72th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

At once a deeply loving, handheld film and razor-sharp in its exploration of life's fundamental "why" — a question just as valid for a 3-year-old boy running through a Greek village as for an old man. It manages to tell a full story  in 3 minutes without explaining or oversimplifying.

The film is organic and follows the boy at a playful pace that lends the film the boy's own energy… The images portray the island small-town through a boys eyes as white light and contours — with the church bell as the distant goal.

A documentary that tackles a difficult subject in a deeply loving way, managing to make a particular issue feel universal. 

The main character finds her strength in settling into herself and feeling the dance, rather than in the gaze and judgment of others. The film portrays this journey through authentic characters and a storyline that almost gives the documentary the feel bordering on a fictional drama. 

The director's gentle eye ensures it remains personal without getting too private. The dance comes to life for the girl not just through the music, but in collaboration with the danceteacher, in nature, and through her imagination.

Film theorist Siegfried Kracauer once used the phrase "ordinary invisible things" to describe aspects of reality that are technically visible, but usually go unnoticed in everyday life. Cinema at its best captures these fleeting, everyday, seemingly mundane moments we tend to overlook or ignore. The Ecumenical Jury would like to award its prize to a film that is at the same time seemingly simple and incredibly poetic, layered and emotionally involving. The filmmaker creates a filmic space, uses light to reflect on light and makes it a lifeline or, if you wish to see it, the spiritual presence of the flow of life. 

Speaking on subverting expectations: it is very rare to find a young filmmaker who has such a feeling for timing and dark humour that she can show both Memento Mori and Carpe Diem in just four shots and 1 minute.