectedly appropriate choice of music, the film raises awareness for a sensible topic and breaks the cycle of the taboo surrounding menstruation.
France 2023, 11 Minuten von Mickaël Dusa & Jolan Nihilo
The power of a Genre film is that you are able to take an emotion or a feeling and just run with it to make the audience experience something that far out lasts a single viewing. This film, operates on a uncompromising visceral level. It deals with the trauma and nightmare of the consequences of a rape and following pregnancy. The acting commitment to this harrowing role is beyond comparison.
The grotesqueness of what is being played out on a screen is severed back to the audience as an experience that forces the viewer not to look away but engage on a purely emotional and empathetic level. An after image that will haunt them for a long time, if not forever.
Tilt (D-A-CH Wettbewerb, Deutschland) von Björn Schürmann
The jury’s reasoning:
In it, paramedic Anna not only struggles to cope with a rescue operation that has gotten out of hand, but also against the constant discrimination by her colleague. A dense, short film that is carried entirely by the physical presence of the protagonist and at the same time has a powerful impact against male paternalism.
Kaltmiete (Beste Komödie, Deutschland) von Marc Philip Ginolas,
Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München
The jury’s reasoning:
A homeless geriatric nurse gets caught up in a series of awkward situations when, on her 100th birthday, his rich patient Geraldine dies from the joint he rolled and he tries hard to cover up her death.
With classic black-and-white images, lively dialogue and wonderful humor, “Kaltmiete” tells of the hardships of looking for an apartment and disposing of corpses.
Memoir Of A Veering Storm (Internationaler Wettbewerb, Griechenland) von Sofia Georgovassili
The jury’s reasoning:
The film manages to reimagine the topic of abortion in a touching and tender way. Embedded within the poetic framework of a brewing storm – symbolic of the abortion – the film breaks with over-dramatizing narrative patterns. Instead of showing the process with absent male figures and stigmatizing doctors, we accompany the main character’s conflict with an unagitated gaze in all its complexity.
Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München
Bato Nebo – Chants To The Gods (DaHome Award, Österreich) von Luzia Johow,
Filmakademie Wien
The jury’s reasoning:
BATO NEBO only speaks to us through the polyphonic singing of the protagonists and conveys a feeling of home through ancient traditions and impressive faces that includes the viewer.
The jury’s reasoning:
MAN OR TREE, directed by Varun Raman & Tom Hancock, is extremely funny and existentialist cinema, made with the simplest of resources. The desperate battle of a man – or tree – for his sanity. A hilarious trip!
The Seine´s Tears (Animationswettbewerb, Frankreich) von Yanis Belaid, Eliott Benard, Nicolas Mayeur, Etienne Moulin, Hadrien Pinot, Lisa Vicente, Philippine Singer, Alice Letailleur
The jury’s reasoning:
A story from history that shows its relevance especially today. Impressively animated and with a disturbing and lyrical ending scene that got under our skin.
