The decisions by the jurys and the audiences were awaited and anticipated anxiously. The award winners of the 28. Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival were presented with their prizes this evening. The award ceremony’s host was our regular presenter Ruth Rockenschaub, who traditionally combined casualness and festivity. The Egyptian director Ahmed Ghoneimy was awarded the Jury Prize of the International Competition (Hamburg Short Film Prize) for his film BAHARI. The jury stated, that this “very personal short feature film captured a very small part of a society undergoing constant turmoil. The jury summed up, that the award winning film had convinced them “because of its very knowledgeable,  poetic and confident mis-en-scène of the location and human interaction, as well as the fine and thought-out timing”.
 
The rainy and cold weather in Hamburg ensured well-frequented cinemas and sometimes sold out programmes in our cuddly and warm festival cinemas. A real bonus this year was our new Festival Centre on the compound on which we screen films and celebrated parties last year: Just as we had hoped, Hall 5 became the central and well-attended venue for our accredited professional visitors, the curious audience and the team members. Especially our newly fixed No Budget Hotel, in which we freed films from conventional cinema screenings, was very popular. The audience only left the No Budget Hotel in the early morning, after a night of marathon short film screening (films from the No Budget competition). Our Open Air events were relocated and took place in a factory hall. It was a unique experience for audiences to enjoy short films in a “cathedral of the industrial age”.
 
Whoever missed or wants to see all of the award winning films in a row can watch them on Mon, 4th of June 2012 in the zeise cinemas at 7:30p.m.
 
All award winning films and statements by the jury are to be found on the following pages. Photos of the honorees in our website’s press area: http://festival.shortfilm.com
 
International Competition
Jury: Andrew Bird, Pamela Cohn, Pascale Faure, Claus Löser, Johannes Nyholm
 
Hamburg Short Film Award (Jury Award of the International Competition, 3000 Euros)
Bahari
Ahmed Ghoneimy, Egypt 2011, 12:39 min., Fiction
 
Jury statement:
With his deeply personal short fiction piece, the director gives us a glimpse into a society in almost constant transition. Creating a dense atmosphere of allegation and fear, he tells the story of a surreal encounter close by the city of Alexandria, Egypt. Communication seems only possible in a fragmented way. This film won the jury over with its highly proficient, poetic and confident representations of locale, human interaction, and its delicate and deliberate timing.
 
Special Mention:
 
L’Ambassadeur & Moi (The Ambassador & Me)
Jan Czarlewski, Switzerland 2011, 15:35 min., Documentary
With a trembling camera and a stuttering voice, a young man confronts his idolized – but cold and distant – father. This is a sad, comical, brave and deeply human film where, in just under 16 minutes, the director shows us that big achievements on a grand scale can mean huge sacrifices on a personal level. The father's fights throughout his professional career have given him a shelf full of medals. We, the jury, now wish to give a nod of recognition for filmmaking excellence to the son.
 
 
Liberté-Audience Award (1500 Euros), presented by Gauloises, given to a short film from the International ort he German Competition
The Centrifuge Brain Project
Till Nowak, Germany 2011, 6:35 min., Fiction
 
 
 
 
 
NoBudget Competition
Jury: Die Jury: Dagmar Brunow, Bady Minck, Dragan Zivancevic
 
No Budget Jury Award (2000 Euros)
25km2
Jana Mináriková, Slovak Republic 2011, 12:21 min., Experimental Fiction
 
Jury statement:
An intelligent and crazy meta-film with a great sense of humour, turning into a self-reflexive piece of filmmaking, unfolding a complexity of layers. Employing an excellently developed narrative with intertextual references, its elegance and style establish a unique universe.
 
 
Special mentions:
 
After
Lukasz Konopa, Great Britain/Poland, 6:40 min., Documentary
Excellently photographed and edited, the complex construction of the film impresses through its density. Not merely dealing with Holocaust memory, the film reflects about the representation of history.
 
Morgen leben wir wieder (Tomorrow We Will Live Again)
Corinna Giesen, Germany 2011/12, 20:00 min., documentary
The brave, intimate portrait of a brother-sister relationship creates an emotional turmoil with unpredictable moments of disturbing intensity.
 
 
 
NoBudget Audience Award ›Optimistic Vision‹ (2000 Euros)
This yearʼs national award goes to the two following films:
 
Animation Hotline
Dustin Grella, USA 2011, 05:00min., Animation
 
Ten Quintillion
Romilly Spiers, Australia 2012, 09:19min., Experimental
 
 
 
 
German Competition
Jury: Konrad Mühe, Birgit Ramsauer, Peter Schernhuber
 
Jury Award (2000 Euros)
Like Rats Leaving a Sinking Ship
Vika Kirchenbauer, Germany 2012, 24:29 min., Documentary
 
Jury statement:
A personal story is set free to travel. The montage of images, sound, and identity as sonimage turns out to drill down on the autobiography. Humorous moments keep the balance between the author and the viewer. Kirchenbauer considerately applies cinematic methods and reflects their language form. Upright images are woven together, the subtitles work as karaoke text lines. Kirchenbauer tells her story in an unpretentious way without illustrating it.
 
