28 FILMFEST DRESDEN: the award winners


Prize-Winners of the 28th FILMFEST DRESDEN 2016

Dresden, 16.04.2016 – During the festival week from 12 to 17 April, 61 short animated and fiction films competed under the critical eyes of the specialist juries for the total of nine "Golden Horsemen" awards for the best animated and fiction films, in addition to four special prizes. With prize money totalling €66,000, FILMFEST DRESDEN is one of the most generously endowed short film festivals in Europe.

And here are the Prize-Winners of the 28th FILMFEST DRESDEN 2016.
All winners including the argumentation of the juries and honorable mentions are listed below.

Film stills and footage of the winners


International Competition

Golden Horseman Best Animated Film in the International Competition (7.500 Euro)

„Remember“
from Shunsaka Hayashi (Japan, 2015)

argumentation
In a personal style we follow the life of the main character. The director changes the reality whenever he wants to by stretching the line between everyday actions and fiction. The film makes us think about our own life by taking us on a trip down the protagonist’s memory lane. It is a struggle between inner solitude and the external world. Are we in control of our own life or not?

Special Mention
"Daphné or the Lovely Specimen" from Sébastien Laudenbach and Sylvain Derosne (France, 2014)


Golden Horseman Best Short Fiction Film in the International Competition (7.500 Euro)
Sponsored by Public Media Authority for Private Broadcasting (SLM)

„Over“
from Jörn Threlfall (United Kingdom, 2015)

argumentation
The director turns a seemingly simple event into a monument for all the anonymous victims of an ongoing phenomenon. As if referring to our instant media updates front, it uses time markers to make the viewer perceive our fragmented understanding towards the reality. It is a way of storytelling where bits of information become misleading and outward objects can block our sight, guiding us to self-simulated ignorance that can terminate in a crucial surrealist catastrophe. However, it all falls into place and shows us that we are part of what is going on around us and we cannot close our eyes or hearts.

Special Mention
"The Park" from Randa Maroufi (France, 2015)


Golden Horseman of the Youth Jury in the International Competition (2.000 Euro)
Sponsored by Programmkino Ost und dem Medienkulturzentrum Dresden e.V.

„America“
from Aleksandra Terpinska (Poland, 2015)

argumentation
A deep friendship, a dream of freedom and the shared desire to escape their sobering and broken-down everyday life. The editing, the music and the performance of the two main actresses complement them in a captivating manner to create an unstoppable maelstrom of tension and uncertainty. Drawn into a catastrophe in their search for a different world, all that remains behind is the American nightmare.

Special Mention
"#YA” from Ygor Gama and Florencia Rovlich (Argentina/Chile/Germany, 2015)


Golden Horsemen of the Audience in the International Competition (3.000 Euro)
Sponsored by Sächsische Zeitung

"Daphné or the Lovely Specimen"
from Sébastien Laudenbach and Sylvain Derosne (France, 2014)


National Competition

Golden Horseman Best Animated Film in the National Competition (3.000 Euro)
Sponsored by QF Quartier an der Frauenkirche GmbH & Co

Amelia & Duarte“ from Alice Guimarães and Mónica Santos (Germany/Portugal, 2015)

argumentation
With their skilfully subtle use of the most diverse animation techniques, the two female directors manage to audio-visualise the melancholic surmounting of a couple’s now lost love – and that in a highly impressive manner. Playful and bubbling over with lots of creative ideas, we excitedly follow the two lovers in their many attempts and new ways to circumvent that which has been forgotten with the loss of their love. An impressive animated film.

Special Mention
"Broken" from Volker Schlecht and Alexander Lahl (Germany, 2016)


Golden Horseman Best Short Fiction Film in the National Competition (3.000 Euro)
Sponsored by Saxony Film Association


On Air“ from Robert Nacken (Germany, 2015)

argumentation
"The fact is: The capitalist system is at the abyss." – This sentence alone deserves a prize, just as much as the switching between revolutionary pathos and romantic bard songs. And that both the egocentric vanity of the young revolutionaries as indeed the – as though in passing – "popular attention economy of marginality" of the culture broadcasters are taken for a ride here really jolts the horse of the Golden Horseman of the apocalypse into action.

