Award Ceremony 2016
The jurys:
Jury of the EMAF Award and the Dialogue Award of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Nadine Bors, Kevin B. Lee and Jasmina Metwaly
Jury of the VDFK e.V. for the EMAF Medienkunstpreis der Deutschen Filmkritik: Wilfried Hippen, Lukas Stern and Carolin Weidner
Congratulations to the following Award-winners:
EMAF Award 2016
Kabir Mehta - "Sadhu in Bombay"
The jury's comment: "Sometimes to get at the truth, you have to look eye to eye with the camera. But the winner of this years EMAF award shows that looking the camera in the eye and speaking directly can make the truth more complicated and difficult to face.
For one thing, is the main character a real life subject or an actor? Is the director revealing reality or refabricating it? Or is there even a difference in these distinctions? This film bravely explores this grey zone in a way that isn't gimmicky or overly self-reflexive, but open, smart and straightforward, dealing with the deceptive layers of both moving image media and social media. Energetic and curious, this work vividly addresses contemporary life in a country where, sadly, it is forbidden to be shown.
We are grateful to have the opportunity to view this brave work here, and hope to see more from its young and promising maker. And so the EMAF award goes to Sadhu in Bombay directed by Kabir Mehta."
More information on Kabir Mehta and his films: www.kabirmehtafilms.com
Dialogpreis des Auswärtigen Amtes:
Randa Maroufi - "Le Park"
The jury said: " 'Ala washak" is an arabic phrase meaning "on the verge of". On the verge of understanding the stories and the people about to enact them.
But that's not important as the space of the silent abandoned park that does not tell a story, perform or represent, but leaves interpretation to the world of the imagination. This work activates the viewers imagination through a rich soundtrack of conversations and recorded sounds, and vivid stagings of youths that are frozen as cinematic sculptures. These bodies and voices offer portraits of youth in a space claimed as their own, but is left incomplete. This incompleteness creates a space of dialogue within the viewers mind.
And so, the EMAF Dialog Award goes to Le Park directed by Randa Maroufi."
More information: www.randamaroufi.com
EMAF Medienkunstpreis
Fabiano Mixo - "Woman Without Mandolin"
The Jury of VDFK e.V. commented: "Woman Without Mandolin shows us the portrait of a woman – a portrait in motion. A face and a body cut and divided by time – folded in time and by time. This elaborate and poetic film by Fabiano Mixo is not just inspired by cubist painting and its masters, it is rather an updating of it by the possibilities offered by audio-visuality, by montage, that constantly fragments and creates new proportions for the duration of a film.
Mixo’s film demonstrates that he has a clear notion of the nature of cinematic art, of its possibility to rethink and redevelop cubism through motion and time. He also establishes a view of humans for which one perspective alone cannot be appropriate and through which humans constantly show themselves whilst remaining hidden. Thanks to this method and the intense presence of its actress Miriam Goldschmidt, Mixo’s film raises the very fundamental question of the perception and representation of others."
More about Fabiano Mixo and his film:
The jury of the EMAF Award and the Dialogue Prize also announced an "Honorary Mention" to a work from this year's exhibition:
Honorary Mention
Emmanuel Trousse - "Sirènes/Short Walk"
The jury commented: "To live in the world today is to live in a state of sensory overstimulation and excess. Today's media artists often address this condition by trying to mimic it. This work instead offers the viewer a gesture of simplicity that gives us the space to experience humanity in a way that resonates profoundly with us. It is a work that feels both brief and endless, a singular action that loops inescapably. This action is performed by dozens of protagonists, but we hardly get to know them, we never even see their faces. We only see where they are headed, an ocean full of possibilities that amounts to a mysterious fate that swallows each of them whole. We see each one of them approach their fate with slow and steady determination, part action hero, part zombie. Is it a heroic effort of each man's free will, or are they seduced by a sirens call? This is the profound mystery of the work which we award the honorary mention of the international jury."
More information: www.emmanueltrousse.com
