Grand Prix goes to Roman Bondarchuk’s VOLCANO, UA/DE, 2018, a multi-layered fairy tale that at the same time depicts a bitter reality with an ease.

Special mention (Honorable Mention) goes to Sonja Prosenc’s HISTORY OF LOVE SI 201: with great amount of sensibility and unique aesthetics the film deals with a traumatic experience.

FLAME, Sami van Ingen, FI 2018.
A celebration of a fortunate accident – discovery of a nitrate reel of a supposedly lost Finish film from the 1930s. But it is not only that: it is also a whole new show! Digital intervention is used to heal damaged continuity and to re-create the narration with new accents. Combination of filmmaking techniques from different eras creates a delightful cinematic experience, complexly built but light in its flow, and fresh despite the fact that it is grounded on an old and damaged source.

SCIPIO’S ELEPHANTS, David Pantaleon / Pilar Aldea, ES, 2018.
A curious miniature that offers a short yet enigmatic plunge into the unidentified southern land inhabited by men, dogs, harvesting machines and the guardian of fire. The film draws its charms from the powerful cinematography and compact editing, as well as from the semiotic openness through which the audience can assign own meaning to the narration.

END CYCLE, Vladislav Knežević, HR, 2017.
The captivating use of the continuous circular flow of the camera and the visceral quality of sounds of cracking of the skin of performer’s slow transformation provide an experience of a both futuristic and historical scope. By translating a humanistic stance into a coherent filmic entity, END CYCLE offers a forceful meditation on destruction, suffering and the resistance of the body.