The 33rd International Short Film Festival Berlin, or Interfilm, wrapped up another successful edition on Sunday. Over the course of seven days, 500 films from 80 countries were screened for some 700 accredited guests across four city districts. The six competition tracks doled out prizes totalling €32,000.
Notably, the highest honor for Best Film in the International Competition, worth €6,000, went to Norwegian animation The Absence of Eddy Table, from Rune Spaans. The Jury described the surreal CG feat as:
“A visual explosion, an insane world built with imagination and an eye for detail, rich cinematography that is simultaneously sharp and crisp, and foremost characters that are, in a bizarre way, more human than ever. Not only perfectly written and directed, this delightful piece of art also uses narrative design to convey many more layers to the story than its original premise and takes us out of so-called reality, setting us free from all conventions. Owing to its bold choices and by pointing out the most universal story of all times about how far we are prepared to go if our heart is struck by someone … or something. The jury’s attention was captivated by the most horribly beautiful short of the year. A film that can only be overlooked by those who fear the unknown.”
The award for Best Animation (€1,000, from Spindler & Klatt) went to A Love Story, a mixed-material stop-motion project from director Anushka Naanayakkara and her team of fellow National Film and Television School students in England. The ambitious project won the BAFTA Award for Short Animation earlier this year.
In the German competition, the First Prize also went to an animated film: Jonatan Schwenk’s dark, non-dialog stop-motion short Sog. The festival-favorite grad film took a Cristal at Annecy and also received awards from the Palm Springs ShortFest, Encounters and Primanima, among others.
Further animated winners were Big Booom by Marat Narimanov of Russia (Best Environmental Film) and Museumswärter by Alexander Gratzer of Austria (Audience Award for the Weirdest & Most Wonderful Film). KUKI award went to Automne by Helene Letourneur (Best Short Film, 4-7 year olds), La Licorne by Rémi Durin (Special Mention, 4-7) and Piccolo Concerto by Ceylan Beyoglu (Special Mention, 4-7). Complete list of Interfilm winners here, KUKI here.
Interfilm also introduced visitors to the latest in 360-degree cinema, presented master classes and foreign film highlights (former Yugoslavia and the US were highlighted), and offered special tracks such as Music Videos, SciFi Shorts, Arab Shorts and Queer Fever. Running concurrently, the 10th KUKI children and youth short film fest set a new audience record with 7,200 attendees; young juries awarded €6,500 in six competitions.
Watch the teaser for Eddy Table below (rated Mature by Vimeo).
The Absence of Eddy Table – Teaser from Rune Spaans on Vimeo.
