AWARDS 2025

AWARDS 2025

IDA – International Documentary Award

Curation: Marie-Christine Hartig, Martin Lintner
IDA-Kommittee: Valentina Duelli, Susana Ojeda, Marieluise Röttger. 

Prize Money: € 1.000.-

Jury:

Anne Faucheret (curator)
Borjana Gaković (film and media scolar)
Marissa Lobo (artist & cultural worker)

Award donated by: Zukunftsfonds der Republik Österreich

Winner

HOME GAME by Lidija Zelovic | Netherlands 2024

JURYSTATEMENT: Die Jury des IDA-Wettbewerbs möchte sich als erstes herzlich bedanken für die Einladung und die Möglichkeit, an diesem schönen Festival mit vielfältigem Programm teilzunehmen. Wir möchten betonen, dass wir alle Filme im Wettbewerb als bereichernd empfunden haben; jeder einzelne hatte uns auf irgendeine Weise tief berührt: ob durch die großartigen, inspirierenden Protagonist*innen und die Wichtigkeit der Themen, die sie verhandeln, oder durch die beeindruckende Montage, die gewählten Einstellungen und Materialien, den bestimmten filmischen Zugang.

The jury of the IDA competition would first like to thank the ethnocineca for the invitation and the opportunity to participate in this beautiful festival with a diverse program. We would like to emphasize that we found all the films in the competition enriching; each one had touched us deeply in some way: whether through the great, inspiring protagonists and the importance of the topics they deal with, or through the impressive editing, the chosen shots and materials, the particular cinematic approach.

After an intensive discussion and examination of every single film in the competition program, we realized that one film stands out because it combines all these aspects in a distinctive way. In this film, the protagonist is also the director, scenarist, cinematographer, editor and co-producer.

In an impressively precise montage and a cinematic narrative that has been thought through down to the smallest detail, the film combines the micro-story of a family affected by war, destruction and flight with the larger context of centers of power in European (and world) politics, where the rise of the New Right and racism have long been the order of the day and are now spilling over onto the streets and into the everyday life of our polarized societies. We have chosen a film that warns us urgently that this frightening development does not necessarily stop at our own doorstep and that the war may have started long before the first shot is fired. We would like to endorse this urgent warning and award the prize to Lidija Zelović for HOME GAME.

Nominees

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EVA – Excellence in Visual Anthropology Award

Curation: Marie-Christine Hartig, Martin Lintner
EVA-Kommittee: Valentina Duelli, Susana Ojeda, Marieluise Röttger. 

Prize Money: € 1.000.-

Jury:

Sophia Hochedlinger (festival director & filmmaker)
Klára Trencsényi (filmmaker)
Weina Zhao (filmmaker)

Award donated by: Institut für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie

Winner

ANGRY SPIRITS by Iris Pakulla | Germany, Mongolia 2024

JURYSTATEMENT: A cinematic work of remarkable artistry, it transports the viewer into a vivid dreamscape, where the boundaries between the spiritual and material world blur. Its hybrid form mirrors the protagonist’s complex journey to bridge these opposing spheres. Through this seamless fusion, the film creates a unique cinematic language that conveys the delicate balance between tradition and modernity, personal introspection and societal structures. The devastation of the landscape caused by mining serves as both a literal and symbolic force of disruption, challenging the connection between the protagonist and her ancestral land. The director offers a rare and profound insight into contemporary Mongolian society, highlighting its evolving identity and the intricate relationship between individuals and their cultural heritage.

For its cinematic innovation, outstanding sound design and sensitivity, we honor Angry Spirits as a film that lingers in the mind, not only for its breathtaking images but for its ability to make the unseen felt.

