Competitions

Statement of the jury
We see the sea, pictures of the sky taken in backlight, and hear the narrator tells us about a failed suicide attempt. What follows is a personal story about life, its difficulties and its beauty. A story that is told by pulling out all the cinematic registers, using different animation techniques, found footage and still images. By doing this she creates a nonlinear narrative making space for the viewers and their interpretations and imagination. The filmmaker dives into her own history, both in terms of imagery as well as storyline. It feels like a moment of reflection, a visual artists’ statement in which she turns inward. The film celebrates life and celebrates film, the result is stunning and – like life – incredibly rich.

Statement of the jury
A continuous shot with no end or beginning and that seemingly catches us in a random moment. It shows us, in 8 minutes and 28 seconds, how violence is interconnected with machines, technology, and labour. With humour, which is always close to despair, the filmmaker mixes both Western and Eastern mythologies and depicts them as future leaders of a humanless world, with only industrialised mechanical movement. Making a film like this, coming out of the guts, directly onto the screen after a very long and patient digital work is a huge accomplishment. Thank you, Su Zhong, for reminding us that even before the pandemic we could already make a film about a world full of violence and despair.

Statement of the jury
More Woman, More Cry by Anne Haugsgjerd is a stunning film that captures the beauty and fragility of life. With vivid clarity, great imagination, and sly humour, Haugsgjerd provides thought-provoking reflections on family, art, ageing, and the fluidity of time in a humorous and poetic way. Without embarrassment, but full of doubts, the film shows an emancipated filmmaker contemplating her life and asking the question: What next?

Statement of the jury
At the other end of this spectrum, the jury sees Sensory Overload, a poetic film by Ganza Moise, that takes a poem by Natacha Muzira as its guide. A seemingly featherweight film with an existential underlayer, in which time, form and space run into each other, in a search for a way out of reality, not through destruction, but through the poetry of life.

Statement of the jury
In an indeterminate time, women wash clothes by the river, a stone ear becomes porous. Out of the blue, a motionless body falls headfirst into the riverbed. The screams of the working undead pierce the mysterious silence. This work positions ’’film as ritual” in the style of magical realism. The blazing fire forges new eyes that let us see the beauty of an analogue mystery of tears, earth, light and shadow. The unsettling absence of dialogue sharpens our senses to the highest alertness, only to sweep us out of earthly hell with ’’heavy metal”. You are invited to join the order of cinema.

Statement of the jury
“I miss you.” Analogue black-and-white images show chats of anonymous lovers which are supposed to serve as testimonies of a valid partnership for the British government. ’’Hostile Environment Policy’’ is the name of the UK Home Office's attempt to make immigration into Great Britain as unbearable as humanly possible. This film lets us experience the impact of these drastic measures on binational families and relationships in personal accounts, combined in an unpretentious montage with 16mm film, Google Street View and found footage.

Statement of the jury
In her haunting film Before the fall there was no fall. Episode 02: surfaces, Anna Dasović recounts how traces of history manifest themselves in places where cruel contemporary history was written, how the fading graffiti of terror evoke a mural of testimonies of genocide, and how even small businessmen profit from war. In addition, she masterfully combines archive material and authentic found footage to ask the question: What remains?

Statement of the jury
The film offers an artistic and investigative exploration resulting in a fascinating perceptive experience. While creating a cinematic atmosphere, it reflects on urban and eco-social transformations from human and more-than-human relationships. In this way, {if your bait can sing the wild one will come} Like Shadows Through Leaves allows us to think of cinema as an aesthetic tool that questions, resists, and reimagines the relationships between culture and climate change.

Statement of the jury
A clown is grimacing into the webcam from his living room; an aerialist is trying to stay in shape on her balcony; a circus director is suffering from the cold in his caravan because he cannot afford the heating costs: Zoom sur le cirque brings together the social, political and aesthetical aspects of the current Corona pandemic in an accurate yet heart-wrenching way: the human desire or even the human need to laugh even in times of crisis; the hardship suffered by artists and people engaged in the cultural sector who are threatened by losing their means of existence; the art of improvisation that the circus as well as Zoom require equally and therefore the technical and social possibility of decreasing the distance by means of humour.

