The award winners of DOK.fest München 2020 @home
At the presentation of the main prizes, the winners of our VIKTORs were also solemnly announced. We are pleased to present all the winners of the DOK.fest München @home to you.
VIKTOR Main Competition DOK.international
ACASA, MY HOME
Director: Radu Ciorniciuc
Jury statement: "We decided to give the award to a film that spent time with its protagonists in order to gain an intimacy rarely seen in cinema. It’s the story of a family living on the outskirts of society. The film touches on issues of gentrification, environmental preservation and urban development that are so relevant to our current time. Radu Ciorniciuc creates a filmic and journalistic narrative that shows how life can fall apart when we lose our connection to nature and ourselves. The microcosm of the Roma family stands paradigmatically for all the crises we live through and thus foreshadows the global catastrophe."
Jury: Denise Bucher (culture editor at "NZZ am Sonntag" and president of the Swiss Association of Film Critics), Ines Kalzik-Kratzmüller (PR and marketing consultant, actress and co-theatre director), Sudeep Sharma (programme designer, Sundance Film Festival)
Donated by Bayerischer Rundfunk, endowed with 10,000 euros. The nominees were films that show a broad spectrum of content and form and are distinguished by their high artistic quality.
VIKTOR DOK.deutsch
WEIYENA – EIN HEIMATFILM
Directors: Weina Zhao und Judith Benedikt
Jury statement: "Weina Zhao grew up in Vienna. In her promising first film she initially sets out on a journey of (self)discovery among her family members in China to understand her own life between two cultures. But what begins on the domestic level of family history soon takes on a wider perspective as her parents and grandparents share untold stories of the past during and after the Cultural Revolution. Moving, heartbreaking, terrifying but ultimately life-affirming: WEIYENA – EIN HEIMATFILM is a deeply personal, promising debut by a filmmaker setting out not only to explore her own story, but also a personal way of telling it."
Jury: Helle Hansen (film commissioner, Norwegian Film Institute), Kati Juurus (artistic director of the documentary film festival DocPoint Helsinki), Mads Mikkelsen (programmer and head of the selection committee, CPH:DOX)
Endowed with 5,000 euros. The nominees were films that deal with people and topics in the German-speaking world.
VIKTOR DOK.horizonte
THEY CALL ME BABU
Director: Sandra Beerends
Jury statement: "An emotional journey back in time uncovers unseen footage of colonial Indonesia and boat travel to Holland. We meet a nanny, Babu, whose love for the Dutch family and its children enchanted all three members of the jury. A film that connects a personal story with dramatic events where history becomes alive and talks to us on a profoundly human level. The director’s sensibility in storytelling is stunning. The VIKTOR DOK.horizonte goes to THEY CALL ME BABU by Sandra Beerends."
Jury: Petra Seliškar (artistic director at Makedox, director and producer), Eroll Bilibani (head of DokuLab, DokuFest Prizen), Marc-André Schmachtel (head of 34/film, television, radio, Goethe-Institut)
The nominees were films that direct their attention to countries with unstable structures.
FFF Talent Award Documentary Film
CHADDR – A RIVER BETWEEN US (CHADDR – UNTER UNS DER FLUSS)
Director: Minsu Park
Jury statement: "CHADDR – A RIVER BETWEEN US (CHADDR – UNTER UNS DER FLUSS) is the story of a family in the remote world of the Indian Himalayas. For 18 years a father has accompanied his three daughters to school along the extremely dangerous footpath next to the icy Chaddr River. Unobtrusively and almost incidentally, Minsu Park shows us big issues on a small scale, such as climate change and the technological advances that existentially threaten the family’s austere world. The camerawork, editing and music together create a calm, irresistible appeal that evokes wonder and deep empathy for the protagonists."
Jury: Anke Zindler (PR agent), Holger Recktenwald (film distributor), Bernhard Simek (coordinator documentary film & Eastern Europe at German Films Service + Marketing GmbH)
Donated by FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, endowed with 5,000 euros, for young Bavarian directors (cross-row)
megaherz Student Award
RULES OF THE ASSEMBLY LINE, AT HIGH SPEED (REGELN AM BAND, BEI HOHER GESCHWINDIGKEIT)
Director: Yulia Lokshina
Jury statement: "This documentary unfolds boldly and without regard for classical narrative arcs, with many facets and a variety of different perspectives. Astonishingly, we are immersed in a universe, which, through its original combination of different elements, tells about so much more than particular precarious working conditions, the social engagement against them and the encouragement to think about them in theatre class.
