Anastasia Trofimova, a Russian-Canadian filmmaker, gains unprecedented access to follow a Russian Army battalion in Ukraine. Without any official clearance or permits, she earns the trust of foot soldiers and embeds herself over the span of a year with one battalion as it makes its way across Eastern Ukraine. What she discovers is far from the propaganda and labels pushed by the East or the West: an army in disarray, soldiers disillusioned and often struggling to understand what they are fighting for.

Sang is one of hundreds of thousands of unwanted and discriminated children left behind by the American soldiers after the Vietnam War. When his lifelong dream of finding his father comes true, Sang's only mission is to race against time to meet his ailing dad and break the cycle of war trauma that has plagued generations. After a long and challenging journey, Sang can finally go to the USA, but without his wife, daughter, and beloved grandson. Reuniting with his father is a healing experience for both, but far from easy. Even though 50 years have passed since the last American soldier left Vietnam, many wounds remain open.

Jury Declaration:

The film expresses disturbing aspects of reality in an original, convincing, and sensitive way. Weronika Mliczewska approaches her protagonist Sang with great intimacy and creates a haunting, moving portrait of fundamental questions about belonging and home. The film sensitively portrays the getting-to-know-you between father and son – a rapprochement that also reflects the once-hostile countries of Vietnam and America. The film vividly shows that the wounds of war have not yet healed, that traumas and crimes have not been processed, and yet allows hope to emerge that love can grow.

This film essay is a montage of contemporary footage, archive material and cinematic history. It tells the story of how one young man’s childhood epilepsy became a symbol of the world’s troubles and how he triumphed against adversity. Co-directed by cult British filmmaker and writer Petit, the film centres on a deeply personal story and becomes a complex treatise on medical power, consumption and the Cold War, drawing on early cinema, animation and the work of William Burroughs. It takes us as far as the Arctic Circle, which has never seemed so warm as in this adventure of a son and his parents.

Jury Declaration:

The poetic narration, the inclusion of Louis´ own paintings and drawings, and the essayistic montage create a film that defies any conventional categorization. It is at once a meditation on cinema and memory, an indictment of medical bureaucracy, and a deeply personal family portrait. The film acknowledges that the human brain remains largely uncharted territory – "More is known about the universe than the brain" – and makes precisely this ambivalence, this impossibility of simple answers, its strength. D is for Distance is a masterpiece that portrays the disturbing aspects of our reality – illness, systemic failure, the limits of medicine – in a way that never simplifies but honors the full complexity and enigma of life.

Being a human rights activist and an NGO staff member in Palestine is a high-risk endeavor. Even when the struggle is for women’s rights or the right to health. In 2021, Israel designated six of the largest Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank as terrorist groups—without presenting evidence. Some of their directors and staff have been detained or targeted with military-grade spyware such as Pegasus. Over the past two years, the Israel-Gaza war has dominated international headlines—but what was happening before October 7, 2023? Through newly uncovered archives, unseen personal footage, and images captured in the West Bank in 2023, this documentary sheds light on how the state of Israel set its sights on dismantling Palestine’s civil society. How are these Israeli policies sustained? “Shrinking Space” includes evidence of U.S. involvement, Europe’s complicity, illegal detentions, and the arbitrary imprisonment of innocent Palestinian children. The film weaves together intimate portraits of these renowned persecuted Palestinian activists with powerful reflections that provide key insights into the ongoing Israeli’s apartheid regime and systemic repression in Palestine.

Fascinating and thrilling reconstruction of the rise and fall of the crypto currency company OneCoin. It all started in 2016 with OneCoin’s promise that it would become the world’s biggest crypto currency. Millions of people invested money, at least partly due to the charisma of the scheme’s leaders Sebastian Greenwood and Ruja Ignatova. They used notorious pyramid scheme tactics, holding gala style meetings to whip up enthusiasm among their members to draw their own networks into buying digital currency. The protagonist of this story is Bjørn Bjercke. Soon after OneCoin approached him for his expertise he discovered all sorts of things were amiss. Bjercke decided to share this knowledge publicly, despite the life-threatening danger that would entail. The film raises questions about human nature: Why do some people look away, while others go to the barricades? And how come our craving for more is so powerful that we let ourselves be fooled? Victims talk about their motivations, and influence experts confront us with our vulnerabilities: the fear of failure and a need for belonging.

December 2000. The famous photographer Oliviero Toscani accepts an invitation from the art critic Giancarlo Politi to curate a section of the first edition of the Tirana Biennial. The photographer presents four scandalous artists, authors of works that are uncomfortable, inappropriate, even immoral: Dimitri Bioy, a paedophile; Marcello Gavotta, a pornographer; Bola Equa, an activist wanted by the Nigerian government; and Hamid Picardo, Bin Laden's official photographer. This is just the beginning of what will go down as one of the biggest hoaxes in contemporary art history. Now that the crimes are time-barred, the protagonists can finally tell the truth.