From left to right: Dorian Jespers, Maïder Fortuné, Ismaïl Bahri

On Sunday 26 January 2020, the jury announced the winners of this year’s Ammodo Tiger Short Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). The winning films are Apparition by Ismaïl Bahri, Communicating Vessels by Maïder Fortuné and Annie MacDonell, and Sun Dog by Dorian Jespers. They won three equal Ammodo Tiger Short Awards.

The jury consisted of recently appointed director of Kunsthal Rotterdam Nathanja van Dijk, French filmmaker and previous Tiger Award for Short Films winner Safia Benhaim (La fièvre, IFFR 2014), and Los Angeles-born, Belgrade-based film curator and writer Greg de Cuir Jr. 

The jury gave a special mention to Wong Ping’s Fables 2 by Wong Ping. They said: “This admirable work, whose sharp political satire and madcap animation started so memorably last year in the award-winning first part of the series, continues to keep a finger on the pulse of society.”

Still: Apparition by Ismaïl Bahri

The jury on Apparition:

“A short and poetic piece that contemplates history and memory through the materiality of the moving image. It deals with politics, the suppleness of gesture, and the fleeting nature of our collective footing in tumultuous moments in time.”

Still: Communicating Vessels by Maïder Fortuné and Annie MacDonell

The jury on Communicating Vessels:

“An incredibly intricate and layered work about being haunted by someone else’s story. A tribute to the efforts of a generation of pioneering women and the conceptual art they created. Also a meditation on motherhood, the responsibility of teaching and the fluid boundary between art and life. How does one imprint narratives and ideas on bodies and minds?”

Still: Sun Dog by Dorian Jespers

The jury on Sun Dog:

“The emerging young artist demonstrates a visionary approach to the tale of a young man adrift at the end of the world. A subjective piece that captures the acute delirium of tedious work and an environment that is harsh and unforgiving. The final, very uncanny image of two suns breaking through the clouds and rising in the distance is one of the more striking images of the Ammodo Tiger Short Competition.”

Sun Dog has also been selected as IFFR’s Short Film Candidate for the European Short Film Awards 2020.

Ammodo, an organisation supporting art and science, became official partner of the competition in 2018. The three Ammodo Tiger Short Awards come with €5,000 each. 

In addition to the Ammodo Tiger Short Awards, IFFR presents the Voices Short Award during the Awards Ceremony on Friday 31 January (streamed live on IFFR.com). The Voices Short Award, launched in 2018, is an audience award and celebrates the more narrative-driven short films in the festival’s Voices section.

• 3 Logical Exits, Mahdi Fleifel, 2020, Denmark/UK/Lebanon, world premiere

• Aggregate States of Matters, Rosa Barba, 2019, Peru/Germany, world premiere (festival)

• Apiyemiyekî?, Ana Vaz, 2020, France/Netherlands, world premiere

• Apparition, Ismaïl Bahri, 2019, France, world premiere

• Aquí y allá, Melisa Liebenthal, 2020, France/Argentina, world premiere

• Becoming Alluvium, Phan Thao Nguyen, 2019, Vietnam/Spain, world premiere (festival)

• Beer, Erik van Lieshout, 2019, Netherlands, world premiere (festival)

• A Bright Summer Diary, Lei Lei, 2020, USA, world premiere

• A chuva acalanta a dor, Leonardo Mouramateus, 2020, Portugal/Brazil, world premiere

• Communicating Vessels, Maïder Fortuné/Annie MacDonell, 2020, Canada, world premiere

• The Eyes of Summer, Rajee Samarasinghe, 2019, Sri Lanka/USA, international premiere

• Look Then Below, Ben Rivers, 2019, UK, world premiere

• The Lost Procession, Bani Abidi, 2019, United Arab Emirates/Germany/Pakistan, world premiere (festival)

• the names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered, Onyeka Igwe, 2019, UK, international premiere

• Progressive Touch, Michael Portnoy, 2019, Austria/Netherlands/USA, international premiere

• Sayōnara, William Andreas Wivel, 2019, Denmark, international premiere

• Sun Dog, Dorian Jespers, 2019, Belgium, world premiere

• Tendre, Isabel Pagliai, 2020, France, world premiere

• They Parlaient Idéale, Laure Prouvost, 2019, France/Belgium/Italy, world premiere (festival)

• Tyrant Star, Diane Severin Nguyen, 2019, Vietnam/USA, international premiere

• Wong Ping's Fables 2, Wong Ping, 2019, Hong Kong, European premiere