69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 26 April – 1 May 2023
Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen goes to Ukrainian film
20 prizes worth a total of over 43,000 euros awarded
On 1 May 2023, the 69th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen ended with the award ceremony in Oberhausen's Lichtburg Filmpalast. 20 prizes and numerous honourable mentions were awarded in four competitions. The three MuVi Awards had already been presented on Saturday, 29 April. In total, the Festival awarded more than 43,000 euros in prize money.
The Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, endowed with 8,000 euros and awarded in the International Competition, went to the Ukrainian director Oleksiy Radynski for his film Chornobyl 22. Radynski mixes secretly made mobile phone footage of the Russian invasion of the area around Chernobyl with statements by residents and employees of the power plant who wonder whether the Russian soldiers even knew they were occupying a "death zone". "The jury recognised Oleksiy Radynski’s ability to create tensions in the retelling of the Russian invasion while bridging histories as well as possible futures without overt aestheticization. The honest and candid interviews in the film make it an important work for today, but also for future generations to look back to,” the jury stated.
The jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia awarded its main prize of 5,000 euros to the British production Untitled by Sweatmother, a London trans artist whose subject is queer life experiences.
In the German Competition, the main prize of 5,000 euros went to Gernot Wieland for Turtleneck Phantasies, in which the filmmaker mixes historical accounts and personal memories into an often tragicomic diagnosis of the state of our society. "With masterly skill, different media are playfully integrated, while the film is marked by a light wit that is never far from melancholy," was the jury's verdict.
The 3sat Emerging Talent Award in the German Competition, endowed with 2,500 euros, went to filmmaker Narges Kalhor for Sensitive Content, a work in which she processes mobile phone recordings of violence during the protests in Iran.
In the NRW Competition, the first prize of 1,000 euros went to Ich darf sie immer alles fragen (I may always ask her anything) by Silke Schönfeld, a very personal coming to terms with sexual abuse in the filmmaker's family. The jury praised "a strong and courageous cinematic documentation of the filmmaker’s own family history. Vulnerable and empowering, the fifteen-minute filmic reappraisal reveals many things and at the same time shows the unanswerability of many questions."
In the Children's and Youth Film Competition, the children's jury awarded its 1,000 euro prize, donated by WBO Oberhausen, to the Spanish production L'Avenir by Santiago Ráfales, the story of a friendship that is put to the test. The Youth Jury Prize, also endowed with 1,000 euros and donated by Rotary Club Oberhausen, went to the Colombian documentary A menos que bailemos (Unless We Dance) by Hanz Rippe Gabriele and Fernanda Pineda Palencia, a portrait of young people in Quibdó who dance together to face an environment full of violence.
Until Tuesday 2 May 2023, 10 p.m. CEST, all award-winning films can be watched online at www.kurzfilmtage.de, free access with prior registration.
The complete list of all award winners can be downloaded as a PDF file here.
Oberhausen, 1 May 2023
Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, T +49 (0)208 825-3073, niewalda(at)kurzfilmtage.de