The international and student juries will award four prizes to the most outstanding films —both from an artistic perspective and in relation to the festival theme, “Future.” The audience also has the opportunity to choose its favourite film for the Audience Award. For the second time, the Latücht e.V. Prize will be awarded, chosen by the cinema audience. In total, four prizes worth €8,000 will be presented.
The Latücht Award, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, is given to an outstanding film or video project that engages most convincingly with the festival theme, “Future,” and makes the best use of the creative possibilities of the medium. The winner will receive a prize of €5,000.
The City of Neubrandenburg Award is given to the most courageous and artistically and/or socially ambitious film. The winner will receive a prize of €2,000.
The Audience Award is given to the audience’s favourite film, selected from the films in the European Competition, and comes with a cash prize of 1.000 € and an iPad.
The Latücht Prize from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, and thus the main prize, goes to:
Camilla Jämting with her film ‘Project Pappa’
The film shows the complicated relationship between Camilla, an artist and feminist, and her father, a self-proclaimed pick-up artist. He admires men who are successful on Tinder and tries to develop himself further by taking ice-cold walks without outer clothing, following the Wim Hof method. Camilla seeks to understand him, but how can a bond exist with such fundamental differences? As a viewer, one fluctuates between compassion and bewilderment and wonders whether Camilla should maintain the relationship or let it go.
The City of Neubrandenburg Award goes to:
Antoine Chapon for his film ‘Al Basateen’
The film portrays a destroyed district of Damascus that was once known for its historic orchards. Using archive footage, 3D animations and digital art, it tells the story of the fight against oblivion. According to the jury, the work also conveys ‘a glimmer of hope that inspires us to reflect on and reshape our realities.’
Palestinian filmmaker Theo Panagepoulos received a Special Mention from the jury for his film ‘The Flowers Stand Still, Witnessing’.
The filmmaker lives in Glasgow and discovered footage of Palestinian wildflowers in the local film archive. The material had lain unseen in the archive for years. He decided to retrieve it, digitise it and recontextualise it. The information it contains tells us all the more about the tyranny of the foreigner and a world that is currently being wiped out by ongoing aggression. The film uses the material as a kind of testimony in a tense time and as a form of resistance against cultural erasure.
The audience award, voted for by viewers, went to Vietnamese filmmaker Huy Nguyen for his film ‘Home is Where the Star Fruit is Sour’.
There are many unspoken things in Huy's family. Why was there so little talk about how his parents' migration history had shaped the different generations? Why is the relationship between parents and children so complicated? Is there even a shared history? And where does one's own identity lie? Huy seeks answers to these questions from his grandparents in Vietnam.