Winterthur International Short Film Festival (Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur), which is the Switzerland’s major short film festival, has revealed the full list of award winners for 2022.
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26th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur: Arrival in a New Reality
From animations to documentaries made in Switzerland, the Andean nations, and Israel, but also from the US, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Mongolia: over the past six days, the 26th edition of Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur showcased the broad range of current international short filmmaking. Thanks to the festival’s move to Sulzerareal, all film programmes were screened in fully equipped cinemas for the first time. The Grand Prize of the International Competition goes to Douwe Dijkstra’s documentary «Neighbour Abdi» from the Netherlands; Jorge Cadena’s fictional short «Flores del otro patio» wins the Swiss Competition. The ZKB Audience Award goes to the Russian filmmakers Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva for «Haulout» (United Kingdom 2022), a documentary about an annual natural event on a remote coast of the Siberian Arctic. The festival counted approximately 17 000 admissions.
Social turmoil and identity politics
This year’s Focus and competition programmes offered short glimpses of foreign realities and extremely diverse perspectives on current crises and upheavals. The approaches could hardly be more different: from documentaries and experimental works to hopeful and humorous approaches to self-empowerment. Issues surrounding Russia’s war of aggression in Europe, climate change, and identity politics were equally noticeable at the Industry Events, where international film professionals – including Ukrainians and Russians – gathered, as they were in the Focus and competition programmes: In the award-winning «Neighbour Abdi» (Netherlands 2022), Abdi from Somalia reenacts his life with the help of filmmaker Douwe in an attempt to understand his past full of war and crime. Another award winner, the documentary «45th Parallel» (United Kingdom 2022), presents a monologue about the borders of nations and jurisdictions and the limits of freedom. The best Swiss film, «Flores del otro patio» by Jorge Cadena, concerns a queer activist group and their performative protest against the exploitation in Colombia’s largest coal mine. A total of 13 films received awards and special mentions.
Highlights and audience favourites
The complex and socially relevant themes, which are part of Kurzfilmtage’s DNA, also resonated with audiences. The shorts programme by Person in Focus: Kurdwin Ayub; the political programmes Free Your Mind, Free Your Body and Stories of the Uncanny from the Main Focus: Los Estados Andinos; and Mother/Daughter and Borderline from the Country in Focus: Israel were among the most sought-after screenings. Several competition programmes also sold over 95% of seats. And due to high demand, the programme Death by Sports had to be moved to the largest auditorium, blue Cinema Maxx 1, which also hosted the festival’s opening night, among others. «After two Covid years and many cinema closures, it was an incredibly satisfying feeling to moderate the opening programme of this year’s Kurzfilmtage in a cinema filled to capacity», says Stefan Dobler, Managing Director of Kurzfilmtage.
The Master Class with Kurdwin Ayub was another undisputed highlight of this year’s edition. Ayub’s career from her first steps to her recent feature «Sonne» (Austria 2022), which just won the Vienna Film Award, demonstrates her love for experiments as well as her penchant for self-mockery. Ayub emphasized that she did not claim to speak for all Kurds or all Muslims. Rather, she is currently preoccupied with how to reconcile filmmaking with care work – which was also a big theme at this year’s Industry Lab. The Master Class and the following shorts programme allowed audiences to trace the themes and companions that have influenced Ayub’s first feature film, which was also screened at Kurzfilmtage for once.
Successful innovations of the 26th edition
With 17 000 admissions and over 600 industry guests, the festival team is very happy with the first edition at Sulzerareal. As John Canciani, Artistic Director of Kurzfilmtage, states: «It was a cinematic fireworks display. Especially filmmakers who have been visiting the festival for some time were thankful and excited that we are finally able to show all films in cinemas equipped with appropriate sound systems». And if it wasn’t obvious before, the stroll around Sulzerareal with the Hamburg-based collective A Wall is a Screen on Friday made it clear that Kurzfilmtage and the old industrial site are a perfect match. In sum, «it feels like a completely new and very cool festival», says John Canciani.
The 27th Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur will take place from 7 to 12 November 2023.
Scroll down for the full list of winners and jury statements of the 26th Winterthur International Short Film Festival (Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur).
Awards of the International Competition
Jury of the International Competition
- Jose Cabrera (ES), Director Tenerife Shorts, management and selection committee Seminci-Film
- Katrin Mundt (DE), Curator, author, and co-director of the European Media Art Festival (EMAF)
- Martina Scarpelli (DK), Director and producer (Martina Scarpelli Studio)
- Maryam Tafakory (IR), Artist and filmmaker
- Wim Vanacker (BE), Selection committee of the short film competition, Festival de Cannes
Grand Prize of the International Competition
«Neighbour Abdi» (Netherlands 2022) by Douwe Dijkstra
CHF 12 000.–, donated by SRG SSR
By fictionalizing reality and revisiting personal traumas, this film turns the world of documentary upside down to create a pertinent and playful portrait of a man with a loaded history and a captivating personality. We get close, very close, as if visiting a friend. The film’s immediacy is disarming, and the scars that are revealed go straight to the heart.
Promotional Award of the International Competition
«Bleu silico» (France 2022) by Eloïse Le Gallo and Julia Borderie
CHF 10 000.–, donated by the City of Winterthur
A beautifully edited film that brings together the personal, the artistic, and the scientific. We are taken from the very big to the very small and from the distant past to the present. The work translates research into a poetic journey through vibrant imagery and intimate moments of sharing.
