A total of ten Golden Horsemen and four special prizes were awarded at the Awards Ceremony on Saturday, for the 30th Filmfest Dresden. The Indian director Amar Kaushik received two Golden Horseman trophies for his short fiction film Grandfather (Aaba) and Jon Frickey, who lives in Hamburg, scooped up one of the special prizes, in addition to a Golden Horseman trophy.

30th FilmFest Dresden Award and Prize Winners

International Competition

Golden Horseman Best Animation Film International Competition (7.500 Euro)
“LUPUS” from director Carlos Gómez Salamanca (Colombia / France, 2016)

Jury comments: “Starting from real events taking place in its home country, through the use of different animation techniques, this film overcomes the border of a local story to become a metaphor of a disease spreading out in many societies around the world.”

Special Mention:  “YAL VA KOOPAL – MANED & MACHO” from director Shiva Sadegh Asadi (Iran, 2017)

Golden Horseman Best Short Fiction International Competition (7.500 Euro)
“AABA – GRANDFATHER” from director Amar Kaushik (India, 2016)

Jury Comments: “Set in an exotic landscape the film tells a classic story of the eternal circle of life. After the final verdict from the local physician, an old man carefully prepares for his ultimate journey. With few words spoken and in a rich visual style the director warmheartedly touches a serious topic in a humorous way.”

Special Mention: “PŘÁTELSKÉ SETKÁNÍ NAD SPORTEM – FRIENDLY SPORT MEETING” from director Adam Koloman Rybanský (Czech Republic, 2017)

Golden Horseman of the Audience International Competition (3.000 Euro)
“THE THEORY OF SUNSET” from director Roman Sokolov (Russia, 2017)

Golden Horseman of the Youth Jury International Competition (2.000 Euro)
“AABA – GRANDFATHER” from director Amar Kaushik (India, 2016)

Jury Comments: “The film recounts a story about life and the end to it in a calm and loving way, revealing an unusual insight into a warm-hearted world where few words are spoken. The plot is borne by the three powerful characters and their impressively authentic portrayals. Between bamboo and American TV shows for children, the film finds a realistic, almost humorous response to the self-evident nature of the occurrences in life.”

Special Mention: “LUPUS” from director Carlos Gómez Salamanca (Colombia / France, 2016)

Jury Comments: “The special mention of the Youth Jury in the International Competition goes to the film LUPUS for its complexity, its unique idea and its multi-layered adaptation, the combining of documentary elements and its differing animation styles, as well as the soundscape and editing concept selected.”

National Competition

Golden Horseman Best Animation Film National Competition (3.000 Euro)
“SOG” from director Jonatan Schwenk (Germany, 2017)

Jury Comments: “This animation film, which knowingly incorporates analogue and digital animation techniques, reveals how something completely extraordinary can emerge when two worlds are combined with each other. Regrettably, its characters are excluded from this marvel and permit fear to prevail, rather than create something incredibly new. A moving parallel to current affairs.”

Special Mention: “HALMASPIEL” from director Betina Kuntzsch (Germany, 2017)

Jury Comments: “Exposed to the fortunes of life like pieces in a game…”

Golden Horseman Best Short Fiction National Competition (3.000 Euro)
“JOY” from director Abini Gold (Germany, 2017)

Jury Comments: “Left alone and having to fend for herself, the protagonist defies her situation. The hope that tomorrow – when all is well again – is abruptly shattered. Disappointment, betrayal and anger: These we read in her face like an open book. Which is the very strength of this social drama. Superbly cast and portrayed, and set within the tightest space, the conflict between a daughter and her mother inevitably ends in catastrophe.”

Special Mention: “ATTAK” from director Ruben Meier (Germany, 2017)

Jury Comments: “A film with the courage to confront male clichés and archaic fantasies of violence, that humorously deconstructs then at the same time without exposing its protagonists in the process. We can’t wait for more to come.”

Golden Horseman of the Audience National Competition (4.000 Euro)
“ATTAK” from director Ruben Meier (Germany, 2017)

Golden Horseman of the Youth Jury National Competition (2.000 Euro)
“U MEĐUVREMENU – MEANWHILE” from director Mate Ugrin (Germany, 2017)

Jury Comments: “A story of farewell and hopelessness is told in the streets of a desolate small town. Doing so, juxtaposed light-intensive visual compositions prevail over the dialogue and plot. Permitting the filmmaker to achieve the creation of a dense, atmospheric and sensitive portrayal of this uncertain stillness. With the viewers becoming observers drawn helplessly into the situation.”

Minister of Fine Arts Promotion Prize (20.000 Euro)
“LINK” from director Robert Löbel (Germany, 2017)

Jury Comments: “In less than eight minutes, we dive into a world full of metaphors that manages with the simplest of narrative means to pose the great question in life: Where do we want to live? Two figures seem to be taking their own individual way in life, and yet everything they do also has consequences for the other one. For where we come from is who we are.”

DEFA Promotion Prize Animation (3.000 Euro)
“MASCARPONE” from director Jonas Riemer (Germany, 2018)

Jury Comments: “In a skilfully abstracted and lavishly adapted declaration of love to the great dream factory of Hollywood, the winning film embodies an accomplished balancing act between technical perfection and deliberately haptic simplifications. Brilliantly interwoven animation techniques and real-film elements impel the audience onto a high-speed filmic rollercoaster.”

National and International Competition

ARTE Short Film Prize (6.000 Euro)
“NEKO NO HI – CAT DAYS” from director Jon Frickey (Germany / Japan, 2018)

Jury Comments: “The animated film convinced the ARTE Jury with its simplicity and carefully crafted details, as well as through its vibrant colours. This powerful aesthetic is combined with a fable-like tale that flirts with absurdity so as to grasp the subject of identity. A positive and gentle father-son relationship works its way through the film that teaches the acceptance of others and being different.”

Audience Award Regional Film Night (3.000 Euro)
“MIN BÖRDA – THE BURDEN“, Music & Sound: Hans Appelqvist (Sweden, 2017)

Jury Comments: “This film’s soundtrack is distinguished by its humour, depth, creativity and versatility. With all of these elements at the highest level and perfectly combined with each other and with the image. The handling of the music, sounds and language goes far beyond merely illustrating the storyline and forms the soul of the film. Through the innovate use of experimental effects and disassociations, the traditional musical becomes a mirror on the surrealism of everyday life in our society.”

Golden Horseman* for Gender Diversity (1.000 Euro)
“NEKO NO HI – CAT DAYS” from director Jon Frickey (Germany / Japan, 2018)

Jury Comments: “The development of a gender identity presupposes the freedom of self-definition. In medical diagnoses, this freedom is often not permitted to inter and trans persons. The prize-winning film challenges this with a heartening “Be whatever you want to be!” Animated for children, the film calls upon every human to have self-confident authenticity.”

Special Mention: “MRS MCCUTCHEON” from director John Sheedy (Australia, 2017)

Jury Comments: “A school ball dancefloor is transformed into a social ideal, in which each and every heteronormative pressure to conform seems to be suspended for one evening. With gender identity, sexual orientation and ethnic origins no longer playing a role, true to the motto: Just be yourself and be proud of it!”

Regional Film Night 2018
Audience Award (2.000 Euro)
“OCCUPIED SUMMER” from director Berit Toepfer (Germany, 2017)