A Man Returned and Forest of Echoes win at VIS

The 13th edition of VIS Vienna Independent Shorts (25-31 May) wrapped on Tuesday night with the awards ceremony in Metro Kinokulturhaus, now the home of the Austrian Film Archive.

Mahdi Fleifel's Prix Berlin (EFA European Short Film) winner A Man Returned won the Best International Fiction & Documentary Film Award and €4,000 provided by the City of Vienna, while Maria Luz Olivares Capelle's Forest of Echoes triumphed in the National Fiction & Documentar Competition, receiving €5,000 from VdFS and the Austrian Film Fund. The film previously won the best short film award at the Austrian national film festival Diagonale in Graz.

In the Animation Avantguarde strand, which combines Austrian and international films, Siegfried A. Fruhauf's Vintage Print won the Austria ASIFA Award and €2,000. The Artist in Residence grant, which brings the winner to a residency in Vienna's Musems Quartier in collaboration of VIS and Q21, went to Céline Devaux for Sunday Lunch, winner of a César for Best Short Film, Tampere Audience Award, and Clermont-Ferrand's SACD Award and Special Jury Award in the national competition. The film also won the Audience Award in the Fiction & Documentary strand.

From this year, VIS is one of the Academy Award-qualifying festivals, and is sending two films, winners of the newly-established Grand Jury Prize, to the long list for the Oscars: documentary Enemies Within by Sélim Azzazi (France) and animation Quiet Zone by Karl Lemieux and David Bryant (Canada).

FULL LIST OF AWARDS:

FICTION & DOCUMENTARY

Best International Fiction & Documentary Film: A Man Returned by Mahdi Fleifel (Denmark/UK/Netherlands

Special Mention for the best actress: Sokhna Diallo in Maman(s) by Maïmouna Doucouré (France)

Best Female Director: Schicht by Alex Gerbaulet (Germany)

ANIMATION AVANTGARDE

ASIFA Austria Award: Vintage Print by Siegfried A. Fruhauf (Austria)

Special Mention: Tosse Not My Soule by Sebastian Buerkner (UK)

Artist¬ In¬ Residence Grant: Sunday Lunch by Céline Devaux (France)

AUSTRIAN COMPETITON

Best Austrian Film: Forest of Echoes by Maria Luz Olivares Capelle

Best Newcomer: Desert Bloom by Peter Kutin and Florian Kindlinger

Youth Jury Prize: Uncanny Valley by Paul Wenninger

Youth Jury Prize Special Mention: Die Badewanne by Tim Ellrich

GRAND JURY PRIZE
(Qualification for the Academy Awards®)

Best Fiction Film: Enemies Within by Sélim Azzazi (France)

Best Animated Film: Quiet Zone by Karl Lemieux and David Bryant (Canada)

SCREENSESSIONS / MUSIC VIDEOS

Austrian Music Video Award: God of Ghosts/ Nu Renegade - Zebra Katz x Leila by Florian Pochlatko

Best International Music Video: Cold Stares -¬ Nosaj Thing feat. Chance The Rapper, The O'My's by TAKOM, Daito Manabe, MIKIKO (Japan)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Animation Avantgarde: Sunday Lunch by Céline Devaux

Most Popular Austrian Film: Cerro Ricco -¬ The Silver Mountain" by Armin Thalhammer

Most Popular International Fiction & Documentary Film: The Beast by Daina O. Pusic (Croatia/Finland)

Most Popular Music Video: Deep Down Low - Valentino Khan by Ian Pons Jewel (UK/US)

Prix Très chic pour le film le plus extraordinaire: MeTube 2: August sings 'Carmina Burana' by Daniel Moshel (Austria)