Award Winner
Members of the International Jury 2015
Park Chan-Kyong, filmmaker and curator (Mediacity Biennale a.o.), Seoul
Andréa Picard, author and curator (Wavelengths a.o.), Toronto
Marta Ponsa, author and curator (Jeu de Paume), Paris
Kati T. Kivinen, author and curator (KIASMA), Helsinki
George Clark, author and curator (Tate Modern), London
Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, endowed with 8.000 €
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.
Principal Prize, endowed with 4,000 €
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.
e-flux Prize, endowed with 3,000 €
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.
Special Mention of the International Jury
Special Mention of the International Jury
Jury of the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of North Rhine-Westphalia

Fabian Saavedra-Lara (Dortmund)
Maike Mia Höhne (Berlin/Hamburg)
Ruth Schiffer (Düsseldorf)
Mareike Wegener (Cologne)
Oliver Baumgarten (Cologne)
First Prize of the Jury of the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of North Rhine-Westphalia, endowed with 5,000 €
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.
2nd Prize of the Jury of the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of North Rhine-Westphalia, endowed with 3,000 €
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.
Jury of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI)
Carolin Weidner (Germany)
Martin Kaňuch (Slovakia)
Javier H. Estrada (Spain)
The International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize)
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.
Ecumenical Jury 2015
sponsored by the Evangelische Kirchenkreis Oberhausen and the Katholische Filmarbeit in Deutschland
Franz Indra (Germany)
Théo Péporté (Luxembourg)
Theresia Merz (Austria)
Eberhard Streier (Germany)
Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, endowed with 1,500 €
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.
ZONTA Prize to a female filmmaker in the International or German Competition, endowed with 1,000 €
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.
German Jury
Prize for the best contribution to the German Competition
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.
3sat Promotional Award, endowed with 2,500 €
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.
An Ton Kaun
Susanne Steinmaßl
Germany, 2014, 9'30'', DCP, b/w
Statement:
Our senses are awake, his emotions are laid bare. The amplification of experience becomes a synaesthetic adventure, situated somewhere between exhilarating Noise, terrifying Psychotronic and an enchanting black and white film. This deserves the 3sat Promotional Award, which goes to Susanne Steinmaßl for An Ton Kaun.
Special Mention of the Jury of the German Competition
Jury of the North Rhine-Westfalia Competition
Prize for the best contribution to the NRW Competition, endowed with 1.000 Euros, sponsored by the NRW.Bank
Promotional Award of the NRW Competition, endowed with 500 €, sponsored by the NRW.Bank
Special Mention of the Jury of the NRW Competition
Jury of West ART viewers

Jobst R. Hagedorn, Jörg Becker, Yasemin Utku, Ron Koster, Dirk D. Knickhoff, Petra Fuchs, Vojislav Garic, Celia Geiger, Jenny Krauser, Sarah Simon
Prize of the West ART Audience Jury, endowed with 750 €, sponsored by West ART
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.
Jury of the Children's Film Competition

Lina, Jessica Marie, Friederika, Leni Franziska, Jan
Prize of the Children's Jury of the International Children' Competition, sponsored by Tiergehege Oberhausen, endowed with 1,000 €
Åka utför
(Class Trip)
Jonatan Etzler
Sweden, 2014, 14’30’’, DCP, colour
Statement:
Sometimes kids are harassed and excluded just before their parents don’t have a lot of money and they can’t afford to buy expensive stuff. And maybe you do things you’ll be sorry for only to belong. Our winner shows that it’s unfair and mean to exclude others and that it’s not always necessary to own the latest stuff to be happy in life. Because we thought that the message of this film is important and because of its beautiful images we award our Prize to Åka utför by Jonatan Etzler.
evo Promotional Award of the Children's Jury, endowed with 1,000 €, sponsored by the Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG (evo)
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.
Special Mention of the Children's Jury
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.
Jury of the Youth Film Competition

Michelle, Fabienne, David, Jiyan, Christiana Samantha
Prize of the Youth Jury of the International Children's and Youth Film Competition, endowed with 1,000 €, sponsored by Aquapark Oberhausen
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.
Special Mention of the Jury of the Youth Film Competition
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.
Certificate of the Ecumenical Jury for a film in the International Children's and Youth Film Competition
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.
MuVi Jury 2015

Nathan Budzinski, Great Britain
Antonin de Bemels, Belgium
Sandra Trostel, Germany

1st Prize of the 17th MuVi Award, endowed with 2.000 €
Klaus Lemke for Lost and Found (Mouse on Mars & Eric D. Clark)
Germany 2014, 4'
Statement:
For the 2,000 Euro prize we have chosen Lost and Found by Mouse On Mars and Eric D Clark, directed by Klaus Lemke. We felt that it navigated many of the long running and entrenched problems of the music video format with ease, staying intelligent and keeping tongue firmly in cheek. Unfortunately Lemke cannot be here tonight to accept the award as he is currently in Munich shooting his next film, "The UntruthfulUnderpants".
2nd Prize endowed with 1.000 €

Lior Shamriz for The Cultural Attaché / Tornado (Kreidler)
Germany 2015, 7'
Statement:
For the 1,000 Euro prize we have chosen The Cultural Attaché by Lior Shamriz with "Tornado" by Kreidler. Similar to the first prize winner, we thought this video presented an interesting start to negating some of the more conventional music video tropes.
MuVi Online Audience Award

determined by Internet vote and endowed with 500 €
Till Nowak/Timo Schierhorn/UWE for Denken Sie Groß (Deichkind)
Germany 2015, 4'