The film does just what cinema can achieve at its best: it creates images in the mind instead of just on the screen. At the same time, the montage, the camera’s gaze and the score create an open, playful and surprising impression. Using all available narrative resources the curious process of discovery is closely followed. The film breathes – it lives and resonates long after. It is engaged and formally unique: RULES OF THE ASSEMBLY LINE, AT HIGH SPEED (REGELN AM BAND, BEI HOHER GESCHWINDIGKEIT) by Yulia Lokshina wins the 2020 megaherz Student Award."
A jury of students will award the prize to a film in the Student Award section. Endowed with 3,000 euros, donated by the film production company megaherz.
VFF Documentary Film Production Award
BEYOND THE VISIBLE – HILMA AF KLINT (JENSEITS DES SICHTBAREN – HILMA AF KLINT)
Production: Eva Illmer und Halina Dyrschka (director)
Jury statement: "BEYOND THE VISIBLE – HILMA AF KLINT (JENSEITS DES SICHTBAREN – HILMA AF KLINT) is not only a convincing debut film that adequately translates the colourful abstract fantasy worlds of the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint into cinema images; its theme is both discovery and revelation, even for an audience with an affinity for culture. What is completely astonishing about this film, however, is that the modest financial framework conditions of its creation are in no way apparent: Cinema quality and production value are obviously not only a question of money, but they always have a lot to do with the commitment, the creative will and the talent for improvisation of the people behind the camera."
The VFF Documentary Film Production Award at the DOK.fest München is a unique event in Germany that focuses on the work of documentary film producers. The prize is endowed with 7,500 euros and is donated by VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film und Fernsehproduzenten mbH. It will be awarded for the third time in 2020.
The award is sponsored by VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film und Fernsehproduzenten mbH and comes with prize money of 7,500 euros.
German Documentary Film Music Award
DIE LETZTEN ÖSTERREICHER
Director: Lukas Pitscheider
Composition: Klemens Bittmann, Christian Bakanic und Christofer Frank
From the jury statement: "In a round dozen of musical islands, the trio creates a harmonious world of sound that is perfectly integrated into the picture, creating a magical atmosphere. What could have been a nostalgic journey to one of the last enclaves of the Habsburg monarchy, develops here - especially in the final title - into a successful synthesis of quoted folk sound and powerful compositional energy."
Jury: Dr. Meret Forster (BR-KLASSIK editor and artistic director of the ARD music competition), Brigitte Hofer (producer/director maximage), Jana Irmert (composer, sound designer), Alexander Kukelka (composer, conductor, pianist, author, director, music supervisor), Prof. Dr. jur. Klaus Schaefer (lawyer, former managing director of the FFF Bayern)
The German Documentary Film Music Prize is awarded annually to a composition that combines in an outstanding way with the documentary film narrative. It sees itself as a platform for the work of composers and the value of music as a narrative level in documentary film.
The prize is endowed with 5,000 euros. The prize is awarded to the team of filmmaker and composer. The German Documentary Film Music Award is sponsored by the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung and supported by the Förder- und Hilfsfonds des Deutschen Komponistenverbandes DKV.
DOK.fest Award of SOS Children's Villages worldwide
COPPER NOTES OF A DREAM
Director: Reza Farahmand
Jury statement: "With COPPER NOTES OF A DREAM Iranian filmmaker Reza Farahmand succeeds in taking us into the world of children in war and crisis zones. The camera accompanies Malook and his friends at eye level. Small everyday scenes, such as the morning laundry and combing the hair, thus become meaningful gestures. They show how much dignity there is in every child's life, in every human life, no matter how adverse the conditions and circumstances. All this touches us deeply, without a feeling of voyeurism creeping up on us. Reza Farahmand captures the bombed-out houses and cities with a powerful camera and tells a dramaturgically stringent story of the children's hope for a better future."
Jury: Michaela May (actress), Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Heribert Prantl (former member of the editor-in-chief, now columnist and author of the Süddeutsche Zeitung), Michaela Braun (Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board and the Personnel Committee of SOS Children's Villages worldwide), Timo Großpietsch (documentary filmmaker and editor), Roman Karz (General Manager Fox Networks Group Germany GmbH), Christine Kehrer (Head of Moving Image of SOS Children's Villages worldwide), Wolfram Kons (General Manager RTL Charity, Executive Director RTL Foundation, TV journalist), Martin Kowalczyk (BR documentary film editor).
The DOK.fest Award of SOS Children's Villages worldwide is donated by B.O.A. Videofilmkunst and is endowed with 3,000 euros.
kinokino Audience Award – sponsored by BR and 3sat
THE EUPHORIA OF BEING
Director: Réka Szabó
You voted and elected THE EUPHORIA OF BEING by Réka Szabó with an average of 4.82 clapping hands as the audience favourite 2020. With the kinokino Audience Award - sponsored by BR and 3sat, viewers at DOK.fest München @home have the opportunity to vote for themselves.
