At tonight’s Award Ceremony at Vega Scene, this year’s winners of the HUMAN award for best Norwegian documentary and the HUMAN Rights Human Wrongs Film Award for best international human rights focused documentary were announced. We congratulate the filmmakers!

HUMAN International Documentary Film Festival would like to thank all filmmakers, producers, jury members and not least the audience for elevating this year’s festival to new heights, both for the films, conversations and audience numbers. Thank you for showing that documentary film is stronger and more relevant than ever!

The Norwegian Competition Program

This year eleven new Norwegian documentaries have competed for the HUMAN Award 2019 and 50 000 kr given by Bergesenstiftelsen. The winning film also qualifies for an Amanda nomination for best documentary.

The Jury of the Norwegian Competition Program 2019 is Aslaug Holm, Sarah Dawson and Øyvor Dalan Vik.

Winner: War of Art 

Director: Tommy Gulliksen
Producer: Norsk Fjernsyn

The statement of the Jury:

Through the lens of art, the film reveals much about human nature and identity within the context of larger international tensions today. It brings into question preconceptions of life in North Korea while also challenging our understanding of ourselves in the west, presenting in a complex way what it means to be human in a society, both collectively and individually. It does not present simple answers but asks stimulating and difficult questions that provoke a re-evaluation of the role of human creativity.

Honorable Mention: The Men’s Room

Directors: Petter Sommer og Jo Vemund Svendsen
Producer: Fuglene

Statement of the Jury:

A moving story about fellowship and life itself in a men’s choir. So thoroughly engaging, and full of humour and humanity. A personal and intimate story, but at the same time universal and relevant for a big audience.

En rørende historie om samhold og livet i et mannskor. Gjennomført engasjerende og full av humor og medmenneskelighet. En personlig og intim historie, men samtidig universell og relevant for et bredt publikum.

The International Competition Program

Ten international documentary films focusing on human rights issues are competing for the HUMAN Rights Human Wrongs Film Award, and 30.000 kr given by Amnesty International Norway and The Norwegian Helsinki Committee.  We wish with this award to highlight filmmaker’s efforts to make human rights issues known to a wider audience.

The international jury this year has been Zahavi Sanjavi, Adele Matheson Mestad and Ingrid Dokka.

Honorable Mention: Anote’s Ark

Director: Matthieu Rytz

We would like to give an honorary mention to a film concerning what is perhaps the most pertinent human rights question of our time: so-called third-generation human rights to a climate and environment, the precondition to realising all other rights. The film follows a big man on a small island on the verge of disaster due to human-induced climate change, and his tireless fight for the future of his people. It exposes the deeply unfair paradox that climate change first affects the states which have not contributed to the emissions causing our ocean levels to rise. It further highlights the lack of protection of indigenous rights in the face of society´s unsustainable materialism and growth.

The film Anote´s Ark, directed by Canadian Matthieu Rytz, stresses our fundamental human and moral obligation to fight for the existence of our future, as well as how difficult it is to break through the sound barrier.

Winner: The Silence of Others

Directors: Almudena Carracedo og Robert Bahar

The HUMAN Rights Human Wrongs Film Award goes to the film we believe makes the strongest contribution to making a human rights issue in a nearby country known to the public. It highlights the importance of several fundamental human rights and the principles that underpin them. The film has a rich cinematic language and real elements in their natural environment to enter the inner world of the characters, making us identify with their struggle and suffering. It also reflects the human need for justice to move on in one´s own, and future generations, history.

The film concerns the descendants of survivors of Franco´s dictatorship, and their fight against the Spanish government´s lacking will and ability to confront its fascist past. A lesser known issue the film addresses, is the struggle of the mothers whose children were taken away at birth. The documentation of these eclatant human rights abuses, through the regime´s breach of the inviolable, can be part of a larger theme than has been known until now.