winner new amour award: residue

We are happy to announce that Merawi Gerima, the director of Residue is the winner of the New Amour Award. The winning film tels about a young filmmaker who returns home after many years away, to write a script about his childhood, only to find his neighborhood unrecognizable and his childhood friends being scattered to the wind.

The New Jury
For the first time this year, a youth jury decided who the winning filmmaker should be. A team of 5 talented film lovers (Ari, Arendt, Ezra, Zedd and Vera) watched the films from the New Makers Competition prior to the festival, and decided that Merawi Gerima of Residue should go home with the New Amour Award – a cash prize of 1,000 euros and the New Amour Award designed by sculpture artist Laura Schurink.

Jury Statement
“Residue follows Jay, a filmmaker who returns to his home neighborhood in Washington DC after many years away to write a script about where he grew up, only to find that gentrification has swept his beloved Q-street beyond recognition. Residue’s camera holds a kind of intimacy that compels attention and empathy from the viewers. The different styles of camerawork are stitched together elegantly through the collage-like editing; the audience is invited to experience different terrains of recollection. Remembrance, as shown in Residue, are fragmented attempts at replicating a desired vision of the past while navigating through inevitable interruptions from a changing present. Equally fragmented is the portrayal of characters within Jay’s world, as each participant in his memory takes a distinct stance on his return and wish to make the film, and each also handled the gentrification of their neighborhood with varying degrees of resistance.”

Design Award: Laura Schurink

talks with new makers 2021

This year the pandemic did not allow us to invite New Makers film directors for the live Q&A sessions, but we like to think that it spurred us to be creative and ingenious. Because we did not want to give up on making you meet the New Makers, we recorded intriguing Q&A sessions with Dash Shaw from Cryptozoo, Ekwa Msangi from Farewell Amor, Mauricio Leiva-Cock from The Night of the Beast, ismaël from Black Medusa, and Hadas Ben Aroya from All Eyes Off Me.

Interview Hadas Ben Aroya, director of All Eyes Off Me

Interview Ekwa Msangi, director of Farewell Amor

Interview ismaël, director of Black Medusa

Interview Dash Shaw, director and Jane Samborski Embark, animation director of Cryptozoo

Interview Mauricio Leiva-Cock, director of The Night of The Beast

Interview Merawi Gerima, director of Residue