Award ceremony

After almost five days of the festival, the juries select the winners from the 43 competition films Formal and content-related criteria that were discussed while watching the films together are reflected in the reasons given for the winners. In the evening, the awards are presented by the jury members and the films that have received awards will be shown again.

The international jury and the student jury award particularly valuable films - in artistic terms and in relation to the THEME "FUTURE" The audience also has the opportunity to vote for their favourite film For the second time, the PRIZE OF THE LATÜCHT ASSOCIATION, will be awarded - by the vote of the cinema audience A total of five prizes worth 12,000 € will be awarded.

AWARD WINNERS 2023

The LATÜCHT PRIZE, awarded by MV Filmförderung GmbH, goes to the film or video project that is most convincing in its overall effect in relation to the FESTIVAL THEME "FUTURE" and fully exploits the creative possibilities of the medium. The prize is endowed with €6,000.

The jurors of this year's dokumentART unanimously awarded the LATüCHT-HAUPTPREIS to the films DIELENIE SIE / I'M SHARING by Natalia Sahra Skorupa and ¿ME ENTIENDES? / DO YOU GET ME? by Otto Lazic-Reuschel.

In times of dystopian thinking, you have to take fate into your own hands: The future is not coming, it is being shaped by us. The principle of hope must not be put aside and action is called for, even if obstacles are placed in our way and it costs us courage and overcoming. The stories could not be more different than in the two films that received this year's documentART main prize. Whether in the vastness of emigration to a foreign country or in the narrowness of their own family life, the protagonists have to defend themselves against a hostile environment and assert themselves in order to have a future. The aim is not to respond with violence, but to change the world through the sincerity and integrity of their own actions and to set visible signs for a personal and social new beginning.

 

The CITY OF NEUBRANDENBURG PRIZE is awarded to the ARTISTIC and/or SOCIETAL most particularly ambitious film. The prize is endowed with € 3,000.

The jury awarded the prize to HANDBOOK by Pavel Mozhar: How can we talk about violence without presenting it spectacularly, reconstructing it one-to-one and multiplying it? How can we talk about torture without giving real violence a place on the screen? Schematically depicted violence in this film shows brutal mechanisms of oppression. Shot before Russia's great war in Ukraine, in which Belarus is actively involved, this film conceptually and poignantly tells about failed protest movement and how Belarusian people were forced to passivity through fierce torture.

An honorable mention went to LEVITATE by Iván Argote. The film shows a captivating combination of artistic intervention and cinema that provokes a re-evaluation of the symbolic power of colonial monuments in European cities.

The LATÜCHT E.V. AWARD, awarded by Latücht e.V.: The prize is endowed with € 1,000 from the association's funds. The jury honors the film that most convincingly encourages people to become socially and ecologically engaged.
 

The LATÜCHT E.V. AWARD went to MOUNE Ô by Maxime Jean-Baptiste. The jury decided and explained: In his search for his father in an image, the filmmaker succeeds in deconstructing a colonial vision steeped in stereotypes that are still alive today. By formally and narratively rewinding to his family history and the political history of his country, French Guiana, slowly recalling through rhythm and music the films of the early 70s about the political movements of African independence, the filmmaker takes us into a movement of dignity and resistance, towards liberation, sovereignty and freedom from oppression.

The jury awarded a Special Mention to the film OSMOSIS by Laurence Favre:. With its impressive and sensual 16 mm images and hypnotic sound, OSMOSIS manages without any commentary or text. The film gives the viewer space to reflect on the original cycles of nature, of decay and revival and the climatic changes to which the forest is subject. In this way, the filmmaker creates a visual and auditory pull that speaks for itself.
 

The GREIFSWALD STUDENT'S JURY AWARD is decided by students of the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences and the University of Greifswald. It honors the film that focuses on the FUTURE OF YOUNG PEOPLE in a special way and is endowed with € 1,000.

The student jury gave the award to NEIGHBOUR ABDI / BUURMAN ABDI by Douwe Dijkstra.

The NDR PUBLIC AWARD goes to the PUBLIC'S FAVORITE among the competition films. The prize is endowed with € 1,000.

The Audience Award went to HARDLY WORKING by Total Refusal.