Głos mojej duszy

(Sound of my soul)

Wojciech Bąkowski

Poland, 2014, 13', DCP, colour

Statement:

We award the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen to a work that challenges the relation of language to images, that renews the project of experimental film and post internet art, finding lyricism in ostensible dead ends. It is a work of remarkable economy, concision and wit, its richness drawn from its diverse array of images, motifs, text and music, enlivened through their unusual combination and unique treatment revealing their poetry and sly humour. A work about technology that values intelligence and fluidity over hi-tech equipment and style. A self-contained personal and idiosyncratic statement of surprising precision, marked by its deceptive modesty and invention. For finding richness amid banality, this video possesses a fragmented but utterly distinct voice drawing on the digital aesthetics that mediate our lives and everyday communication.

32 + 4

(32 and 4)

Chan Hau Chun

China, 2014, 32', DCP, colour

Statement:

The jury awards to Principal Prize to a complex family history told with urgency, intimacy and invention by a young filmmaker of great promise. Filmmaking here is used as a means of intervention and mediation to reflect on family life, revealing many layers from the price paid in order to live and work amid cultural displacement, generational conflict and abandoned histories. In the abscess of communication, the film invents a discursive practice of images in order to talk to unspoken experience. A film of closed-off spaces and closed-off lives, which intimately unravels layers of frustration, shame and failure of communication. A work about watching and re-watching images whose self-reflection reveals a fierce intelligence in its creation of dialogue, exploring ways to confront and escape unspoken and unseen trauma.

Tiempo Aire

(Air Time)

Bruno Varela

Mexico, 2014, 30'30'', DCP, colour

Statement:

We award the inaugural e-flux Prize to this film in recognition of its complex layered narration, its innovative combination of the personal with social and political history. It is necessary to talk about everyday violence and global cycles of brutality, yet also about stories of family life and endurance. Set against scenes of resistance, through the continuation of life or communal activity, the film shows that life is resilient and cannot be stopped so easily. This work is an experience more than just a film, a work that operates not just on what is shown, but what is outside of the frame, to speak to recent history with images and stories that carry and continue to bare the marks of their exchange and interpretation, rendered in the shifting technologies and textures of moving images.

The Last Mango Before the Monsoon

Payal Kapadia

India, 2014, 19', DCP, colour

Statement:

A Special Mention goes to Payal Kapadia’s The Last Mango Before the Monsoon for its elegant tale of enchantment, which confidently uses the short film format to convey its enduring, elliptical narrative.

Nuvem Negra

Basil da Cunha

Switzerland, 2014, 18'30'', DCP, colour

Statement:

A Special Mention goes to Basil da Cunha’s Nuvem Negra for the strength of its cinematic depiction blending fact and fiction, oscillating between hardship and hope.

Fabian Saavedra-Lara (Dortmund)
Maike Mia Höhne (Berlin/Hamburg)
Ruth Schiffer (Düsseldorf)
Mareike Wegener (Cologne)
Oliver Baumgarten (Cologne)

Blue and Red

Zhou Tao

Spain/Thailand, 25', DCP, colour

Statement:

People staring mesmerised at light sources beyond the frame. Some pause, pointing, waving, others sit on the ground, expectantly following what’s hidden from our view. What do they see? A concert? A billboard? What are they waiting for? What brought them together?

In Zhou Tao’s compelling work Blue and Red the city is revealed as a stage for the media surfaces of hyper-capitalism to perform as effectively as the resistance against the ruling system.

Zhou Tao trusts exclusively in his expressive images. His clever montage creates a high degree of filmic tension and analytical precision.

Saigo no Tenshi

(Last Angel)

Ito Takashi

Japan, 2014, 33', DCP, colour

Statement:

A cramped flat; bleak side streets and backyards. People suffering from loneliness and isolation. Angels trying to make contact and failing.

Ito Takashi masterfully integrates these narrative motifs into an image of Japanese everyday life that’s far removed from familiar and stereotypical European depictions. Trenchant genre elements, a narrative sound design and precise framing: Ito Takashi’s cinema is to the point and focused, filling the screen with cinematic perfection and poetic enchantment.

The Last Mango Before the Monsoon

Payal Kapadia

India, 2014, 19', DCP, colour

Statement:

The Last Mango Before the Monsoon needs only a few shots to portray a cycle that transcends individual nature. And yet he, too, is part of it. A young man who walks into the forest – to die and be reborn as an elephant? The mother who remembers her late husband’s favourite dish which she hasn’t prepared in a long time. The monsoon comes, dreams and reality blur; the sound of eating a ripe mango, the wind in the trees. Kapadia’s images are precise and symbolic, leaving spaces for desire, grief, and a wink, too. They are timeless and universal, peaceful and profound.

La pasión de Judas

(The Passion of Judas)

David Pantaleón, Spain, 2014, 10', DCP, colour

Statement:

The film takes up the local Spanish tradition of carrying an effigy of Judas through the streets at Easter and burn it. A group of disabled persons re-enact this event. The director stages the film in a way that creates a critical perspective on religious customs and inspires the audience to think about the ideological foundation of this holiday.

Das offenbare Geheimnis

(An Apparent Secret)

Eva Könnemann

Germany, 2015, 29', DCP, colour

Statement:

The ZONTA Prize 2015 goes to a filmmaker who developed an independent and innovative artistic form and process out of a lack of means of production. The production process of this film is turned into its fictional method. This creates a new type of and new position in independent filmmaking.

