Thank you very much to the Filmtage Friedrichshafen and their selection jury for these many wonderful films! The diverse genres made it really difficult for us as a jury to compare the films with each other.
We had a tough choice, and in the end, there were two films that particularly impressed us.
But only one can win, and therefore we have decided to give an honorable mention to:
“Armat” by Élodie Dermange
The lovingly animated film tells a complex and at the same time poetically entertaining family story over three generations. A young Swiss woman searches for her Armenian roots, and in the process, various drawers of the simultaneously emerging family archive open up.
Now let’s move on to this year’s ZF Short Film Award:
The winning film takes us in a completely unexcited manner into a world that is initially everyday for us, but then turns out to be foreign. Gradually, we learn that the story takes place in a psychiatric day clinic for adolescents, where the protagonists have to choose between music and gardening therapy projects. Convincingly played characters repeatedly reveal their psychological problems and fears. The failure of their joint idea to build a pond brings the four outsiders together and is the first step towards personal liberation, but not a miracle cure – this is one of the great strengths of the film.
On a technical level, the film impresses in all aspects: from the screenplay, through the cinematography and sound design, to the excellent direction. Each department contributes to this outstanding, well-rounded short film.
The ZF Short Film Award, endowed with 15,000 euros, goes this year to the film “Long Live the Fish Cemetery” by Elsa van Damke.