Honorable Mention

TARANTISM REVISITED by Anja Dreschke & Michaele Schäuble | Germany, Switzerland 2024

JURYSTATEMENT: A well-crafted essay film with multiple topics and threads, intertwined with fascinating visual and aural archives that offer a captivating cinematic journey into the world of tarantism and anthropology. It explores the discipline’s recurrent topic of haunting and healing rituals from a variety of multi-layered perspectives, reflecting on the heritage of renowned Italian anthropologist Ernesto de Martino, who had researched tarantism in Puglia, Italy, in the 1960s. The movie takes a close look at the relationship between a female researcher (one of Martino’s students) and a Tarantata, the afflicted woman through a series of personal letters exchanged over the years. These letters reveal a one-sided dynamic, highlighting the emotional and ethical complexity of the anthropologist-subject relationship. As the anthropologist recedes, the Tarantata begins to articulate her own voice, offering a form of autoethnography that transforms absence into presence, and silence into testimony.

The filmmakers guide the viewer through remarkable ethnographic archives and sensitively shot footage, testimony of a decade of research and experimentation with narrative strategies to turn this challenging topic into a subtle and thought provoking story.

We are delighted to award ‘Tarantism Revisited’ with an honorable mention for the incredible research, its heart-warming intimacy and reflective depth.

Nominees

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ADA – Austrian Documentary Award

Curation: Marie-Christine Hartig, Martin Lintner

Prize Money: € 1.000.-

Jury:

Pêdra Costa (performer, visual & urban anthropologist)
Sara Fattahi (filmmkaer)
İpek Hamzaoğlu (artist, filmmaker, cultural worker)

Award donated by: Verwertungsgesellschaft der Filmschaffenden

Winner

THE LIFE OF SEAN DELEAER by Markus Zizenbacher | Austria 2024

JURYSTATEMENT: It was impossible to compare the six documentaries directly. Each of them is singular in its own way, capturing a specific space, time, and set of protagonists, some overflowing with people, others hauntingly sparse. Together, they paint a portrait of our unequal society.

The selected film portrays an unapologetic love letter to life in its strength and fragility, its presence and losses. It is a crafted portrait, not only a tribute to the iconic protagonist, but a vivid cinematic expression of friendship and the underground music scene of the ’80s and the ‘90s. A film like its protagonist: authentic and fiercely alive. It is a time-traveling work of art, seamlessly weaving raw and intimate archival footage shot by the protagonist himself with contemporary footage and his own diaries. It bridges past and present and shows the beautiful brutality. At its heart is Sean DeLear, a radiant, magnetic presence whose role in the band Glue, and in wider cultural spaces and beyond, served as a crossroads for identity, performance, and insistence through existence. This film stands out for its bold artistic vision, emotional depth, and cultural urgency.

The award of ADA Jury ethnocineca 2025 goes to The Life of Sean DeLear by Markus Zizenbacher, capturing not only a singular life, but an entire era and the echoes it continues to send through our world today.

Nominees

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ISA – International Shorts Award

Curation: Marie-Christine Hartig, Martin Lintner
ISA-Kommittee:Valerie Blankenbyl, Katja Seidel

PUBLIKUMSPREIS
The audience will vote for the winning film during the screening of the ISA Short Film Programs I & II. The winning film will be repeated at the Award Ceremony on May 14, 2025.

Prize Money: € 500.-

Award donated by: Verwertungsgesellschaft für audio-visuelle Medien

Winner

KARUN – THE LONGEST RIVER OF IRAN by Sahand Sarhaddi | Switzerland, Iran, Finland 2024

Nominees

ISA I

ISA II

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ESSA – Ethnocineca Student Shorts Award

Curation: Marie-Christine Hartig, Martin Lintner
ESSA-Kommittee: Valerie Blankenbyl, Katja Seidel

AUDIENCE AWARD
The audience will vote for the winning film during the screening of the ESSA Short Film Programa I & II. The winning film will be repeated at the Award Ceremony on May 14, 2025.

Prize Money: € 500.-

Award donated by: Basisgruppe Theater-, Film- und Medienwissenschaft

Winner

COMMODO by Elettra Gotti | Italiy, Great Britain 2024

Nominees

ESSA I

ESSA II