Winners

The Last Bet – BEST EDITING

Writer and Director: Meike Wüstenberg

Jury’s Motivation: This film’s editing demonstrates a masterful sense of rhythm, combining precise pacing with subtle, well-timed humor. Each cut feels deliberate, with scenes ending at exactly the right moment – creating a flow that is both engaging and impactful throughout.

Skin on Skin – BEST FILM

Writer and Director: Simon Schneckenburger

Jury’s Motivation: “Director Simon Schneckenburger presents a bold and mature vision, blending raw intimacy with sharp social critique. Through striking visuals and mesmerizing performances, he crafts a powerful story where fragile tenderness manages to endure within institutionalized cruelty. This combination makes Skin on Skin an unforgettable and award-worthy work”

Our Own Shadow- MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR

Director & Screenwriter: Agustina Sanchez Gavier

Jury’s Motivation: In a landscape marked by ancestral land and indigenous struggles, deforestation becomes both a threat and a metaphor. Through haunting imagery and an immersive soundscape, the film’s atmospheric precision and narrative depth mark the arrival of a truly promising filmmaker.

Balkan, Baby – BEST SCRIPT

Director: Boris Gavrilović

Jury’s Motivation: “Balkan Baby is a deeply moving film that places at its center an unforgettable character, through whom it explores the complexities of identity in a way that is both powerful and profoundly relatable”

Phantom – BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Director & Screenwriter: Gabriele Manzoni

Jury’s Motivation: “Phantom is a powerful and deeply moving film that, through brilliant cinematography, crafts a precise portrait of place and weaves together every layer of its artistry into a suspenseful and striking viewing experience”

The Risk of Childhood- HONORABLE MENTION 

Director & Screenwriter: Luis Fernando Portales Ruiz

Jury’s Motivation: “The Risk Of Childhood is a luminous meditation on absence, memory, and the shaping of identity. Luis Fernando Portales Ruiz transforms intimate, personal experiences into a universally resonant portrait of childhood, where loss and longing coexist with wonder, connection, and the subtle, enduring power of human presence”‏

The Truck- HONORABLE MENTION

Director, Screenwriter & Editor: Elizabeth Rao

The Jury’s Comment: What starts as a sweet and youthful love story leads to a traumatic situation that embodies the dangers of conservatism and racism in the United States today. Beautifully directed, shot, edited, and acted.‏

And a Whisper Will Be Heard (Last Scenes at My Father’s House) – Audience Award and The Golden Bone

Writer and Director: Yuval Parnass-Mader (The Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, Tel Aviv University)

After Counting All Votes – Best Film

Director: Amnon Halbersberg (Sam Spiegel Film and Television School)

Kosher Test – MOST PROMISING DIRECTOR

Writer and Director: Riki Rotter (Minshar for art, Israel)

Exposure – BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Writer and Director: Roni Shai (The Steve Tisch School of Film & Television – Tel Aviv University, Israel)

The Witness- BEST SCRIPT

Wrier and Director: Yehuda Bogomolny (Sam Spiegel Film and Television School)

Sila – Best Acting

Writer and Director: Bissan Tibi (The Steve Tisch School of Film & Television – Tel Aviv University)

Savta and I – AUDIENCE AWARD

Wrier and Director: Tomer Shaham

Bottle. Sea. Love – HONORABLE MENTION

Writer and Director: Gal Salomon (Minshar for Art)

I WILL TAKE YOUR SHADOW – HONORABLE MENTION

The Jury’s Comment: Guy’s family history resonates in the slivers of memory that emerge before us in sequence through ink drawing animation. The story, recounted in her voice, weaves a personal and collective memory, one of imagination and ideology. It is a tale of unremitting loss, a void of past experiences that is identifiable even to those who have yet to encounter it; ghosts within us that function as self-fulfilling prophecies, their mark left as shadows passed from one generation to the next.

Written & Directed by: Ayala Shoshana Guy

A Techno Botanical Tale – BEST PROJECT

Director: Lior Yeger (Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, visual communication)

Try It | 嘗試集 | תנסה – HONORABLE MENTION

Writers and Directors: Gadi Yampel and Xin Zhe Jiang