BEST FILM
The Smile | Netherlands | 2022 | 16’
Director: Erik van Schaaik
Writer: Erik van Schaaik
Producer: Anita van Dalen
Cast: Claire King, Tim Gunther, Erik van Schaaik
Synopsis: When a world-famous film star is accused of eating his female co-stars, his career goes down the drain. That wipes the smile off his face!
BEST DIRECTOR
Phase 9 | France | 2022 | 25’
Director: Souliman Schelfout
Producer: Quentin Brayer
Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Elie Salleron
Synopsis: Pietro struggles at online poker so much that he gives in to the worst idea. He installs an artificial intelligence supposed to make him unbeatable.
BEST SCREENPLAY
The Smile | Netherlands | 2022 | 16’
Director: Erik van Schaaik
Writer: Erik van Schaaik
Producer: Anita van Dalen
Cast: Claire King, Tim Gunther, Erik van Schaaik
Synopsis: When a world-famous film star is accused of eating his female co-stars, his career goes down the drain. That wipes the smile off his face!
BEST LEADING ACTRESS
ENOMENA | Greece | 2021 | 19’
Actress: Margarita Tasi
Director: Phaedra Vόkali
Writer: Phaedra Vόkali
Producers: Phaedra Vόkali, Orestis Plakias
Cast: Margarita Tasi, Froso Papadopoulou, Flomaria Papadaki
Synopsis: Anna is a gifted but insecure 17-year-old girl who is desperate to belong. During an aquarium school trip, her jockey boyfriend pressures Anna into entrapping his go-to target, tough Albanian classmate Jo, so that they can bully them later on. Anna accepts the mission only to find herself perplexed by her own feelings for Jo. Now Anna needs to decide if she’s brave enough to follow her inner voice or succumb to the need to be accepted.
BEST LEADING ACTOR
Phase 9 | France | 2022 | 25’
Actor: Quentin Dolmaire
Director: Souliman Schelfout
Producer: Quentin Brayer
Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Elie Salleron
Synopsis: Pietro struggles at online poker so much that he gives in to the worst idea. He installs an artificial intelligence supposed to make him unbeatable.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Left On Our Own | Hungary | 2022 | 27’
Cinematographer: Viktor Juhasz
Director: Akos Kovacs
Writer: Akos Kovacs
Producer: Jeno Habermann
Cast: Janos Papp
Synopsis: An elderly taxi driver, who happens to be a tireless storyteller, is a man of contradictions: a hopeless romantic and a crude observer of life who has lived through individual hardship and witnessed the despair of others. He doesn’t hold back while roaming the streets of Budapest: the route to the destination leads through the labyrinth of his own memories and emotions, which his words conjure. Friends and strangers, cheap décor, lonely buildings, a life-long correspondence that encapsulates a relationship, numbing melodies from an ancient music box all swirl and blend in this film’s poetic vision. Sensitive writing and emotional cinematography draws the attention to small details, to personal hopes and everyday tragedies. A hypnotic, haunting and tranquil soundtrack gives eerily gentle force to the old man’s tales.
BEST EDITING
Left On Our Own | Hungary | 2022 | 27’
Editor: Viktor Juhasz
Cinematographer: Viktor Juhasz
Director: Akos Kovacs
Writer: Akos Kovacs
Producer: Jeno Habermann
Cast: Janos Papp
Synopsis: An elderly taxi driver, who happens to be a tireless storyteller, is a man of contradictions: a hopeless romantic and a crude observer of life who has lived through individual hardship and witnessed the despair of others. He doesn’t hold back while roaming the streets of Budapest: the route to the destination leads through the labyrinth of his own memories and emotions, which his words conjure. Friends and strangers, cheap décor, lonely buildings, a life-long correspondence that encapsulates a relationship, numbing melodies from an ancient music box all swirl and blend in this film’s poetic vision. Sensitive writing and emotional cinematography draws the attention to small details, to personal hopes and everyday tragedies. A hypnotic, haunting and tranquil soundtrack gives eerily gentle force to the old man’s tales.
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
1939 | Hungary | 2022 | 01’
Production Designer: Viola Cserkúti
Directors: Zsolt Magyari, Claudia Benkő
Writers: Zsolt Magyari, Alexandra Kocsis, Claudia Benkő
Producer: Patrícia D’Intino
Cast: Anikó Für, Levente Molnár, László Gálffy, József Gyabronka
Synopsis: On 3 September 1939, a young woman mysteriously disappears. A private investigator is set to the case. What happened to Ilonka? Is she hiding from her abusive military officer husband? Did she engage in an illegal political movement? Or on the contrary, she fell in love and fled the country with a Jewish journalist? What if she became a spy, as the butler believes? This detective story lets us peek into a society divided to the extreme on the brink of a global cataclysm.
BEST NARRATIVE
The Benefactors | Switzerland | 2022 | 09’
Director: Christophe Lopez-Huici
Synopsis: A weary young man thinks he found the perfect patrons for his rickshaw tours, but he soon finds out that his new customers can be very demanding.