Statement of the jury
nga’i nang is a film about a son who returns to his family home in Nepal to say farewell to his dying dad. The son films these last days, the passing and the death of his father which appear just as simple and natural in the everyday life of this poor farmer family as the tiny things that usually happen to them. Even though all this is sad, this is the order of life. While the film is very modest, it tells its story in a distanced but very personal and emotional way. Similar to the way the mother, who escapes to religious rituals, experiences mourning internally and in silence and similar to the son, who, after leaving his Home and his lonely mother behind again, will later reminisce alone on the beach of the ocean on another continent. Even though all this is sad, this is the order of life.

Statement
In the beginning was the work of a great futurist writer, which the filmmaker translates into a many-layered, poetic and pioneering film experience that resonates for a long time.

Statement of the jury
For creating a dialog between past and present through its lyrical ethnography; and for exploring with a gentle distance a remarkable mythology empowering non-traditional ways for women to live.

Statement of the jury
For giving us a breath of fresh air and allowing us to rediscover nature; and for showing its light and its wonders through the photochemical materiality of celluloid, continuing to explore the possibilities of analogue methods.

Statement of the jury
For its astute and poetic exploration of time, recording technologies, and erasure of workers and Indigenous identity from a perspective both personal and critical; and for uniting these expressive themes through compact and modest means.

Statement of the jury
It is only logical that the film awarded by us renounces sound, since it is an exploration of the conditions of visibility. Un très long temps d´exposition discovers, layers and combines images and narratives from global and personal history. Chloé Galibert-Laîné’s both analytical and personal composition of chains of visual motifs reveals the political and ideological dimensions of technological imaging methods and questions media visibility as the ultimate legitimization and proof of existence.

Statement of the jury
The unlimited availability of the world, just a click away – and yet the shabby papier mâché models of famous monuments in a small amusement park ignite quite original ideas of freedom and the future. Our Special Mention goes to a film which shows us the ephemeral stuff that dreams are made of, and those strangenesses that even global digital communication can’t abolish.

Statement of the jury
How do you remember how you used to be in the past? Minnen is an authentic documentary where we look back on the filmmaker's mental illness as she soberly traces her life. Animated sequences display what was in her mind at that particular time of her life. With original footage of her youth added to a recent interview with her own parents, Kristin Johannessen shows, through accurate memories, the difficulties of being different, of raising a child you can’t always understand but never want to leave behind. Minnen talks about the hope of recovery that must be held on to when facing sickness.

Statement of the jury
Kalsubai explores the history of the goddess Kalsu and her meaning for the women of Bari. The film relies on strong visual and acoustic images that neither explain nor falsify. The almost photographic compositions and their expressive simplicity make the film accessible to everyone and invite you to reflect on your own cultural influences and to question them.

Statement of the jury
Unfortunately, even today, many families are hiding dark secrets. The animated short film Cântec de leagăn investigates the innermost depths of a family devastated by domestic violence and alcoholism. In such a climate of terror, we see life still existing with a mother taking care of her new-born, trying to protect him and his big brother from being bullied. The animation technique reflects the different states of mind of the characters perfectly and raise our awareness of the difficulties every family could struggle with at one time and must overcome. Particularly effective is the way in which the song ’’Cântec de leagăn” – a traditional Romanian lullaby performed by Maria Tanase – Is grafted onto the animation.

Statement of the jury
A film about the ones at the bottom. The low-paid, the stressed, the overlooked. The outstanding camera follows them closely, often intimately; we feel the pressure, see the sweat and the fear. And yet the protagonists remain at a distance from the viewer. The film does not manufacture sentimental commonalities where there are none. A film about the loneliness of our time.

Statement of the jury
A summer in the countryside, the interplay of daily chores in the house and garden and casual reflections about how best to stage the idyll. In front of and behind the camera, the filmmaker looks for answers to how we should deal with our political and material heritage. But neither the conversations with her family nor memories re-discovered on the Internet, nightly tales or the unanswered letters to her über-father help. A local inspection and an analysis of the present day.

Statement of the jury
Excessive demands, letting go, experiencing everything at once and having to learn everything anew time and again; a relentless juxtaposition, no discernible patterns – life with its open ends as a cinematic principle.

Statement of the jury
Come along on a tour through a mysterious world, located somewhere between the 1980s and a utopian idea, between industrial chimneys and Jurassic Parks. Playful, honest and sensual, the director invites you into her admirably personal cosmos full of music and freedom.

Statement of the jury
In a situation where we are all forced to become flâneurs, the beauty of this somnambulistic stroll, shot on analogue material, is comforting beyond time and constraints.

