Wojciech Bąkowski wins Grand Prize at 61st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

The winner of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen at the 61st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen was unveiled at an award ceremony held last night at the Lichtburg Filmpalast in Oberhausen. The festival’s biggest prize – which comes with 8’000 Eur of prize money – went to Polish visual artist Wojciech Bąkowski for his film Głos mojej duszy (Sound of My Soul) (Dir. Wojciech Bąkowski, Poland 2014)

With a defiantly simple synopsis (which reads “Animated Film. Poetic Impression.”) the film impressed the jury for being “... 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.”

Other winners in the International Competition included 3+4 (Dir. Chan Hau Chun, China, 2014) and the Mexican piece Tiempo Aire (Air Time) (Dir. Bruno Varela, Mexico, 2014)

In the German competition, the main prize went to Alex Gerbaulet for Schicht (Dir. Alex Gerbaulet, Germany, 2015). In the film, Gerbaulet portrays his family and brings them to life from private archives as he also explores the shrinking industrial city of Salzgitter, Germany. The jury described the film as:

“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.”

The award ceremony was the conclusion of the festival that began on April 30th. Audiences totalled almost 18’000 with the most popular programmes this year being the Competitions and the Profile programmes featuring Ito Takashi’s, Jennifer Reeder’s and Erkka Nissinen’s works. The Festival presented at total of 504 films from 55 countries and awarded a total sum of 41,750 euros of prize money.

The 62nd International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will take place from 5 to 10 May 2016.

The full list of award winners is:

Awards of the International Competition

Members of the International Jury:
George Clark (Great Britain), Kati Kivinen (Finland), Park Chan-kyong (South Korea), Andréa Picard (Canada), Marta Ponsa (Spain)

*Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen (8,000 Euros)
Głos mojej duszy (Sound of My Soul) (Dir. Wojciech Bąkowski, Poland, 2014)
“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 (4,000 Euros)
32 + 4 (Dir. Chan Hau Chun, China 2014)
“The jury awards the 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 to generational conflict and abandoned histories. In the absence 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 generations of frustration, shame and the 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 (3,000 Euros, for an exceptional film and video work which reshapes the poetic and electric potential of moving images in the age of planetary circulation of information.)
Tiempo Aire (Air Time) (Dir. Bruno Varela, Mexico 2014)
“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
The Last Mango Before the Monsoon (Dir. Payal Kapadia, India, 2014)
“A Special Mention goes to Payal Kapadia’s The Last Mango Before the Monsoon for its elegant tale of enchantment, which confidently uses the short film format to convey its enduring, elliptical narrative.”

Nuvem Negra (Dir. Basil da Cunha, Switzerland, 2014)
“A Special Mention goes to Basil da Cunha’s Nuvem Negra for the strength of its cinematic depiction blending fact and fiction, oscillating between hardship and hope.”

Jury of the Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sport of North Rhine-Westphalia

Members of the Jury:Oliver Baumgarten (Cologne), Maike Mia Höhne (Berlin/Hamburg), Fabian Saavedra-Lara (Dortmund), Ruth Schiffer (Düsseldorf), Mareike Wegener (Cologne)

*1st Prize (5,000 Euros)
Blue and Red (Dir. Zhou Tao, Spain/Thailand)
“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 where they 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 (3,000 Euros)
Saigo no Tenshi (Last Angel) (Dir. Ito Takashi, Japan, 2014)
“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.”

The International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize)

Members of the Jury: Javier H. Estrada (Spain), Martin Kaňuch (Slovakia), Carolin Weidner (Germany)

The Last Mango Before the Monsoon (Dir. Payal Kapadia, India, 2014)
“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 some tongue-in-cheek humour, too. They are timeless and universal, peaceful and profound.”

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (1,500 Euros)
Members of the Jury: Franz Indra (Germany), Theresia Merz (Austria), Théo Péporté (Luxemburg), Eberhard Streier (Germany)

La pasión de Judas (Dir. David Pantaleón, Spain, 2014)
“The film takes up the local Spanish Easter tradition of carrying an effigy of Judas through the streets and burning it. A group of disabled persons re-enact this event. The director stages the film in a way that opens a critical perspective on religious customs and inspires the audience to think about the ideological foundation of this holiday.”