Special Mentions
"The Ballad of Ella Plummhoff" from Barbara Kronenberg (Germany, 2015)
and
"Simply the Worst" from Franz Müller & Johannes Kürschner (Germany, 2015)


Golden Horseman of the Youth Jury in the National Competition (2.000 Euro)
Sponsored by Drewag – Stadtwerke Dresden GmbH.

"Feet first" from Jonas Ludwig Walter (Germany, 2016)

argumentation
The protagonists encounter together and yet separately the powerlessness in the face of the (in)calculable. Rich in detail, with pointedly minimalist dialogue and superb acting performances, insights are given into a life we are not able to swim away from. And all at once after the lawn mowing, the rosemary is watered next in order to maintain the everyday routine as we seem to wait endlessly.

Special Mention
"Life in Rugged" from Simon Schnellmann (Germany, 2015)


DEFA Promotion Prize Animation (3.000 Euro)
Sponsored by the DEFA Foundation
 

Frankfurter Str. 99a“ from Evgenia Gostrer (Germany, 2016)

argumentation
Reduced colours, omissions and just a few brush strokes unite the form and subject – with coffee stains and blobs of jam one and the same. Using simple means, a story unfolds dealing with the rituals of the everyday, with the brief moments of happiness to be found in routines, with the common friendship between man and beast. That which is beyond the ordinary here is, by contrast, the director’s talent, who has created a special miniature of everyday life that utilises its own fitting audio-visual language for the protagonist’s story.


Minister of Fine Arts Promotion Prize (20.000 Euro)
Sponsored by the Saxon State Ministry for Science and the Fine Arts

Wide Horizon“ from Falk Schuster (Germany, 2015)

argumentation
What did the people of Saxony like to do most on holidays when the Berlin Wall was still up? Lavishly produced in retroscope, each shot first had to be filmed on video with extras and then redrawn frame by frame. In this way, despite the minimalism of the animated holiday trip, the film seems more authentic than many historic documents. With its virtuoso graphic precision and reduction to the essential, the young filmmaker has succeeded in creating a small but fine aesthetic masterpiece that, at the same time, soon takes the viewers back 30 years in its 4-engined time machine.


Golden Horsemen of the Audience in the National Competition (4.000 Euro)
Sponsored by MDR Public Broadcaster

"Simply the worst" from Johannes Kürschner and Franz Müller (Germany, 2015)


National and International Competition

Golden Horseman Sound Design (3.000 Euro)
Sponsored by Ballroom Studios GbR and FILMFEST DRESDEN

"#YA" from Ygor Gama and Florencia Rovlich (Argentina/Chile/Germany, 2015)

argumentation
Cinematically realistic sounds are presented as though we have never heard them before. The auditory layer commands rare depths and tonal beauty, while the music and sounds demonstrate an extraordinary emotional and haptic strength. The film which unites excellent cinematic skills with an imaginative quality of a unique kind is #YA.


Arte – Short Film Prize (6.000 Euro)
Sponsored by ARTE towards the purchase of a film

„Over“ from Jörn Threlfall (United Kingdom, 2015)

argumentation
Nine shots without dialogue record the formidable occurrences in reverse chronological order – a filmic concept that poses questions and riddles. The cleverly conceived short film is a tension-filled virtuoso piece which stirs us with its subject and inspires us to reflect. The filmmaker has succeeded in creating an extraordinary piece in terms of both the form and content.


Regional Filmnight Audience Award (2.000 Euro)
Sponsored by Filmnächte am Elbufer

„Für dich bei mir“ from Clemens Beier (Germany, 2015)

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