Statement of the jury
Do we succumb to the charm of the material or is it the multi-faceted story of a class, a life, or a relationship – parts of which even seem familiar? A story in which we find ourselves? In-between, the courage of the black screen. We experience a subtle cinematic sense of verbal and visual narrative. We learn about the value of fulfilling work in human life – that, too, seems familiar. Time and again, the outside invades the private sphere: documentary television images of the war in Yugoslavia and burning buildings – we almost forgot how long ago right-wing violence resurfaced in the German Republic. In the beginning we hear the pulse of life, followed by fast and hard cuts of portraits of a man and woman in 1970s aesthetics. The couple grows older and we take part in their leftist liberal bourgeois life, but also in processes of change, interspersed with red light, radiation therapy and introspections, self-questioning caused by a serious illness. A narrative film about life is distinguished here, a touchingly revealing portrait, drawn so intimately, so excitingly, as an existential story that happens at all times and that in the end leaves many questions open for us, the audience, and thus continues in our minds.

Statement of the jury
The protagonist of this film suffers – her suffering is individual and personal. But it would also be visible to others, this suffering, and she therefore avoids the public. It forces her into quarantine (quarantine – the very mention of this word shows that the film describes current conditions and evokes very contemporary associations). In this quarantine, this isolation, her suffering spreads from the outside to the inside – and becomes terrible fear – and fear, as we all know, can literally eat you up. We, the audience, literally feel the pain. The award-winning film is – an animation. An animation in which simple lines are wrapped in a meaningful colour dramaturgy. An animation into which motivic live film snippets are mixed. An animation which, in combination with an atmospheric sound and music concept, creates psychological thrills and emotionality. An animation that is convincing both in terms of narrative and dramaturgy and in terms of formal aesthetics.

Statement of the jury
We want to give a Special Mention to a film that operates at the intersection between research and documentation. Right at the beginning, the starting point and perspective of this observation is revealed. We then gradually experience a whole cultural cosmos in strict order: traditions, gender roles, songs. We learn of a special language, that objectifies, legitimizes and exaggerates. And we come to understand the point of view involved. This film is about nothing less than the act of killing. About the decisions of life and death when hunting – completely without need. The starting and ending point of this illuminating dense description is a sculpture: two raised hides facing each other.

Statement of the jury
A blackly humorous look at the bitter struggle against a deadly disease. It’s about life and death, about brokenness. It’s about weakness, strength, courage and coping with setbacks. And: it’s about hope. Black-and-white lines, no words. An urgent subject, lightly packaged. We find the way the filmmaker tells of existential things like cancer, chemotherapy and the fight for survival with wit and intensity absolutely worthy of an award.

Statement of the children's jury
We thought the animation in this film was very beautiful. We also liked the music. The end was a bit sad, we thought, because the bird didn’t fly back to the woman. Still, it was a happy ending for the bird.

Statement of the children's jury
We liked the fact that this film was about friendship. The idea that the girl found a snail and became friends with it was brilliant. It was funny when the girls set out apples to make the snail return. We liked it that they set the snails free at the end so they could stay with their friends.

Statement of the jury
We liked the music in this film very much. And the polar lights that could change. We also found it nice that the Husky found a friend at the end.

Statement of the youth jury
Our winning film expressed very strongly that one doesn’t have to twist and bend and can take one’s own decisions. But it also shows clearly: This doesn’t apply to everyone under the same conditions. Racism can also be hidden in well-meant advice – the young woman in the film showed us that you don’t have to assimilate at all costs. This short film really brings that everyday situation for anyone affected by racism home to us, the audience.

Statement of the youth jury
We want to distinguish an extraordinary film with an important message: many things can be normal! We don’t need pity! We really liked the choreographies – they make us understand in a few minutes that a prosthesis is more than just a replacement or a deficit.

Statement of the jury
The ECFA Short Film Jury decided to give their award to a film with a daring story about different aspects of masculinity. Through the nuanced script, the outstanding acting and editing the film reflects the complexity of growing up as a boy and freely exploring your emotions and desires. The main characters are being taught that they can be either “man or mouse”, but the story of the film gradually deconstructs this kind of stereotypes.

Statement of the jury
About looking and finding for love and the difficulty of dealing with it. 14-year-old Nova takes on responsibility for her little sister and in this process goes on a journey to discover her feelings. Nova is a film that was perfectly staged and wonderfully photographed. The script works without pathos and heavy content and yet does not remain on the surface. A coherent and profound film at the same time.