Prix George for the Best Documentary Form in the International Competition
«45th Parallel» (United Kingdom 2022) by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
CHF 10 000.–, donated by the Volkart Foundation
We would like to award this prize to a film that is as elegantly constructed as it is politically urgent. A film set in a space that both exhibits and punctures the borders between states and jurisdictions, between knowledge shared and knowledge concealed, between public and private encounters. Restaging a crime that implies many other crimes, with the firing of one bullet that recalls countless other bullets, it exposes the vulnerability of both borders and bodies.
Candidacy for the European Film Awards (EFA)
«Hardly Working» (Austria 2022) by Total Refusal
A film that proposes a new political vision for a singular universe. A fascinating observation and analysis that raises many questions and evokes analogies.
Awards of the Swiss Competition
Jury of the Swiss Competition
- Bard Ydén (NO), Senior programmer and editor, Norwegian Short Film Festival
- Elie Grappe (CH), Author and director
- María Vera (AR), Festival distributor and sales agent
Award for the Best Swiss Film
«Flores del otro patio» (Switzerland 2022) by Jorge Cadena
CHF 10 000.–, donated by SUISSIMAGE and SSA
«Wake up, neighbors». This call to action opens the film we’ve decided to give the award to. Martin Luther King said: «There comes a time when silence is betrayal». We know this time is now, and the film invites us to be part of it. Inventive, filled with love, and with a very clear political statement, the film surprises viewers repeatedly. The performances are impressive, with the characters portrayed through fragmentary and significant details. With the help of simple elements, and without miserabilism, the film lends a strong beauty to the fight it depicts.
Special Mention I, Swiss Competition
«Les Grands Prés» (France/Switzerland 2022) by Sophia Remer and Michael Karrer
A film that takes the time to delicately immerse us in a contemplation of nature, its textures and sounds, inviting us on a fragile and sensitive journey through the wind.
Special Mention II, Swiss Competition
«Stones Don’t Fly» (Switzerland 2022) by Nikita Merlini
Another special mention goes to a film that tells the story of an awakening. Facing our ongoing ecological destruction in an everyday context, a child performs an act of dignity. It is a film of echoes between bodies and space, between life and death, crafted with great inspiration and produced by a collective of filmmakers.
ZKB Audience Award
ZKB Audience Award
«Haulout» (United Kingdom 2022) by Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva
CHF 10 000.–, donated by Zürcher Kantonalbank
Swiss Film School Day
The jury of the Swiss Competition gives feedback to the students and awards the prize for the Best Swiss School Film.
Award for the Best Swiss School Film
«The Deceased» (Switzerland 2022) by Philipp Veiga Amaro, HSLU
CHF 5000.–, donated by SRG SSR
A beautifully crafted story, deeply personal in its urgency to be told, without leaving the viewer feeling like an intruder. As layers of family history are peeled back and secrets are revealed, the process of healing and reconstruction can begin.
Special Mention I, Swiss Film School Day
«Pipes» (Switzerland 2022) by Jessica Meier, Kilian Feusi, and Sujanth Ravichandran, HSLU
One special mention goes to a film that we could watch and re-watch again and again. A sassy and irresistible film, in which desire is a playful question.
Special Mention II, Swiss Film School Day
«In Between» (Switzerland 2022) by Anaïs Bourgogne, HSLU
We would like to give a special mention to a film that portrays the experiences and concerns of three girls facing adolescence in a very honest and sensitive way. The film invites us to reflect about their intimate universes, their fears, and beliefs.
Awards for the Best Films in the Programmes Sparks I & II
Jury Sparks I / Sparks II
- Sandro Manuel Isenegger (CH)
- Gwendolyn Jane Reigber (CH)
- Raja Künzle (CH)
Award for the Best Film in the Programme Sparks I
«Datsun» (New Zealand 2021) by Mark Albiston
CHF 1000.–, donated by Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
When I think of our award-winning film, I think of young, even very young, actors who were definitely on top of their job. I think of a touching story. And I think of poetic images and tragicomical storytelling, of a refreshing and enchantingly incongruous mix of music and action in the scenes, and of camera work and editing that are anything but ordinary. I think of a little boy in his mother’s high heels and of an old car.
Award for the Best Film in the Programme Sparks II
«Ours» (Switzerland 2022) by Morgane Frund
CHF 1000.–, donated by Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
This incredible documentary is about much more than just the beauty of nature.
Post-production Award
Jury of the Postproduction-Award
- Robert Büchel, Jingle Jungle
- Christof Hächler, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur
- Eva Schweizer, SRF
Post-production Award
«There Is No End to This Story» (AT) by Cosima Frei (Filmgerberei Zürich)
CHF 10 000.–, in-kind prize, donated by Jingle Jungle
Before her departure, Mena visits her beloved neighbourhood stores one last time. In this hybrid film, the fictional character encounters real-life salesclerks who engage in conversation with her, giving her confidence for her journey into the unknown. Curiosity and playfulness make the project compelling. With gentle and succinct situational humour, the film tells the universal story of failed love – of falling and getting back up, of closures and new beginnings – in an entertaining way. The hybrid form combining improvised fiction and documentary creates a sensitive homage to the neighbourhood characters and to life.
Pitching Session Competition
Jury
- Enrico Vannucci (IT), Talents and Short Film Market
- Stine Wangler (DE), Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg
- Sven Wälti (CH), SRG SSR
Invited to participate in the European Short Pitch 2022/2023
«Les écailles lui sont tombées des yeux» by Coline Confort
We believe that this project is a strong personal story that tackles a universal topic, shot in a very unique visual style and framed by an equally unique setting.
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