67th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 1 – 10 May 2021
The Awards of the Music Video Competitions
Award ceremony: Monday, 10 May 2021, 7.30 pm CEST, https://spatial.chat/s/kurzfilmtageoberhausen
23rd German MuVi Award
Members of the Jury:
Jan Bonny (Germany), Annekathrin Kohout (Germany), Babeth Mondini-VanLoo (Netherlands)
1st Prize
worth 2,000 euros, sponsored by the SAE Institute Cologne and Bochum
Junge Milliardäre (UWE)
UWE
Germany 2020, 4’42’’, colour
Statement:
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.
2nd Prize
worth 1,000 euros, sponsored by the SAE Institute Cologne and Bochum
The Source of the Absolute Knowledge (Jaakko Eino Kalevi)
Christine Gensheimer
Germany 2021, 4’52’’, colour
Statement:
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.
Special Mention
Rasenmäher in E-Moll (beißpony)
Stephanie Müller, Klaus Erika Dietl
Germany 2021, 14’59’’, colour
Statement:
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.
German MuVi Audience Award
chosen by online vote on our Festival Platform and worth 500 euros, sponsored by the SAE Institute Cologne and Bochum
NOAH (Christian Löffler)
Mishka Kornai
Germany, Canada, UK 2020, 3’47’’, colour
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1rst MuVi International Award
Members of the Jury:
Jan Bonny (Germany), Annekathrin Kohout (Germany), Babeth Mondini-VanLoo (Netherlands)
1st Prize
worth 2,000 euros
Hungry Baby (Kim Gordon)
Clara Balzary
USA 2021, 5’41’’, colour
Statement:
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.
2nd Prize
worth 1,000 euros
Traitors (Benefits)
Kingsley Hall
UK 2020, 4’27’’, colour
Statement:
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.
Special Mention
Station Three (Quartet Diminished)
Pooya Razi
Iran 2021, 2’45’’, colour/black-and-white
Statement:
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.
MuVi International Audience Award
chosen by online vote on our Festival Platform and worth 500 euros
Portadoras queer: el doble y la repetición (Ascii.Disko)
Ana Laura Aláez
USA, Japan, Spain 2020, 15’39’’, colour/black-and-white
You can download a list of all award winners of the 67th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen here.
Oberhausen, 10 May 2021
Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, niewalda(at)kurzfilmtage.de Tel. +49 (0)208 825-3073