CHF 20'000 to DE REGELS VAN MATTHIJS (MATTHEW’S LAWS) by Marc Schmidt, Netherlands

With love and courage the filmmaker places us face to face with his childhood friend. This film crosses a border into the unknown and mysterious world of autism. Matthew’s Rules gives us the opportunity to experience friendship and self-determination in the face of society’s demands from a unique point of view.

CHF 10'000 to KOVASIKAJUTTU (THE PUNK SYNDROME) by J-P Passi et Jukka Kärikkäinen, Finland

Full of warmth and humor The Punk Syndrome is an entertaining and challenging celebration of life’s pleasures. This is not only a generous encounter with people traditionally placed at society’s margins it is also a work of rigorous and inspired filmmaking.

900 DAGEN (900 DAYS) by Jessica Gorter, Netherlands

900 Dagen unveils an episode of history from the perspective of everyday people who lived it.  The filmmaker creates surprising connections between horror and humanity.

CHF 10'000 to LE GOSSE (THE KID) by Louise Jaillette, France

The filmmaker found a remarkable subject, a boy between childhood and adolescence in rural France. Her approach is realistic and sensitive, full of clairity, curiosity and honesty.

CHF 5'000 to L’ÂGE ADULTE (ADULTHOOD) by Eve Duchemin, Belgium/France

Two young adults feel the pressure of contemporary life against their own aspirations. The filmmaker finds dignity and beauty in lives lived against the grain of harsh economic times.

CHF 5'000 to NOS JOURS, ABSOLUMENT, DOIVENT ÊTRE ILLUMINÉS by Jean-Gabriel Périot, France

The film is a poetic exploration of liberation and empathy. It is expressed with a simple and elegant use of sound and image, leading to a complex and ultimatively moving experience for the audience.

CHF 2'500 to ENKEL DER GESCHICHTE (SPINACH AND SUGAR) by Laura Laabs, Germany

A young filmmaker makes a film about her grandmother. While a common type of project, in this case it’s done with playfulness, self-awareness and wit, that provides a refreshing approach to memory and German historical reflection.

3 DNI WOLNOSCI (3 DAYS OF FREEDOM) by Lukasz Borowski, Poland

A profound meditation on personal freedom and its loss.

CHF 15'000 à HIVER NOMADE to Manuel von Stürler, Switzerland

The jury awards the best price to HIVER NOMADE - by Manuel Von Stürler / Louise Production for revealing through this engaging journey the impressive touch of his director, who is able to exploit the cinematographic potential of the film’s two main characters and of their incredible chemistry. These contemporary nomads live an adventure out of time, but still deeply rooted in our present.

The director of this first feature documentary creates through the power of his photography, the subtleness of the editing and the use of music, a magic of simplicity.

CHF 10'000 à AMORE CARNE by Pippo Delbono, Italy/Switzerland

The Jury gives the SSA / SUISSIMAGE award to “Amore e carne” by Pippo Delbono for the lyric strength of this terrific poem that makes us enter into the richness of his internal world. This multi-skilled artist uses the new technologies at service of the need to express his love for life and his quest for freedom.

As an extension the authors’ body, from the abyss of his deepest inside, the camera let us share his experience through the power of his images.

WHERE THE CONDORS FLY by Carlos Klein, Switzerland/Germany/Chili

The jury gives a special mention for this humorous, daring, moving, original documentary. For reflecting on the art of filmmaking and creation – not only through mind and brain, but rather also through physical force, instinct and intuition; for celebrating life and its wonder the jury decided to salute this film and give it a special commendation.

CHF 10'000  à SCHILDKRÖTENWUT (THE TURTLE’S RAGE) by Pary El-Qalquili, Germany

A film of great clarity, born of an urgent emotional necessity, it draws the viewer right into the heart of the trauma of displacement. Every frame contributes to the reconstruction of a torn relationship in front of the eye of the camera. In the confrontation between the filmmaker and her troubled father, between the dream of a homeland and the reality of a journey, emerges a story of tenderness and impossibility. Throughout the week the film’s pertinence – and impertinence of the filmmaker – has stayed with us. The winning film is equally remarkable for the aptness of its title.

CHF 3’000 to AFTER by Lukasz Konopa, United Kingdom

After, by Lukasz Konopa, is awarded this prize for the originality with which it goes into a subject used so many times. Through a coherent form, the filmmaker succeeds in making coexist in his shots both the objects of a painful memory and their ‘mise en scène’ ready to be consumed. With the help of a subtle irony, this ambiguity questions the role and preservation of places of memory within our society.

Worth CHF 5'000 MAN HASTAM (J’EXISTE – I AM) by Tara Parsa, Suisse

Within a society in which self-censorship is everyday life, the power of Man Hastam by Tara Parsa emanates from a formal choice where black shots and unspoken words are as poignant and explicit as the recorded testimonies. As the Iranians, who cannot show themselves as they are, the film itself is legitimized by this constraint and cannot exist otherwise than in this form.

CHF 5'000 to 900 DAGEN (900 DAYS) by Jessica Gorter, Pays-Bas

The film focuses in a multi-layered manner the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War. The filmmaker succeeds to show precisely and touching the opposite between individual memory of the contemporary witness and the exploited history by politics by means of an elaborated composition between sound and image. Individual destinies question the official sight towards the past and demonstrate the manipulation of humans and their memories.

DE REGELS VAN MATTHIJS (MATTHEW’S LAWS) by Marc Schmidt, Netherland

The filmmaker faces his friend afflicted by autism in a sensitive way. He documents his situation by images full of respect which honestly show the director’s and the environment’s helplessness toward Matthijs.

CHF 5’000 to SNAKE DANCE by Manu Riche et Patrick Marnham, Belgium/Irland/Netherland

The jury Buyens/Chagoll gives a prize to Snake Dance, a movie about atomic weapon, which is a universal theme that concerns us all. Snake Dance also shows us the exploitation of workers, the enrichment of a multinational company with this « product » that contains the danger of the annihilation of life and the despoliation of the earth.

Through its unusual approach on nuclear power in the past, the present and the future, and without using any archives footage, this film, in its ethical and esthetic value, shows exceptional originality.