Dutch titles ride high at 2016 edition of Go Short

On April 9th, the eighth edition of Go Short - International Short Film Festival Nijmegen presented the awards for the best short films from Europe. Two international juries and a jury of young people were on hand to select the prizes for the 2016 edition of the festival. The awards marked the first time that two Dutch films were awarded prizes in the European competition.

In the European competition, the winners were:

NTR Go Short Award for Best European Short Fiction Film t.w.v. € 1.250,-
Spoetnik (Dir. Noël Loozen, The Netherlands, 2015)
Jury: ‘Possesses an uplifting, intoxicating energy, created out of music, style and confident comedy beats. Each moment is a capsule of cinematic vitality and each plot development feels fresh.’

NTR Go Short Award for Best European Short Documentary t.w.v. € 1.250,-
The Sniper of Kobani (Dir. Reber Dosky, The Netherlands. 2015)
Jury: ‘This film introduced us to the ruthless world of an, after all, not that ruthless man. The thoughtfully crafted narrative arc works by peeling back the sniper’s layers, from clinical job details, through to a haunted heart.’

NTR Go Short Award for Best European Short Art Film t.w.v. € 1.250,-
Quantum. (Dir. FLATFORM, Italy/Germany, 2015)
Jury: ‘Highlights and amplifies a familiar setting in an innovative way. An ingenious and playful take on the theatrics of perception, that inventively melds both sight and sound to create a unique experience.’

NTR Go Short Awards for Best European Short Animation Film t.w.v. € 1.250,-
Chulyen, a Crow’s Tale (Dirs. Cerise Lopez & Agnès Patron, France, 2015)
Jury: ‘This freakish, shape-shifting short grittily represents the subliminal - submerging the audience in a mysterious, dream-like realm where logic is buoyantly ripped apart.’

Dutch competition:

VEVAM Go Short Award for Best Dutch Short Film t.w.v. € 2.500,-
LAZARUS (Dir. Gonzalo Fernandez, The Netherlands, 2015)
Jury: ‘For its craftsmanship the award goes to a sensitive film about a woman finding a way to cope with her broken life narrated with bittersweet humor.’

Special Mention Netherlands competition
Son du Serpent (Dir. Tami Ravid, The Netherland/Benin, 2015)
Jury: ‘Due to its rhythm and cinematic quality the special mention goes to a film that keeps a fragile balance between reality and supernatural energy.

Breaking Shorts student Competition:

Dioraphte Encouragement Award for Best Student Short Film t.w.v. € 5000,-
Courber L’Echine Kadija (Dir. Ben-Fradj, Switzerland, 2015)
Jury: ‘A powerful film about a young girl who finds herself trapped between Western and Arabic culture, between suppressed sexuality and submission to higher powers. The jury wants to encourage a fearless filmmaker to keep developing her own voice.

Youth Competition:

MovieZone Go Short Award t.w.v. € 750,-
Body Language Zone (Dir. Kim Saarinen, Finland, 2015)
Jury: ‘The winning film is creative, artistic, open-minded and humorous. In 10 minutes, it gives advice about how we could use our bodies and criticizes the way we use them nowadays. We think that the important message about health and social use of our bodies, a subject that we don’t often think about, was amazingly translated in the art of film and dance. The filmmaker and her crew did an excellent job transmitting this perspective in an artistic way.’

Special Mention MovieZone
You Have a Problem (Dir. Esra Piké, The Netherlands, 2015)
Jury: ‘We chose to give this film a special mention, because we found the perspective very unique. You can see the social workers struggling with their clients and you get a deep insight in the bad situation that the clients are in.’

Go Short audience Award, worth € 1,000, - in collaboration with Omroep Gelderland
Snails (Dir. Grzegorz Szczepaniak, Poland, 2015)