Winners of the 16th SCHLINGEL Festival Determined
With a festive award ceremony on Saturday evening, the 16th International Film Festival for Children and Young Audience SCHLINGEL reached its climax. For one week nine juries were spoilt with choices, from which they picked their favourites. 146 productions from 38 countries were screened at this year’s festival. In total, prizes worth approximately 25,000 Euro were awarded.
- S Children’s Film Competition
The European Children’s Jury comprised of 16 children from eight European nations awarded the European Children’s Film Award (5000 Euros) from the “Sächsisches Staatsministerium für Wissenschaft und Kunst” (Saxon State Ministry for Science and Art) for the best children’s film to:
“Chubby Drums”
The Netherlands / 2010
Director: Arne Toonen
Honorary mention: “Koko and the Ghosts“ (Daniel Kušan, Croatia 2011)
The “DIAMOND” Award – a bike from “Diamant-Fahrradwerke Hartmannsdorf” in Saxony – is honoured to the most convincing acting performance by a child:
Partho Gupte („Stanley‘s Tiffin Box“)
India / 2011
Director: Amole Gupte
The International Expert Jury (This year the team was comprised of Mathias Günther, a representative of the “Saechsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien” (Saxon Regional Office for Private Broadcasting and New Media), film academic Markéta Pášmová from Zlín and actress Sabine Vitua) awarded the Chemnitz Top Award in the Children’s Film Competition (5000 Euros) for the best children’s film to:
“Chubby Drums”
The Netherlands / 2010
Director: Arne Toonen
- M Junior Film Competition
The Top Award in the Junior Film Competition (4000 Euros) for the best junior film awarded by the International Expert Jury and the “Saechsische Landesanstalt für privaten Rundfunk und neue Medien” (Saxon Regional Office for Private Broadcasting and New Media) went to:
“Frisson des Collines“
Canada / 2011
Director: Richard Roy
Honorary mention 1: „Nicostratos the Pelican“ (Olivier Horlait, France 2010)
Honorary mention 2: „Playing With the Dolls“ (Georgi Negaschew, Russia 2010)
The Junior Film Award (1000 Euros) for the best junior film is awarded by a seven-person jury to:
„Nicostratos the Pelican”
France / 2010
Director: Olivier Horlait
Honorary mention: “Spud“ (Donovan Marsh, South Africa 2010)
- L Youth Film Competition
The youth jury awarded the Cinestar Youth Film Award (1000 Euros) from the “Greater Union Filmpalast GmbH” for the best youth film to:
„I love you very so much\"
France / 2010
Director: Philippe Locquet
- D Focus Germany
The DEFA-Foundation Award (4000 Euro) goes to:
“Monika“
Germany / 2011
Director: Christian Werner
- XS Short and Animation Film Competition
The short film jury awards the International Short Film Award (500 Euro) to:
„The Icefisher“
Germany / 2010
Director: Anna Montanya
Honorary mention: “No Words“ (Bel Armenteros, Spain 2010)
The National Short Film Award (from Filmverband Sachsen, 500 Euro) was given to:
„Precise Peter“
Germany / 2010
Director: Martin Schmidt
Honorary mention: „Weather for Frogs“ (Pauline Kortmann, Germany 2011)
The seven-person animation film jury award the Animation Film Award (500 Euros) The award for the best animation went to:
„The Seventh Raven“
Germany / 2011
Director: Jörg Herrmann
Honorary mention: “Don’t Go“ (Turgut Akaçik, Türkei 2010)
- Other Awards
The ECFA Award of the European Children’s Film Association ECFA went to:
“Some Dogs Bite“
United Kingdom / 2010
Director: Marc Munden
The Audience Award from “Lichtenauer Mineralquellen GmbH” was chosen by the visitors during the festival week. The award went to:
“Spud“
South Africa / 2010
Director: Donovan Marsh
The “Ehrenschlingel” for exceptional commitment to the German children’s and youth film was awarded to Günter Meyer.
When Gunter Meyer shot his documentary “Unter dem Pflaster von Berlin” (1984) – a journey into the sewerage system of the city, he said: “The film should be fun, not only in the sense of humor or slapstick, it’s about the pleasure of thinking, realizing, discovering a variety of problems of our everyday lives.” This was the credo that has guided the director, who was born in Thum in the Ore mountains, in all his work to this day. After graduating from Babelsberg film school Gunter Meyer worked as an assistant director at the DEFA feature film studio before he could realize his first own project, the children‘s film “Let there Always be Sunshine” in the documentary film studio in 1969. This determined the course for Meyer to become one of Germany’s most successful children’s film directors. Henceforth he worked mainly for children, while often extending the target age group very generously upward, and beside documentaries, he shot feature films for cinema and television time and again.
About 9.000 visitors arrived in Chemnitz. Directors, actors and producers from Brazil, India Iran, Croatia, Russia, USA met to exchange ideas.
The director of the festival, Michael Harbauer, looks back on the successful festival week: “The festival was enriched by lots of great films. The competitions with films coming from almost all continents fascinated the young audience and the experts of the film and TV industry alike.
The international films that almost exclusively were German or European premiers aroused the German distributor’s interest this year, so we’re very delighted. After today’s ceremony, the winners will soon have the chance to be dubbed. This is necessary to show the film on the big screen or on German TV. Thereby the International Film Festival SCHLINGEL has a prominent position in the area of film.”