BEST DRAMA
Life is a state of chaos | Canada | 2022 | 14’
Director: Yann-Manuel Hernandez
Writer: Yann-Manuel Hernandez
Producer: Yann-Manuel Hernandez
Cast: Sarah Keita, Christian Paul
Synopsis: This is the legendary story of a woman who had never cried. She had lost everything and had to go into exile far from home. Where the cold kills. She had run away all her life. So much so that she became the ghost of herself. She was alive and dead at the same time. Until one day she hears again a melody forgotten in the depths of her memory. Inspired by the feeling of exile and the melody The Gentle Waltz by Quebec jazzman Oscar Peterson, director Yann-Manuel Hernandez creates a fiction that navigates between the melancholy of the lost country and the desire to make peace with her past.
BEST FANTASY/SCI-FI
Phase 9 | France | 2022 | 25’
Director: Souliman Schelfout
Producer: Quentin Brayer
Cast: Quentin Dolmaire, Elie Salleron
Synopsis: Pietro struggles at online poker so much that he gives in to the worst idea. He installs an artificial intelligence supposed to make him unbeatable.
BEST DANCE/MUSICAL
Into The Arms Of Sunshine | South Africa | 2022 | 05’
Director: Craig Moore
Writer: Craig Moore
Producer: Liam Johnson
Cast: Sabine Van Rensburg, Brin Schoellkopf
Synopsis: ‘Into The Arms of Sunshine’ is an experimental movement piece told through poetry and motion. Starring two circus artists from the Montreal Circus; Sabine Van Rensburg and Brin Schoellkopf. Written and directed by Craig Moore, the film is a story about two lost lovers who are separated and longing to be together again, using a series of visual metaphors to convey the emotions attached with separation. Told through the female perspective, they look to the sun for comfort and guidance as they long to be back in each others arms again.
BEST STUDENT
Familiar Stranger | Switzerland | 2022 | 20’
Directors: Sara Furrer, Fabian Lütolf
Writers: Sara Furrer, Fabian Lütolf
Producers: Edith Flückiger, Urs Augstburger
Synopsis: Sara’s grandfather has left a void in her family. Who is Kamran Taan? The filmmaker sets off in search of clues and travels to La Spezia – the coastal city where he is said to have lived. What does kinship mean when you’ve never met? Unexpected events and revelations gradually form a narrative. A road movie about family and identity.
BEST YOUNG DIRECTOR
Manchukuo, 1943, Summer | United States | 2022 | 13’
Director: Yifan Xiang
Writer: Yifan Xiang
Producers: Nicole Shan, Yifan Xiang
Cast: Angela Lin, Lawrance Luo
Synopsis: 1945, Manchuria, a young Manchurian huntress tries to steal a rifle from an injured imperial Japanese soldier.
BEST ANIMATION
Tomato Kitchen| China | 2022 | 09’
Director: Junyi Xiao
Synopsis: An escaped tomato interrupted Lee’s dinner with his colleagues. The dark truth of the Tomato Kitchen along with Lee’s hidden past were revealed by this unexpected incident…
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Rangers of the Ulaan Taiga | United States | 2022 | 14’
Director: Eric Daft
Producers: Mark Fisher, Mongol Ecology Center
Synopsis: A look into the lives of the Ulaan Taiga rangers who have dedicated their lives to the national parks and protected areas of Mongolia.
BEST MUSIC VIDEO
Destination | China | 2022 | 04’
Director: Chen Lu
Writer: Chen Lu
Producer: Weihang Wang
Cast: Lingguo Wang
Synopsis: Official music video for Chinese artist 拜德盖Viigho.
A emotional shattering journey of an astronaut searching for his loved one throughout the universe.
BEST MINI SHORT
A Call for Love | Germany | 2022 | 03’
Director: Pat Borriello
Writers: Pat Borriello, Regina Ostertag
Producer: Melis Celebi
Cast: Layne Willis, Anna Tse
Synopsis: Being the object of scorn is something we hardly get over. Left out. Dejected. Reminiscing good times that never were. Furiously blaming everyone and everything around – even the incarnation of love itself.
BEST NO/LOW BUDGET
Untitled Days | Germany | 2021 | 08’
Director: Eva Rini May Cragg
Writer: Eva Rini May Cragg
Producer: Eva Rini May Cragg
Synopsis: A woman doesn’t quite want to come into frame. On the verge of invisibility, she tiptoes towards herself.
BEST DEBUT
ENOMENA | Greece | 2021 | 19’
Director: Phaedra Vόkali
Writer: Phaedra Vόkali
Producers: Phaedra Vόkali, Orestis Plakias
Cast: Margarita Tasi, Froso Papadopoulou, Flomaria Papadaki
Synopsis: Anna is a gifted but insecure 17-year-old girl who is desperate to belong. During an aquarium school trip, her jockey boyfriend pressures Anna into entrapping his go-to target, tough Albanian classmate Jo, so that they can bully them later on. Anna accepts the mission only to find herself perplexed by her own feelings for Jo. Now Anna needs to decide if she’s brave enough to follow her inner voice or succumb to the need to be accepted.
BEST COMMERCIAL/AD/TVC
“Clean up” | Norway | 03’
Synopsis: The app “Clean up” aims to make it even easier to get involved in cleaning up litter in nature. We made a video based on the somewhat unrealistic premise that the ocean will be completely free of plastic in the year 2050. That is actually the year it is estimated that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.