Statement of the jury
An atmosphere of uncertainty determines a young boy’s weekend-visit at his father. Here, at this remote farm in the sparse and impressive landscape of Iceland begins a rough path of mutual approximation for both. The injury of tthe horse Dalía triggers a decisive change of the relationship of father and son. A film that treats the topic of taking farewell from different perspectives in a quiet and impressive way.

Statement of the jury
Junge Milliardäre by UWE is an elegant work that smashes, no holds barred, into our supposedly safe routines of perception and classification. We are shown a wobbly deepfake of Elon Mask singing seductively to himself, with ease and routine, on a kind of stage in front of a mirror; a multifaceted game with vanity, identity, longing and thus, of course, pop par excellence. In connection with the music and song, multiple cracks and shifts in the meaning of the images are generated and the question arises as to who is the author here and who is the singer. The obvious glitches, the brittleness of the deepfake make it even more beautiful: the viewer is first fascinated and then increasingly insecure. With great astuteness, in the guise of technical skill, all other filmic means shine through in this enchanting work: collage, suspense, the loving eye, wit and perhaps even a little horror. A brilliant work that’s grounded as firmly in the history of cinema and the world as it is pointing towards the future.

Statement of the jury
The Source of the Absolute Knowledge by Christine Gensheimer won us over with its playful and delicate animation style, which produced memorable images. Through metaphors from pop culture, internet culture and art history, analogue meets digital, pixels meet dabs of paint, Dalí meets emojis. Using collages of changing and merging settings, this video brilliantly combines form and content: The resource of knowledge in our computer age consists of fragmentary pieces of information that require composition by a user. Gensheimer combines image and sound with ease. In an unusually playful way she makes humans meet machines, and only the retro-aesthetics remind us that this relationship was once less light-hearted.

Statement of the jury
A Special Mention goes to Rasenmäher in E-Moll by Stephanie Müller and Klaus Erika Dietl, because filmmaking, like making music, can be an open process where you feel your way forward, occasionally wobble a little, change course a little, sometimes boldly go forward only to watch with amusement as your own work runs away from you. Approaching a shoot with an open mind, not hedging the results, perhaps having a few versions of the preliminary result up your sleeve is an enjoyable and vibrant thing which can get quickly lost in concerns about perfection and security. This Special Mention is also explicitly meant as an encouragement to take a few steps further along this unclear, funny path.

Statement of the jury
For us, Hungry Baby is the quintessence of a music video. Director Clara Balzary did a masterful job directing this video on the raw and vibrant song by Kim Gordon. It is daring in its directorial simplicity, and how vulnerability is expressed by the excellence of the actress Coco Gordon-Moore’s dance, showing us both rage and the joy and comfort of music as a liberating force. Balzary chose to set the scene in a desolate parking lot that very much breathes the feeling of angst at the onset of Corona and its commodification of every day experience. The narrative construct of a male aggressor at the beginning unfolds into a juxtaposition of survival in which the female takes over and leaves us with a life affirming feeling at the end, as the music blasts us out of a restrictive reality.

Statement of the jury
Traitors by Kingsley Hall is one of the most political films in this section, convincing in its simplicity and evidence. Few means are sufficient for the production to communicate a feeling of anxiety and powerlessness to the viewers. Using the stylistic device of affirmation, Kingsley Hall takes up the (often right-wing) criticism of Brexit’s opponents, the so-called ’’snowflakes”: While in terms of content the criticism is passively-aggressively accepted, it is rejected on the level of form. Delivered as a rant, initially as direct sound and accompanied by the protagonist’s ever-darker expression, it finally culminates in a painful slow-motion scream. Kingsley Hall has found a trenchant form for a social mood. Traitors effectively expresses what plays a role not just in political discussions of Brexit but in the politicised and emotionally charged online debate culture in general: despair in the face of the seeming irresolvability of prevailing polarisations.

Statement of the jury
We as a jury wanted to honour the creative eye and personal process of independent makers taking risks over technical highlights. Our Special Mention goes to Station Three (Quartet Diminished) by Iranian director Pooya Razi. He uses stop motion technique using self-made constructions of coloured pencil structures and 3D Zoetrope trying to shed light on the functioning of systems versus the individual. We honour the way in which creativity unfolds despite collective socio-political circumstances, and the ongoing excellence of creative input by the music of Quartet Diminished.