The 16th International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA has announced the winners. On March 28, the festival award ceremony was held in IZONE, hosted by the journalist Oleksiy Tarasov and the cultural manager Anna Koriagina.
Traditionally, films at Docudays UA competed in DOCU/WORLD, DOCU/SHORT and DOCU/UKRAINE competitions. This year, the festival launched the RIGHTS NOW! award, for which ten films from all the Docudays UA programs were nominated. Each competition program was judged by its own jury which included international and Ukrainian experts, documentary filmmakers and human rights advocates. The student jury and the audience also chose their winners. One film received the Andriy Matrosov Award from the festival organizers. The Docudays UA partner Current Time TV gave its own award, and the best project at Ukrainian Doc Preview received a prize from the Head of Industry of the International Documentary Film Festival Beldocs. At the closing ceremony, the festival guests had an opportunity to listen to a performance by the Ukrainian-French band StereOrpheo.
The main award of the DOCU/WORLD competition was received by the film Voices of the Sea by the British filmmaker Kim Hopkins “for the powerful and touchy and warm characters, for the love that wins above everything, for the sensitive camera that brings harmony of characters within the environment.”
The special mention in the DOCU/WORLD competition went to the film by Zosya Rodkevich and Evgeniya Ostanina White Mama, “for the protagonist that gives us hope and believe that we have enough strength to deal with the hard issues in life.“
“A woman’s life work flowers into a portrait of the cycle of nature and inevitable change” in the film The Winter Garden’s Tale by Simon Mozgovyi, which received the main award in the DOCU/UKRAINE competition.
The film A Friendship in Tow/Toe by Atsushi Kuwayama depicts how “mounting the stairs becomes a story of love, friendship and a promising dinner executed with charm, style, heart and humor.” That was how the jury evaluated the film that won the DOCU/SHORT competition. And the special mention in this competition went to the film Above the Styx by the group of directors (Maria Stoianova, Yulia Danylchuk, Maria Terebus (story editor), Liudmyla Paraskiva, Kateryna Rybachuk, Anastasiya Feshchuk, Ivan Bershadskyi, Alla Onopchenko) for “a fine example of how a collective of emerging filmmakers come together and manage to create one whole story from multiple viewpoints of society.”
In the RIGHTS NOW! nomination, our human rights jury gave the main award to The Cleaners by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck, “For encouraging discussion about privacy, freedom of choice and human rights protection in the world where the internet and social media take up ever more of our private space, and we ourselves become a part of the global network.” The special mentions in the RIGHTS NOW! category went to the films Still Recording by Ghiath Ayoub and Saeed Al Batal and When Lambs Become Lions by Jon Kasbe.
The student jury gave its main award to the film Askania Reserve by Andriy Lytvynenko describing it as “fresh reminder about our nature. The rhythmical and sensual narrative of the film can fascinate and move the audiences with any background, and the protagonists win you over with their sincerity and dedication to their work.”
“For boundless love and tenderness between worlds and generations,” the Andriy Matrosov award was given by the festival’s organizers to the Polish filmmaker Marcin Sauter, the author of the film I Grew Up As You Slept.
In addition, the film Before Father Gets Back by the Georgian filmmaker Mari Gulbiani received the special award from the festival’s media partner Current Time TV – $3,000. The audience also picked their favorite film, White Mama by Zosya Rodkevich and Evgeniya Ostanina. Of the seven projects presented at Ukrainian Doc Preview, the Head of Industry at the International Documentary Film Festival Beldocs gave the prize to the film Roses. Film-Cabaret by Iryna Stetsenko. The prize is an opportunity to participate in the festival’s professional platform Beldocs in Progress International, where the filmmaker will have a chance to present her project to the wider international industry.
DOCU/WORLD
Main Prize
Kim Hopkins, UK
The main prize goes to “The Voices of the Sea”, for the powerful and touchy and warm characters, for the love that wins above everything, for the sensitive camera that brings harmony of characters within the environment.
Special Mention
Zosya Rodkevich, Evgeniya Ostanina, Russia
For the protagonist that gives us hope and believe that we have enough strength to deal with the hard issues in life.
DOCU/UKRAINE
Simon Mozgovyi, Ukraine
A woman’s life work flowers into a portrait of the cycle of nature and inevitable change.
DOCU/SHORT
Main Prize
Atsushi Kuwayama, Portugal
Mounting the stairs becomes a story of love, friendship and a promising dinner executed with charm, style, heart and humor.
Special Mention
Maria Stoianova, Yulia Danylchuk, Maria Terebus (story editor), Liudmyla Paraskiva, Kateryna Rybachuk, Anastasiya Feshchuk, Ivan Bershadskyi, Alla Onopchenko, Ukraine
For a fine example of how a collective of emerging filmmakers come together and manage to create one whole story from multiple viewpoints of society.
RIGHTS NOW! AWARD
Main Prize
Hans Block, Moritz Riesewieck, Brazil, Germany
For encouraging discussion about privacy, freedom of choice and human rights protection in the world where the internet and social media take up ever more of our private space, and we ourselves become a part of the global network. Where is the balance between the desire to protect the society from cruel content which incited hate and the freedom of choice and self-expression? Will the internet of the future be an instrument in the hands of dictators and global corporations, or a territory of boundless democracy and individual freedoms? Who has the right to define what should be “ignored” and what should be “deleted”? The film raises many questions to which the humanity has yet to find the answers.
Special Mention
Ghiath Ayoub, Saeed Al Batal, Syria, Lebanon, Qatar, France, Germany
For the human stories hidden behind military news reports. For the courage of the people who did not flee from armed conflict, but picked up a camera instead of weapons and showed the real events happening in Syria to the entire world. Despite all the horrors of the war, they still have strength, not just to live and maintain their dignity, but also to give others the feeling of peacetime life. It’s a reminder to every one of us: nobody can be sure that they are safe from war - we have to take the responsibility for preserving peace.
Jon Kasbe, USA
The director has succeeded in combining the personal dramas of ordinary people and the global environmental disasters which concern everyone. Corruption, the violation of socio-economic rights, the damaging effects on the planet’s environment are all intertwined in the storyline and paint a whole picture - not just of Kenya, but also of the whole modern world, where states sometimes leave people no choice and force them to face difficult moral dilemmas.
ANDRIY MATROSOV AWARD
Marcin Sauter, Poland
For boundless love and tenderness between worlds and generations!
STUDENTS’ JURY AWARD
Andriy Lytvynenko, Ukraine
Fresh reminder about our nature. The rhythmical and sensual narrative of the film can fascinate and move the audiences with any background, and the protagonists win you over with their sincerity and dedication to their work.
AUDIENCE AWARD
Zosya Rodkevich, Evgeniya Ostanina, Russia
Credit photo: Docudays UA
