Festival Awards

The main prize goes to a film that reflects on the power, limits, and struggles of representation. When is it a means of survival? When does it become a threat? A tumultuous ride through the archives of Iran’s first-ever women’s newspaper and the history of Iranian cinema, the film leaves us with striking imagery, a challenging montage, and the desire to see the ​“impossible film” envisioned in its narrative. 

The Jury Prize for Best Cinematography goes to a film that takes us on a stunning journey through Haiti, capturing unspoken emotions that resonate deeply and stay with us. With its truly bold cinematographic choices — including unexpected perspectives, vibrant mise-en-scène, evocative soundscapes, and powerful use of color — the film offers a compelling, heartfelt, and empathetic portrayal of both those who remain in the country and those who have left. The Jury Prize goes to cinematographer & director Samuel Suffren.

We would like to give an Honorable Mention to a film that makes us collectively question our desensitized gaze — what we see, and how we see it. It confronts us with the kind of violence we’ve learned to overlook and places us face to face with the reality of a genocide unfolding as we speak. 

Images, sounds, and stimulations transcend the limitations of screens and skin — for violence creeps in and out of bodies and prosthetic devices. Patterned layers of sensory overwhelm and numbness. Assembling affective memories and unspeakable movements, this radical animation contains the eerie morphing of corporalities and militarized technologies — where linear attention is suspended and collective experience loops in vicious circles. ​“And one point in time started endlessly stretching backwards.” An urgent and dense experimental capture of mediated trauma. 

The film leads us, frame by frame, from images that are initially almost abstract. Over time, it reconstructs the process we go through when we dig into our memories to retrieve faces, grins, smiles… all fading with the passage of time. The finesse of the author’s gaze confronts us with the fragility of the past, excavating deeply personal layers and entanglements. The cinematography is meticulous in every detail, working with precision and subtle, evocative nuances.

A visual meditation on the physical properties of the film camera: depth of field, unstable refractions, motion blur, chromatic distortions, bloom, and dispersion. By dissecting a forest and its historical traces, the film creates a dreamlike state where past and present merge through ghostly imagery of abandoned structures reclaimed by nature. It cultivates an outstanding atmosphere of quiet unease — reflecting the disorienting complexity of memory, perception, and the cinematic apparatus.

Through the lens of a single, seemingly ordinary afternoon, this film captures one pivotal moment with great sensitivity: the moment when self-consciousness first begins for one girl. The cast expertly guides us through the bittersweet shift from carefree play to the awareness of a more complex, adult world. For its subtle and moving portrayal of a girl’s first tentative steps into adolescence, we are proud to award the Austrian Short Film Award to this film.

Empty streets, abandoned houses — a village at the end of its life. And yet, this world means everything to our protagonist. In an almost deserted restaurant, he quietly goes about his work, in love with a waitress who longs to leave. Shot in stark black and white, the film powerfully captures the hopelessness of a generation stuck in place: an unfulfilled love, a burst of violence born from jealousy and isolation — and a young man desperately clinging to something already falling apart. 

For its unconventional and critical analysis of the existential issues facing Western society — and its urgent call to action through the use of a bold, new cinematic language — the Honorable Mention of the Jury goes to this film.

The film we chose is a love letter. And it gives a voice to a character who usually has none — or rather, it gives them many voices. Shot on Super 8, the film touched us through its play of light and shadow, silhouettes and colors, and reminded us of the connection we all have to one very specific, personal place.

The winner breaks through with fierce empowerment. This is a video that boldly challenges stereotypical representations of masculinity, Southeast Asian identity, and conventional visions of hip-hop culture. It turns expectations and narratives upside down, creating a visually striking call to collectively protest against racism and discrimination. Every second pulses with creativity, embracing both retro and timeless aesthetics through a wide range of techniques. It’s a cinematic rebellion and a demand for unique visibility — this is not just a music video, this is a movement. So dance with us.

This music video is enigmatic, fiercely physical, and strikingly ambiguous. It presents a battle of woman versus machine, humanity versus capitalism — an age-old story of entrapment and the struggle to break free, of losing one’s place in the world. The production design could be taken from a photograph by Andreas Gursky or a film by George Miller. An homage to David Bowie while creating a distinct world of its own, this is a unique piece of filmmaking.

The Social Responsibility Award of the Vienna Chamber of Labour goes to a pointed and cleverly staged short film about the ​“tradwife” trend, which romanticizes traditional gender roles and spreads through social media.
By combining contemporary soundbites from patriarchal-tradwife influencers with over 50-year-old home video footage from rural Austria, the film creates an unsettling sense of closeness that intensifies with every minute, evoking powerful emotions, even anger. The seemingly nostalgic images suddenly no longer seem distant or part of the past. The gap between yesterday and today appears to dissolve, revealing how powerful and resonant reactionary role models remain to this day. Especially in the 100th year of the Women’s Department of the Chamber of Labour and in memory of its founder Käthe Leichter, we honor a film that vividly illustrates how enduring outdated norms can be when they resurface in modern form – and how important it is to confront them resolutely.

The excellent sound design by Nahuel Palenque is beautifully interwoven with the wonderful and sharp-edged music by Jongho You and Kamin You. The sound design choices are often unpredictable, crafted with great skill, and marked by surprising decisions in the selection of sounds. The film’s entire soundscape creates a true meta-layer that perfectly complements both the story and the visual composition. Our warmest congratulations on this remarkable achievement!

The products of civilizational productive forces include not only motorized vehicles, swivel chairs, and sneakers, but also — undoubtedly — the Viennese waltz. These elements are poured into a nine-and-a-half-minute cinematic flow that takes us, the viewers and listeners, not only three meters below the surface but lets us experience all manner of perspectives, intensities, and tempos until the film abruptly breaks off. A wild sampler of waltz fragments and sounds of nature, with an oar that sets the rhythm — sometimes even in three-quarter time.

The second prize winner captivates with the double irony with which this film treats Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz. The well-known piece is transposed into a socioculturally distant biotope. That a parade of cars driven by strong men in a four-cylinder three-quarter time opens the waltz already serves as a warning that surprises lie ahead. And the beautiful blue Danube — here set by the sea — accompanies a ballet of bodybuilders. Their movements to the waltz’s rhythm feel not only choreographed; since it’s strong men performing, it also becomes something of a testosterone showdown between the fittest dudes.
But it is precisely at this point that the film surprises and impresses with its second layer of irony: it breaks with the competitive posturing between men. In the end, the Blue Danube softens everyone — whether in Vienna or on the distant shores at what seems to be the end of the world.

This two-minute and twenty-one-second film is ​“upcycling” in its most transcendent sense.
A simple disposable plastic bag appears to waltz in the wind.
Coincidence is edited into an event. Without fuss, almost effortlessly, something banal becomes something remarkable:
magical realism that captivates from beginning to end and leaves the viewer in childlike wonder.

Finalist