71st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 29 April - 4 May 2025
Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen goes to Kyrgyzstan
21 prizes totalling almost 41,000 euros awarded
Further main prizes go to Israel and Russia
On 4 May 2025, the 71st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen came to an end with the award ceremony at the Lichtburg Filmpalast in Oberhausen. The festival's main prize, the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, went to “The Long Way to the Pasture”, a Kyrgyz documentary about a family of shepherds on their way to summer pasture. The German Competition prize went to the German-Bolivian co-production “There's a Pain”. 21 prizes were awarded in four competitions. The three MuVi prizes were awarded on Saturday, 3 May. The Festival awarded a total of almost 45,000 euros in prize money.
The Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen, endowed with 8,000 euros and awarded in the International Competition, went this year to the Kyrgyz director Ilgiz-Sherniiaz Tursunbek uulu for Jailoogo Karay Uzak Jol (The Long Way to the Pasture), his portrait of a Kyrgyz shepherd family's move to summer pasture. Here, “cinematic energy is unleashed .... A movement with the forces of nature and its elements. The camera work and the use of light and movement are remarkable,” was the verdict of the International Jury. The film also won the 2nd Prize of the Jury of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia, endowed with 3,000 euros.
The International Jury awarded its Principal Prize of 4,000 euros to the Israeli production Dvorts∞vaya (The Palace Sq∞are), in which director Mikhail Zheleznikov recapitulates Russian history based on St. Petersburg's Palace Square. “A film that simultaneously captures place and time. The First World War breaks out, the Winter Palace is stormed and a shock cut takes us from the Russian Revolution to the dissolution of the Soviet Union,” the jury wrote in its statement.
The jury of the NRW Ministry of Culture and Science awarded its main prize of 5,000 euros to the Russian film Myakish (Crumb) by Elena Kulesh, a portrait of young men in a reformatory and their wishes and desires. According to the jury, the film provides “insights into a society in which the wishes and needs of the weaker members of society are thwarted by patriarchal violence”.
The Prize of the German Competition, endowed with 5,000 euros, went to the German-Bolivian co-production Hay un dolor (There's a Pain) by Froilán Urzagasti, which deals with the migrant experience in a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. “With great poetic power and fine powers of observation, the film unfolds a multi-layered panorama of work, migration and community,” wrote the jury in its statement
Maksim Avdeev won the 3sat Newcomer Award in the German Competition, endowed with 2,500 euros, for Monument - the confrontation between a queer son living in Germany and his conservative father in Russia. “The film is a reflection on filmmaking itself ... In a documentary approach between two generations, a telephone call is interwoven with family videos and becomes a multi-layered mirror of familial, political and emotional tensions,” said the jury in its statement.
In the NRW Competition, the first prize of 1,000 euros went to Céline Berger for her film Overwork, in which the director reinterprets old educational films from the German Federal Employment Agency.
In the Children's and Youth Film Competition, the children's jury awarded its prize of 1,000 euros, donated by WBO Oberhausen, to the French-Belgian animation Autokar by Sylwia Szkiłądź. The little girl Agata, who moves from Poland to Belgium, immerses herself in a fantastic world on her journey in which the reality of migration becomes an experience of growing up. The Youth Jury Prize, also endowed with 1,000 euros and donated by the Rotary Club Oberhausen, went to Dutch director Eva Nijsten for Ik Zeg Je Eerlijjk (Honestly), the portrait of a homosexual teacher who converted to Islam and gives workshops on sexual and religious diversity.
From Sunday, 4 May at 10 pm CEST to Monday, 5 May at 10 pm CEST, all award-winning films will be available online at www.kurzfilmtage.de. Access is free with registration.
The complete list of all award winners is available for download as a PDF file here.
Stills from the award-winning films will be available online in the press section of www.kurzfilmtage.de from Monday, 5 May.
Oberhausen, 4 May 2025
Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, T +49 (0)208 825-3073, niewalda@kurzfilmtage.de