FeKK 2023: Winners

Observant and with a distinguished eye for details this film reminds us that images can have strong aesthetic and political impacts. Through the eyes of the filmmaker we see how the city can transform, be policed and become alienating for citizens. Portraying the city’s life through what is usually left unseen and neglected, this film is an intimate depiction of loneliness, and the anxieties induced by that. The jury univocally admired this film and wants to present the FeKK Grand Prix award to Harnessing by David Paige.

An intimate story of change, a reflection on the passage of time and what is lost or gained with that. The film uses the celluloid’s materiality as a fitting context for creating a dialogue with the past, in a journey of self discovery. The jury's choice for the main award in the FeKK SLO competition programme goes to The Box by Tomaž Pavkovič.

Benefiting from sense of humor, proximity to the characters, and an eye for the details, this short documentary shows an admirable passion for life. For showing the importance of dialogue and laughter the jury presents a special mention to The View by Ema Paš in the FeKK SLO competition programme.

An observant depiction of how imperialism, capitalism and their war machine can alternate and ruin the local ways of life in the smallest corners of the world; this film questions what happens to the adults that take part in this game physically and mentally? What happens to their children? For asking these timely and important questions, the main award in the FeKK BAL competition programme goes to Retreat by Anabela Angelovska

Playful and concept driven, this red visually stimulating short film humores cinematic stereotypes and creates a rhythm, a poem and a pun. For experimenting with a new form to collage images, words and music, the jury presents a special mention in the FeKK BAL competition programme to Minutiae: One film, two cuts by Miljana Niković.

The Legend of the Goldhorn digs deep into the mythic folklore of the nation, not to establish an identitarian narrative, but to tell a universal and timeless story about love, the nature of man, and masculinity. At the same time, contemporary ecological consciousness is addressed in complex ways through glimpses into the lives of the past. With a deep psychological intuition, it taps into an archetypal world that also correlates with Jungian concepts. The form is in harmony with the content, as she uses infrared light, inaccessible to the human eye, to suggest the invisible psychic world as well as the life of nature separate from man. It is also noteworthy that the music, played on traditional instruments, sounds contemporary in this performance, merging the past with the present.

Airhostess-737 is a masterpiece of escalating tension, agile choreography and dark humour. In a generically anonymous but claustrophobically confined setting, director Thanasis Neofotistos ramps up the tension to an anxious boiling point. Painful dentures as a physical manifestation of mental pain and unresolved family trauma? A melodrama par excellence.