Festivals

On 15 April, the 52nd Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon began in a hybrid format: with a limited audience "on site" and an online version also accessible only to Swiss viewers and accredited persons. After a surprisingly announced relaxation of the pandemic rules in Switzerland, the festival was opened to the public from 22 April until its conclusion on 25 April.

"Borga" by York-Fabian Raabe won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Max Ophuels Prize Saarbruecken 2021, as well as the festival's main award and the audience prize.

The 30th FilmFestival Cottbus was postponed to December and took place only online. Winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and of the Special Prize for the Best Direction is "Jak najdalej stad" (I Never Cry) by Piotr Domalewski.

The first festival year in Mannheim and Heidelberg of the new team under Sascha Keilholz had to take place in the digital space. Originally, physical performances were to take place in both cities in addition to the online offerings. The Ecumenical Jury awarded its Prize of 2.500 € to "Una promessa" by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio from Italy.

The Church Film Prize awarded by the INTERFILM Jury in 2020 went to "A Perfectly Normal Familiy" by Malou Reymann from Denmark. The festival jury of the Nordic Film Days awarded the NDR Film Prize to the Latvian director Dace Püce for her film "The Pit".

The winner of DOK Leipzig 2020 is "En route pour le milliard" (Downstream to Kinshasa) by Dieudo Hamadi. The film received the Golden Dove of the international festival jury and the Prize of the Interreligious Jury.

The Ecumenical Jury in Chemnitz 2020 awarded its Prize to "The Journey of the Prince" by Jean-François Laguinie and Xavier Picard from France, and a Commendation to "Little Sister" by Alexander Galibin from Russia.

"The Man with Hare Ears" by Czech director Martin Šulik ist the winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury inb Warsaw 2020. The Warsaw Grand Prix went to "18 Kilohertz" by Farkhat Sharipov from Kazakhstan.

The 60th International Film Festival for Children and Young People, which is regularly scheduled for the end of May, has been postponed to September and took place live. The three-member ecumenical jury also worked on site.

As the first of the major film festivals following the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the 77th Venice Film Festival, the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica, took place entirely in the cinemas, on the Lido and in other venues.

The Ecumenical Online Jury in Kiev 2020 awarded prizes in the International Competition for Long Feature Films, the International Competition for Short Films and the International Competition for Student Films . "Identifying Features" by Fernanda Valdez from Mexico and "Kuessipan" by Myriam Verrault (Canada) won the festival's Grand Prix.

Under the motto: "For the Future of Films" the Locarno 2020 Film Festival took place partly on site, partly online.

Due to the corona crisis, the 66th International Short Film Festival is taking place online. With a festival pass for € 9.99, over 350 films are accessible.

The festival Visions du Réel 2020 in Nyon will take place in an online version due to the Corona Pandemic.

Due to the corona epidemic, the 34th Festival International de Films de Friborg had to be canceled. Instead, the festival organized a virtual edition.

The Ecumenical Jury awarded its Prize in the International Competition to "There Is No Evil" by Mohammad Rasoulof, which also won the Golden Bear.

The film "Jiyan" by Süheyla Schwenk won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 41st Max Ophüls Award. The festival jury awarded its prizes for the best feature film to "Neubau" by Johannes Maria Schmit.

The Iranian feature film "Rona, Azim's Mother" by Jamshid Mahmoudi won the € 2,500 Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the IFF Mannheim-Heidelberg 2019, the last festival under the direction of Michael Kötz.

A film from Bosnia and Herzegovina won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the FilmFestival Cottbus 2019: "Full Moon" by Nermin Hamsagi?. The Bulgarian film "Sestra" (Sister) by Svetla Tsotsorkov won a Lubina as Best Film of the Festival.

The Icelandic film "Bergmál" (Echo) by Rúnar Rúnarsson won the Church Film Prize of the INTERFILM Jury in Lübeck in 2019. The main prize of the festival went to a film from Iceland as well.

The winner of the festival DOK Leipzig 2019 is the film "Exemplary Behaviour" from Lithuania. He received the Golden Dove, the Prize of the Interreligious Jury and the Prize of the Jury of International Film Critics.

The Iranian film "Tehran: City of Love" won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Miskolc in 2019. The Emeric Pressburger Prize for Best Picture went to the Latin American production "Monos".

"Bik eneich - Un fils" (A Son) is the winner of the 9th INTERFILM Award for Promoting Interreligious Dialogue in Venice 2019. The Golden Lion was awarded to "Joker" by Todd Philips.

The Ecumenical Jury in Locarno 2019 awarded its prize to "Maternal" by Maura Delpero. The Golden Leopard went to "Vitalina Valera" by Pedro Costa.

"Lara", directed by Jan-Ole Gerster, won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Karlovy Vary 2019. The Crystal Globe, the main prize of the festival, was awarded to "The Father" by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov from Bulgaria.

The Ecumenical Jury at the Molodist Film Festival in Kiev in 2019 awarded three prizes. Their choices for Best Feature-Length Film was "Systemsprenger" by Nora Fingscheidt (Germany 2019), ...

"Psychobitch" by Martin Lund (Norway) has won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Zlín 2019. The jury awarded a Commendation to "Rocca Changes the World" by Katja Benrath (Germany), with three other awards the most successful film of the festival.

"A Hidden Life" by Terrence Malick has won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Cannes 2019. The Golden Palm went to "Parasite" by South Korean film director Bong Joon-Ho.