Prize of the Jury of the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia (EUR 5,000)

City Scenes

director: Zhao Liang

China 2005

Statment:

City Scene is a series of snapshots taken in the streets and squares of a Beijing preparing for the Olympic Games. The filmmaker captures everyday reality in static shots: leisure activities, street scenes, latent violence. The long, continuous and carefully framed shots draw attention to places and details, to the way the people there move and interact. Zhao Liang makes impressive use of cinema's capacity to make reality visible as it is.

The Jury of the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia 2006:

Michael Girke (Herford), Theda Kluth (Düsseldorf), Rainer Komers (Mülheim/Ruhr), Agnes Meyer Brandis (Köln), Claudia Siefen (Köln)

Special Mention of the Jury of the Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia

Rugby Boyz

director: Khavn de la Cruz

Philippines 2006

Statement:

"Rugby Boyz" is a documentary about boys living in Philippine slums. With a unique colour and lighting design and a poetic narrative approach, the filmmaker manages to show the boys' indomitable will to live and the fragility of their situation in life.