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Discover the award-winning films of the 5th Santorini Film Festival’s 11 competition categories and learn more about all the inspiring filmmakers we featured this year.
Best Animated Short Winner
Dude
Sören and Melchior got lost in the woods. While Sören desperately looks for a way out, Melchior enjoys the fresh air and the drive into the blue. At a lonely gas station, the two get into a heated argument and Melchior takes off. Left on his own, Sören drives through the increasingly surreal forest which becomes denser and denser and finally invades his mind. Through the overwhelming trip, Sören finds back to his inner self.
Konstantin Rosshoff, Tokay Yotimo, Marco Jörger
Best Comedy Short Winner
Primal Therapy
A middle-aged man on the verge of a burnout seeks new energy through a very special form of self help therapy.
Santtu Salminen
Best Drama Short Winner
Le Pain
Le Pain' is a historical short film that follows a house search during the 2nd World War. A German soldier investigates wether a jewish family is hiding in a dilapidated farmhouse that only seems to be inhabited by a French speaking Belgian girl.
Pepijn Tebrunsvelt
Best Experimental Short Winner
to be near you.
to be near you. pushes at the boundaries of time to create a feeling of reconnecting with something, or someone, who is gone. Based on a live duet between Ali Kenner Brodsky and Jenna Pollack, to be near you. honors the memory of those that we have lost, collapses distance by energizing the spaces between, and demonstrates how people can find connection through physical separation.
Ali Kenner Brodsky, Jarret Blinkhorn
Best Feature Documentary Winner
The Guardian
For 18 years, the Syrian Orthodox nun Dayrayto lives on the grounds of a church in Zaz, a dilapidated and abandoned Assyrian village in southeastern Turkey. Together with the monk Abuna she cared for the church for fourteen years. Ever since the monk died four years ago Dayrayto lives alone with her two dogs, a cow, chicken, and three cats. She is vulnerable to multiple threats. Her presence in the region is a thorn in the side of many local actors. There has always been hostili- ties from the Muslim side and little support from her own community. Lately, the situation is getting worse and Dayrayto fears for her dog’s life, which she believes has been deliberately poisoned. The camera follows Dayrayto through her everyday life and observes her struggle for survival, her worries and hardships as fear and loneliness are her constant companions. An yet, Dayrayto is a courageous and fearless woman – she promised Abuna to never leave this holy place and to protect the church, no matter what.
Martina Priessner
Best Greek Short Production Winner
Elevator Alone
Four people and the time they spend in an elevator. Inspired by everyday life and by the difference in people's behavior when they are alone, in contrast to the socially acceptable behavior that individuals adopt when in public space and especially in the confined and always awkward setting of an elevator.
Anastasia Papadopoulou
Best International Feature Film Winner
The Last Bath
A nun is called upon to adopt her 15-year-old nephew, and as a consequence religion, family and love become entangled.
David Bonneville
Best International Short Film Winner
Marianne
Marianne, a heroine for a day, is interviewed by a young journalist. Despite of all the misunderstandings, a meeting takes place, brief, tenuous, human.
Julien Gaspar-Oliveri
Best Music Video Winner
Intro
Intro is the opening track of The Ghibertins’ forthcoming concept album “The Life & Death Of John Doe”. John Doe is a term used when the real name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. As much as we try to leave a legacy, a sign of our passage on earth, no one will remember us in 200 years. We are all passing through this world, we are all forgettable, we are all John Doe. Nevertheless, the life of each of us is unique and worth telling.The idea behind The Ghibertins' album is that there is one song for every decade of the protagonist’s life; from his conception to his afterlife. ‘Intro' begins this unique journey that will allow us to see the fall and the redemption of the main character, putting pen to paper all of the band’s hopes and fears. In the video the protagonist gets created and subsequently abandoned by the violent and abusive father, the prelude to his fall in disgrace.
The Ghibertins, Federico Cadenazzi, Fabio R. Rossin
Best Short Documentary Winner
Turning Man – 81RPM
Jürgen Leppert, also known as "Der Dreher" or "der Kreisel" is a graduate engineer, speaker inventor, 360 degree dancer, gifted Frisbee player and thoroughbred 68er. Everything revolves around the Karlsruher legend, and not just on the dance floor. A declaration of love to music, dancing and rebellion. A portrait of a tough person who still swims against the stream and the living proof that 81 years is far from too old for hard raves.
Robin Trouillet
Best Student Short Winner
Storgetnya
March 2020, Yerevan, capital of Armenia. 230 meters underground, in the Avan salt mine, men and women walk to breathe easier. Physical activities and medical consultations set the rhythm of the timeless world of this underground clinic, where lives intersect and stories are told.
Hovig Hagopian