Ecofilms Rhodes international Film Festival awards announced on 25 June

Feature films

 Best feature film
 Shipbreakers by Michael Cot
 The international jury awarded Michael Kot’s Shipbreakers the first prize. Set in the dramatic setting of a ship graveyard in Alang, India, the film follows the daily lives of workers and bosses who toil to break down a 30.000 ton vessel over a period of two months. Kot, a founding producer of CBC Newsworld, uses strong imagery to convey complex and harsh social and environmental realities of the developing world.
 
 Second best feature film
 Carpatia by Andrej Klamt and Ulrich Rydzewski
 The journey into little known rural mountainous regions of Carpatia, was crowned as second best feature film. Snapshot encounters with an array of ethnic groups and insights into community life set in the Carpatia are captured in a film whose rich landscape photography was o­ne of the outstanding features.


Ulrich Rydjewski receives the Golden deer statuette for Carpatia, crowned second best feature film

Special mentions
 Nostalgos by Eleni Alexandraki
 Stroke by Katarina Peters                   

Short films
Best short film
 Flood in Baath country by Omar Amiralay
An incisive political commentary of present day Syria launched using the management of the waters of the River Euphrates as a springboard. Thirty-three years ago, Omar Amiralay, was o­ne of the supporters “the dam of Euphrates”, a symbol of modernization and the proud of the Baas ruling Party. However time revealed the damaging impacts of this decision o­n the environment and the director compelled by his political awakening returns to the place of his first film to re-tell the same story, this time from a changed point of view..
 
 Second best short film
 Ants by Wolfang Thaler
 Rife with unusual imagery made possible through special macro film equipment, Ants perked up the eyes of the Jury that garnered it with the second best short film prize. Ants wage wars and administer medicines; they are farmers and graziers.They live in a world of coded communications and lightning chains of command, secret poison mixtures and prodigious strength.
 
 Ramsar MedWet Award for best film o­n water and wetlands
Veil of Berta by Esteban Larrain
 This Chilean film set in the high Andean plateau recounts the story of a native group struggling against the flooding of their lands by a river dam. The leader of the struggle and main character is a tough and humorous 80 year old who takes up negotiations with high level government and UN representatives while
 staying true to her roots and her ancestor’s traditions of greeting the trees and the sun, saying prayers and taking tea with her dead.
 
 Berta Quintremán, who at the age of 86 leads the last group opposing the construction of the dam.

Audience awards
 Best Feature Films
 Monte Grande by Franz Reichle
 This is the story of a man that is told affectionately and gently, touchingly astutely.
 Varela spent his life building bridges: between western science and eastern wisdom, neurobiology and philosophy, abstract theory and practical life.
 This film succeeds – if o­nly for 80 delightful minutes – in deconstructing the prevailing division between science and art.
 
 Special mentions
 Οrgasmo by Pablo Oliverio
 Concrete Revolution by Xiaolu Guo
 
 Best Short film
 Smoking Kills by Andres Jarach

 
 The film unfolds the intricacies of quitting seen through the eyes of a heavy smoker. Through a visual diary we bare witness to his moods and philosophical thoughts, accompany him o­n his regular visits to the tabaccologist where he goes for practical advise and support and to the labs where nicotine dependency is tested o­n rats.
 
 Special mention
Pilala by Theo Papadopoulakis
 Breaking away from the box by Ywe Jalander

Updated on 7/11/2005 1:54:11 PM.