This year, the Audience Award is endowed with a one-time prize money of 2,000 euros. Donors are the Bayerischer Rundfunk, 3sat and the DOK.fest München Support Association. The Audience Award is named after kinokino - Das Filmmagazin im Bayerischen Rundfunk | 3sat.
DOK.forum award winners
DOK.digital – Preis für neue Erzählformate
SOCIAL SCORE
Vinzenz Aubry, Sebastian Strobel, Ralph Tharayil and Fabian Burghardt (Sansho Studio)
From the jury statement: "The project not only dares to take a completely new approach by combining AI technology and the listening experience, it also sharpens our perception and inspires our individual head cinema by placing our own reality in the context of the possible future dystopia of a surveillance society.
With their SOCIAL SCORE project, Vinzenz Aubry, Sebastian Strobel, Ralph Tharayil and Fabian Burghardt manage to package a relevant topic as an innovative and interactive listening experience that allows us to perceive our own familiar surroundings in a new way as a dynamic narrative space. Without much effort, the user can start right at his own front door with his mobile phone and browser and rediscover the actually familiar environment.“
The prize is donated by the Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM) and is endowed with 2,500 euros.
Pitch Award of Haus des Dokumentarfilms
AFTER THE GODS
Jasmine Alakari
From the jury statement: "A melancholy, probably sometimes desperate swan song about false promises of happiness and the deep longing of young people who do not want to accept their own hopelessness and powerlessness. AFTER THE GODS promises wild commitment and a tender look at chaos. An essay between social and aesthetic fronts, full of poetry and yet politically wide awake! Driven by all the contradictions in front of and behind the camera, Jasmin Alakari tells a universal story with a slightly painful pinch of humour."
Jury: Anne-Kathrin Brinkmann (ZDF/ARTE), Petra Felber (BR), Timo Großpietsch (NDR), Jutta Krug (WDR), Sonia Otto (INDI Film), Marcus Vetter (SWR), Peter Schernhuber (Diagonale/AT), Siegfried Steinlechner (ORF/AT), Ralph Wieser (Mischief Films/AT), Aline Schmid (Beauvoir Films/CH), Esther van Messel (First Hand Films/CH) and Sven Wälti (SRG SSR/CH)
The prize for the best young talent concept is endowed with 2,500 euros and donated by Haus des Dokumentarfilms Stuttgart.
German Composition Funding Award
AWALATJE – DIE HEBAMMEN
Anna-Marlene Bicking, Sarah Noa Bozenhardt, Sonja Kilbertus
From the jury statement: „Between director Sarah Noa Bozenhardt and composer Anna-Marlene Bicking we perceive an intensive and grown cooperation, which closely intertwines aesthetic and production processes. With the film project AWALATJE - DIE HEBAMMEN the young team approaches three women in Ethiopia, who move in the area of conflict between traditional and modern obstetrics. In this microcosm, music becomes the supporting structural element through the ingenious transfer of contemporary electronic sounds, nature noises and sounds produced on traditional instruments - such as the kalimba.
Directing concept, narrative dramaturgy and composition are directly intertwined, meticulous sound research on the part of the composer meets goal-oriented power and enthusiasm, which are motivated not least by an autobiographical moment of the director, who grew up in Ethiopia from the age of 12."
Jury: Jana Irmert (composer, sound designer), Dr. Meret Forster (BR-KLASSIK editor and artistic director of the ARD music competition), Brigitte Hofer (producer, managing director maximage), Alexander Kukelka (composer) and Prof. Dr. Klaus Schaefer (lawyer, former managing director of the FFF Bayern).
In order to strengthen the artistic cooperation between filmmakers and composers, the best musical concept for a documentary film will be awarded 2,500 euros. The prize is donated by Sonoton Music, the world's largest independent provider of professional production music.
British Pathé Archive Award
QUEEN OF CHESS
Bernadett Tuza-Ritter, Gabor Harmi, Lili Kovacs
From the jury statement: "The jury was particularly impressed by the clever and virtuoso handling of the versatile archive material. The historical and largely unknown film footage represents a fundamental narrative level here. The jury also finds it very promising how the different facets of this child prodigy story are fanned out: the father's educational experiments, the relationship between the sexes, the idiosyncratic world of chess, the excitement of competitions, the social and political conditions - all this is reflected in this exciting biography of women."
Jury: Anke Hahn (Head of Film Distribution, Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum for Film and Television), Patrick Hörl (Managing Director, Autentic GmbH), Monika Preischl (Archive Researcher and Archive Producer) and Simon Witter (Footage Archive / Licensing, British Pathé Ltd.)
The award honours projects with a large share of archive material, thus strengthening a documentary genre rich in tradition. The winning project receives British Pathé archive material worth 14,000 euros or alternatively 2,500 euros in cash.