Frédéric Jaeger, author, Berlin

Senta Siewert, film scholar, Frankfurt on the Main

Carolin Schmitz, filmmaker, Cologne

Schicht

Alex Gerbaulet

Germany, 2015, 28'30'', DCP, colour and b/w

Statement:

Architecture, personal space, personal history, German history, the history of a town that is nourished by work. A man cleans his dog's paws. A woman loves another woman. And does not lay flowers on her mother's grave. The prize of the German Competition goes to a film that urges us to approach history and stories with deliberation. We were in Salzgitter. From micro to macro, a heavy and beautiful lump emerges. It was created by Alex Gerbaulet and is called: Schicht. We won't be able to shrug it off any time soon.

for a contribution with a particularly innovative approach.

In addition the award includes a buying option on the awarded work to be broadcast on 3sat.

Colophon

Alexandre Koberidze

Germany, 2015, 22', DCP, colour

Statement:

A Special Mention goes to a film that doesn't know what's forbidden. We praise it to keep it away from this knowledge. It is: Colophon by Alexandre Koberidze. Pass the word.

Ruhrurbia

Rainer Komers

Germany, 2014, 30', DCP, colour

Statement:

Lucky Speed

Nina Poppe

Germany, 2014, 11', DCP, colour

Jobst R. Hagedorn, Jörg Becker, Yasemin Utku, Ron Koster, Dirk D. Knickhoff, Petra Fuchs, Vojislav Garic, Celia Geiger, Jenny Krauser, Sarah Simon

Hausen

Quimu Casalprim

Germany, 2014, 9'30'', DCP, colour

Statement:

The film Hausen manages brilliantly to communicate an atmosphere which leaves a lasting impression on the viewer and provoked a whole range of reactions in the jury.

The film impressively creates an arc of suspense that tells of archaic symbolism, pensive melancholy and deep religiousness. A precise and emotional perspective on the world of a woman who takes a look at her life in her native Spanish village.

This adaptation of a poem by Christoph Wenzel entitled “Im Nichts Hausen” (Dwelling in Nothingness) is an independent piece of work that transports the poem's prevailing mood but goes far beyond a filmed poetry analysis.

Lina, Jessica Marie, Friederika, Leni Franziska, Jan

Losers - Een film over verlies

(Losers - A Film about Loss)

Arianne Hinz

Netherlands, 2014, 16’, DCP, colour

Statement:

When you’re sad you feel that your life is over. But that’s not true! Because you always have to look forward, just like the children in our winning film. The three of them tell us very personal stories in this documentation, which we think is very courageous. We also liked the fact that each of us has experienced something similar, which made it easy for us to sympathise with their stories. And because things get more serious with every story, you can delve deeper and deeper into the film.

Oma

(Grandma)

Karolien Raeymaekers

Belgium, 2014, 7’30’’, DCP, colour

Statement:

Our Special Mention goes to a film that really frightened us when we first saw it, which is why we didn’t like it very much at first. But when we thought and talked about it we realised that the images are just right. Because it’s a film about mourning and death and these are subjects that can disturb you. Because we will remember this film and its unusual images for a long time, we award our Special Mention to Oma by Karolien Raeymaekers.

Michelle, Fabienne, David, Jiyan, Christiana Samantha

Vestibular

(Times of Competition)

Toti Loureiro, Ruy Prado

Brazil, 2015, 22’, DCP, colour and b/w

Statement:

Our society and the lives of young people, too, are marked by competition and the pressure to perform. Our winner finds impressive and intense images for these important subjects in which we recognised ourselves right away. The great cinematography, the choice of music, the excellent main actor and the clever narrative structure – the film is divided into chapters – all impressed us. In addition, the film is neither too long nor too short so we weren’t bored for a minute and felt it very intensely. Because the film convinced us on all levels we award the Prize of the Youth Jury to Vestibular by Toti Loureiro and Ruy Prado.

AlieNation

Laura Lehmus

Germany, 2014, 6’, DCP, colour

Statement:

We want to award our Special Mention to a film that lets young people speak in their own authentic language. Who is better suited than adolescents to tell us that puberty is a stressful and difficult time? The film‘s unusual and clever style surprises us. Since the youngsters can’t be recognised they have the courage to speak freely. At the same time, the animation is so well done and varied that each of us recognised themselves in one of the characters. Because it manages not only to appeal to young people but also makes adults laugh and think, we award our Special Mention to AlieNation by Laura Lehmus.

in connection with a recommendation for Matthias Film and the Katholisches Filmwerk to buy the film for their catalogues

Tišina Mujo

(Quiet Mujo)

Ursula Meier

France/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Switzerland 2014, 11', DCP, colour

Statement:

Ten-year old Mujo misplays a penalty kick, the ball lands on the neighbouring cemetery where he meets a woman with whom he strikes up a conversation about the people both have lost in their lives. The director manages with astonishing ease to link the past and present of contemporary Sarajevo, religions and generations with their contradictions.

Nathan Budzinski, Great Britain

Antonin de Bemels, Belgium

Sandra Trostel, Germany

determined by Internet vote and endowed with 500 €

Till Nowak/Timo Schierhorn/UWE for Denken Sie Groß (Deichkind)

Germany 2015, 4'