Geil ist geil ist geil
 
 
Special Mention:
 
Escape
Rosa Hannah Ziegler, Germany 2011, 21:03 min., Fiction
 
Jury statement:
Nothing is provocative about “Escape”. Rosa Hannah Ziegler’s film is a version of adolescent violence and social alienation. By the director’s choice of Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” the film allows the viewer to bare the escalation within the story’s construction: Both contrasting main themes of the Fugue reflect the two different characters of the girls.
The previously implemented cell phone images develop a picturesque quality: the only sensual view the world’s searchers exceeds the boundaries of a common abstract picture. The topos of criminal youths, who are re-socialised in the unspoiled countryside, is rejected by the powerful mis-en-scène depicting barbarity. The coda, i.e. the ending, drives the fugue in repetition back to the beginning: “Escape” as “fugue” – a hopeless getaway.
 
 
 
 
 
Hamburg Competition
 
Hamburg Audience Award presented by Pilsner Urquell (1500 Euros)
Der fremde Fotograf und die Einsamkeit (A Strange Photographer and the Solitude)
Willy Hans / Jan Eichberg, Germany 2011, 5:26 min., Fiction
 
 
 
Three Minute Quickie Competition: Topic ’Remake’
 
Audience Award (1000 Euros), funded by the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung
Tarazoo (Scale)
Ramin Rahbar, Iran 2012, 2:03 min., Animation
 

arte-Short Film Award
Jury: Sabine Brantus-Lauffer, Barbara Häbe
 
arte-Short Film Award (6000 Euros). Acquisition of screening rights and broadcast as part of arte’s short film programme.
Meteor
Christoph Girardet / Matthias Müller, Germany 2011, 15:00 min., Experimental
 
Jury statement:
ARTE is pleased to support the Hamburg ShortFilmFestival again this year and to award a prize to a film from the competition.
We would like to congratulate the film makers, Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller, on their marvel „Meteor“. A very poetic, phantastic and at the same tame aesthetical film, which is made up of different excerpts and quotes from bygone works in a virtuous way.
Fears, expectations and nostalgia, the old and the new and especially wishful dreams are put together. Our journey to the moon is accompanied by Puccini’s splendid aria. We are spellbound!

 
 
Mo&Friese Children’s ShortFilmFestival
These prizes are presented by both children’s juries.
 
Mo-Award sponsored by GEOLino (Jury award, 1500 Euro, from age 9)
Vermisst (Missing)
Cristian Wiesenfeld, Chile/Germany 2011, 02:40min., Animation
 
Jury statement:
„We thought the film was fascinating. The animation was just WOW! We where impressed how a miniature world could transform into a whole film. Our special praise goes to the director Christian Wiesenfeld, who spent three years working on the film. The Mo-Award 2012 goes to MISSING!
 
 
Friese Award sponsored by Levantehaus (Jury award, 1500 Euro, age 4 - 8)
Julian
Matthew Moore, Australia 2011, 13:22min, Fiction
 
Jury statement:
We chose this film because it made us laugh a lot and because it make us feel like seeing a big movie in thirteen minutes. We liked it that Julian beats the adults who are not taking him seriously. We especially liked the surprising and unconventional ending where Julian gets his way against his teacher, his classmate and the principal. It doesn’t happen every day that the principal makes an announcement about the points of view of a school kid.
 
„High five!“ Competition
(A total of 600 Euros – sponsored by GEOlino, presented by the Mo-Jury and Friese-Jury)
 
1st Prize (300 Euros)
Ostsee Freundschaft (Baltic See Friendship)
Katinka Kultscher/Lotta Horns, Germany 2012, 03:30min., Fiction
 
Jury statement:
The two directors did not just make a film. They also made a song and a music video at the same time. We liked the story of their holiday friendship and we admired the technical aspects as well. The girls are filmed from different perspectives, and the story of the beginning of their friendship is comprehensible even without seeing the pictures from their holiday.
 
2nd Prize (200 Euros)
Mourning Lissy
Lukas Nitsche/Katharina Krause/Chiara Jeschkeit, Germany 2011, 04:53min., Fiction
 
Jury statement:
The film tells us a story that could have happened in real life. Many of the scenes where acted very well.  It’s obvious that the children put a lot of effort into their film
 
3rd Prize (100 Euros)
Two Hands
Julia Anderman, Germany 2009, 02:20min., Experimental
 
Jury statement:
We where thrilled by the original idea and the unconventional conversion. The shadow theatre was a great concept and we liked the story that told us that we are all dependent on each other. Even the left and the right hand.
 
Special Mention:
 
Join My Band
Naomi Wright, Great Britain 2010, 15:09min., Fiction
Steve is a nerdy school boy who instantly falls for the new girl - rebellious, rock-chick Stella. Too shy to ask her out directly, Steve instead transforms his image to match hers and forms a punk rock band with his friends. However, despite appearances, it turns out that Stella isn't quite what she seems.
 
Dingi
Veit Helmer, Bangladesh/Germany 2012, 06:15min., Fiction
Homeless children take revenge on mean boatmen, who try to scare them away.