This year the Int’l Women’s Film Festival in Dortmund & Cologne reduced its number of programmes, including in the young audience section, due to the pandemic. But the festival was brave enough to keep on the ECFA Short Film Award with an online jury. “Against all odds, the IFFF was the first film festival in our region that was cancelled, but it was also the first one to take place again.”
During the award night in Cologne, ECFA President Margret Albers was asked to hand out the prize for ARMED LULLABY, a German animated short by Yana Ugrekhelidze, who was present to collect her award.
ARMED LULLABY takes us to the 1993 Abkhazian civil war, when Georgian children were forced to flee their homes. The film depicts their terrifying experiences whilst acknowledging their longing for warmth and safety. The ECFA jury: “By testifying about one tragic war conflict, ARMED LULLABY makes a complaint against all similar conflicts throughout the world. This film makes full use of all cinematographic tools at its disposal. The jury was impressed by the filmmaker’s cinematographic approach and the variety of well chosen elements in her visual language, resulting in a stunningly beautiful film on the level of both image and sound. The film’s surprising ending raised some discussion, which was probably the author’s initial intention.”
The ECFA Jury were Katja Hevemeyer (German Film Academy), Marga Almirall Rotes (Drac Magic, Spain) and Gert Hermans (JEF, Belgium).