News

The Expanded Media Award for Media in Space (750 Euros) goes to Jen Liu for PINK SLIME CAESAR SHIFT: ELECTROPORE

• Jury Statement: PINK SLIME CAESAR SHIFT: ELECTROPORE takes us into a closed world in which black and Asian women maintain an artificial work-cycle as labor slaves, whose sole purpose seems to be the creation of meaningless toys.
  Their bodies become optional wombs for various forms of PINK SLIME, a soft mass that is either swallowed or excreted in the form of eggs or balls. Their bodies are extensions of industrial processes in the form of forced labor; it is no coincidence that the film's voiceover texts include an account of female prison inmates entering data.
  Jen Liu and the performers succeed in creating an artificial world that hints at everything and does not formulate anything in its entirety. The scenery always remains intentionally unfinished, the bodies are not perfect, the walls are permeable, the data processing complex is a machine from the past millennium.
  Thus the work creates a wide associative surface for the viewer, phenomena of transhumanism, humans as parts of machines whose bodily functions serve as catalysts for industrial production, gender injustice, and the servant function of marginalized groups. This seems arbitrary, but through the precise scenic arrangements and the richly detailed scenic images, the fantasies also become concrete in the viewing.
  Last but not least, the actresses contribute to the successful overall work. They become machines themselves, living parts of the picture, without any claim to their own character drawings. They make themselves available in the best sense.
  Particularly impressive is the inventiveness in image and sound, the combination of the physical and representational with moments of animation, and the amazing transformations: Slime balls transform into ping-pong balls and hamburgers produce electronic energy before becoming a snack in the hand of the person entering the data and finally the titular "PINK SLIME" again.
  PINK SLIME CAESAR SHIFT: ELECTROPORE creates an artificial world that makes us look at the real one in a new way.
• Jury: Birgit Brenner & Christian Römer
The Expanded Media Award for Network Culture (750 Euros) goes to Gala Hernández López for THE MECHANICS OF FLUIDS
• Jury Statement: Take posted YouTube films, bizarre, funny, weird or repulsive, found footage, yeah, yeah, then make a film out of it, everything already seen. One might think. With Gala Hernández López it's different. She manages to use found and animated images as well as clever links to create a dense essay film titled "The Mechanics of Fluids", which captivates, depresses and never rises above the real-life protagonists.
  In 2018, an incel, a member of a worldwide internet subculture dominated by heterosexual men, posts that they involuntarily do not have sexual intercourse and do not engage in romantic relationships. They project their negative feelings onto rejection by women, sometimes resulting in acts of violence. So, in 2018, an incel posts a suicide note on the platform Reddit with the title "America is to blame for my death." Gala Hernández López goes on a virtual foray in search of its digital traces and uncovers a complex web of diverse causes. A film about an inner journey, about pain and loneliness, researched in the darkest corners of the net, and along the way one learns how loneliness is developing into a profitable business model in a digitally connected world.
• Jury: Birgit Brenner & Christian Römer
An Honourable Mention goes to Jan Peters for JANUAR, 28-30
• Jury Statement: The jury decided to give an honorable mention to a film that reflects and explores the medium of film itself in an exciting and powerful diaristic way.
• Jury: Jorge Jácome, Peter Ott & Vera Sebert
The Team-Work-Award (2.000 Euros donated by Ritter Sport) goes to Miguel Goya & Tina Wilke for LAS FLORES
• Jury Statement: We decided to recognize with the team work award a film that was only possible by a joint effort and different perspectives of several people. In a time where future looked compromised and uncertain, 2 artists invited a group of very generous friends to exchange images, audio messages, experiences, feelings and political views of their present. This was the material that enabled a beautiful, complex and subversive film.
• Jury: Jorge Jácome, Peter Ott & Vera Sebert
The Norman Award (4.000 Euros donated by the City of Stuttgart) goes to Simon(e) Jaikiriuma Paetau & Natália Escobar for ARIBADA
• Jury Statement: In this film, we don’t know where reality ends and fantasy begins. What we do know is that we want to be present - as spectators and members of the society - in a place like this film: where traditions are reinvented and there’s space and imagination for a more plural and exciting world.
  It was a unanimous decision. This film blew us away. We were completely immersed - from the beginning to the end, in this exciting visual and narrative-driven experience.
• Jury: Jorge Jácome, Peter Ott & Vera Sebert
The 2 Minutes Short Film Award will be split und goes ex aequo to Otto Rissanen for RAIN IN THE CITY
• Jury Statement: With "Rain in the City" Otto Rissanen succeeded in returning the digital image to an almost analog öayering of grainy textures with a painterly dimensions.
• Jury: Carmen Beckenbach, Ilaria Di Carlo & Felix Klee
The 2 Minutes Short Film Award will be split und goes ex aequo to Lorenzo Papanti for MAGNIFICATION EXTENDED PRESENT
• Jury Statement: Lorenzo Papanti achieves the visualization of architecture in temporality within a sharp format, a clear concept and rhythm in one minute.
• Jury: Carmen Beckenbach, Ilaria Di Carlo & Felix Klee
The Wand 5 Honorary Award goes to Captain Fiffy for WATER MUSIC
• Statement: Captain Fiffy's "Water Music" captures and enraptures. With its playful approach towards reality, its colours, sounds and shapes, the film intoxicates in every second and casts a spell over us, until we believe in the surreal. In a reality above our reality, in which everything is beautiful and possible and everything rings to the sound of our fantasies. The illusion overpowered the world and became reality. We don't want to return but stay in the moment. Because: with "Water Music", we found what we've been longing for. Therefore our decision is clear: it is infinite jest. Guaranteed!
• The Selection Committee Film of Wand 5

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