The 9. up-and-coming Int. Film Festival Hannover took place:
22.-25. November 2007 at the CinemaxX Hannover Nikolaistraße.
All films selected for the international competition program stood a chance to win the International Young Film Makers Award. During the festival an international jury chose and awarded three films in the category ‚best director’ for the Award.
The prizes have been awarded as a glass FilmComet.
The selection criteria did not emphasize technical perfection but originality, autonomy of the concept and how the concept has been translated into film.
The prize intends to award works which are imaginative, unusual, humorous, provocative and unconventional.
The international festival jury of the 9. up-and-coming Int. Film Festival Hannover announced the winners of the 'International Young Film Makers Award 2007' at the prize awarding ceremony on Sunday, 25. November 2007.
The winners of the 3 International FilmComets are:
CONTINUUM (India) by Khushboo Ranka and Anand Gandhi
Jurys comment:
'This Film is taking on 5 difficult themes in a light-hearted and entertaining approach. It always keeps it's humouristic and loving view at humans without ever mocking about them or their culture. And finally all those threads are woven into one fabric.'
LOVERS LOVER (Hong Kong) by Mak Hei Yan
Jurys comment:
'A highly innovative short film, which might have filled feature length with it's brilliantly condensed story. A Hong Kong portrait of alienated young urban professionals arriving at the insight that those all-connecting cellphones might as well be able to bring communication and love-affairs to a halt.'
MIRROR AND WATER (Iran) by Bijan Zamanpira.
Jurys comment:
'The Film is being honored for its complexity and beauty. Moreover in the way it deals with time and space and its inscription of the imaginary into the real.
The award is given for its freshness and approach to social topics, as well as its innovative discourse in relation to itself. All this is being mediated through humor and mild irony.'
The winner of the special prize THE FLYING CAMERA (for the artistical most innovative film, donated by the kestnergesellschaft Hannover) is
ADJUSTMENT (Great Britain) by Ian Mackinnon.
Jurys comment:
'The film ist a masterpiece of animation telling the story of a separation in a very intimate way. Different styles of animation from hand-drawn or flip-books all the way to photography and electronic media are elegantly woven into real scenes achieving small irritations.'
A Honorable Mention for:
Procrastination (Great Britain) by Johnny Kelly
Jurys comment:
'This brilliantly animated short film ironically deals with the highly human tendency to distract oneself from the seriosuly important things through thousands of not so important ones.'
Their Circumstances (USA) by JiHyun Ahn
Jurys comment:
'JiHyun Ahn is telling it's tragical as well as humorous story shaped like an interactive website, but inside of a hand-drawn interface. In a very funny way it's coming full circle with traditional and contemporary styles.'
Leila (Belgium) by various children
Jurys comment:
'Among the youngest participants is this group of kids from Burkina Faso and Belgium with their animation. The simple story is just a kids story at first look, but reveals a lot about social reality of the African country.'