ZONTA Prize (1,000 Euros, to a female filmmaker in the International or German Competition)
Das offenbare Geheimnis (The Apparent Secret) (Dir. Eva Könnemann, Germany, 2015)
“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.”

Awards of the German Competition

Members of the Jury of the German Competition: Frédéric Jaeger (Berlin), Carolin Schmitz (Cologne), Senta Siewert (Frankfurt/Main)

*Prize for the best contribution to the German Competition (5,000 Euros)
Schicht (Dir. Alex Gerbaulet, Germany 2015)
“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 (2,500 Euros, 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 (Dir. Susanne Steinmaßl, Germany, 2014)
“Our senses are awake, his emotions are laid bare. The amplification of experience becomes a synaesthetic adventure, situated somewhere between exhilarating Noise music, 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
Colophon (Dir. Alexandre Koberidze, Germany, 2015)
“A Special Mention goes to a film that doesn't know what's forbidden. We praise it to keep it away from this knowledge. It is: Colophon by Alexandre Koberidze. Pass the word.”

Awards of the NRW Competition

Members of the Jury:Florian Deterding (Düsseldorf), Sylke Gottlebe (Dresden), Andreas Heidenreich (Darmstadt)

*Prize for the best contribution to the NRW Competition (1,000 Euros)
Ruhrurbia (Dir. Rainer Komers, Germany, 2014)
“Precisely framed shots flow and merge into a coherent mosaic of a region undergoing drastic change. With warmth, sympathy and respect for his protagonists, the director develops a film about his home region in his distinctive signature style. The Prize for the best contribution to the NRW Competition goes to Ruhrurbia by Rainer Komers.”

*Promotional Award of the NRW Competition (500 Euros)
Cachorro Loko (Dir. Igor Shin Moromisato, Germany, 2014)
“Imaginative images and an atmospheric soundtrack composed of music and urban sounds combine to bring home the growing tension of people stuck in a traffic jam. An energetic animation of great visual power. The Promotional Award of the NRW Competition goes to Cachorro Loko by Igor Shin Moromisato.”

*Special Mention
Lucky Speed (Dir. Nina Poppe, Germany, 2014)
“An impressively observed and contemplative film that shows a world going through staid routines which ultimately culminate in a chase for speed. A Special Mention goes to the film Lucky Speed by Nina Poppe.”

Prize of the West ART Audience Jury (750 Euros)

Hausen (Dir. Quimu Casualprim, Germany, 2014)
“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 far transcends a filmed poetry analysis.”

Awards of the 38th Children's and Youth Film Competition

Members of the Jury:Lina Almojahedi, Leni Franziska Antwerpen, Friederika Gebel, Jessica Marie Kochan, Jan Krausch

*Prize of the Children's Jury (1,000 Euros, sponsored by the Tiergehege Kaisergarten)
Åka utför (Class Trip) (Dir. Jonatan Etzler, Sweden 2014)
“Sometimes kids are harassed and excluded just because their parents don’t have a lot of money and can’t afford to buy expensive stuff. And maybe you do things you’ll be sorry for later, 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 (1,000 Euros, sponsored by the Energieversorgung Oberhausen AG (evo))
Losers – Een film over verlies (Losers – A Film about Loss) (Dir. Arianne Hinz, Netherlands 2014)
“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
Oma (Grandma) (Dir. Karolien Raeymaekers, Belgium 2014)
“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 subjects can be disturbing. Because we will remember this film and its unusual images for a long time, we award our Special Mention to Oma by Karolien Raeymaekers.”

Prize of the Youth Jury (1,000 Euros, sponsored by Aquapark Oberhausen)

Members of the Jury:Jiyan Aycicek, Christiana Samantha Golombek, David Heckeley, Fabienne Poerschke, Michelle Schlottmann

Vestibular (Dirs. Toti Loureiro & Ruy Prado, Brazil, 2015)
"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
AlieNation (Dir. Laura Lehmus, Germany, 2014)
"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) (Dir. Ursula Meier, France/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Switzerland 2014)
“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 they have both 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.”