...and the winners are...

The international competition sections included 10 feature films, 34 short films, 35 student films, 30 music videos, 24 abstract and non-narrative films and 9 VR films. In addition, 17 video games and 12 student games competed to gain the festival’s recognition.

The Award for the Best Feature Film for Children and Young Audience went to Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake directed by Irene Iborra Rizo from Spain. The film tells a story of twelve-year-old Olivia, her brother Tim and their mother Ingrid find themselves in a difficult situation. When the family is forced to move out of their apartment, Olivia convinces Tim that they're all part of the filming of their mother’s latest film and their new friends and neighbours are just other actors. Their story highlights how important it is to hope for a better tomorrow and to find support in a sense of belonging that hardship sometimes brings out in people. The jury explained their decision as follows, “We award this film with empathetic child's perspective on difficult social issues, sensibility towards mental health, family ties and power of friendship.”

The Award for the Best Feature Films for Adults went to Endless Cookie, a unique animated documentary by the Canadian directorial duo Seth and Peter Scriver, who are stepbrothers and tell their story through memories. One of them is white and the other, on his mother's side, is a member of the North American indigenous population. A collage of stories gradually opens up themes such as exploring one's own identity and ethnicity, the resistance of the indigenous people to colonisation, social exclusion and bizarre family relationships. Film is also extraordinary thanks to its ubiquitous humour, self-irony and “insane” visual style. The jury praised the film as follows, “Endless Cookie is genuinely bold in addressing the topic of minorities. With honesty, irony and funky visual style, it shows us a family album of relatable, quirky and lovable characters that reflects the toxic relationship with Canadian society.”

The category of short films was won by the puppet film Winter in March directed by Armenian director Natalia Mirzoyan. The film was made as a co-production of four countries, Estonia, Armenia, Belgium and France, and follows a young Russian couple on the run in the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine as they fear repression by the Russian regime. However, their journey soon turns into a surreal nightmare. The jury supported their decision with the following statement, “We have chosen a film dealing with a subject that has weighed heavily on Europe, but most of all on Ukraine. The story follows the journey of a young couple fleeing Russia soon after the outbreak of the war. Among the many things we admire about this film are its incredible animation technique—which translates emotional turbulences into stitches, seams and fabrics—its strong female lead, and its overall powerful storytelling.”

Out of Student Films, the jury has ruled in favour of Floating made by Serbian director Jelena Milunović from Filmuniversität Babelsberg, Germany. It tells the story of a father and daughter whose relationship is strained as his mental illness progresses, causing him to lose touch with reality. The jury praised both the film and its direction, saying, “In only seven minutes, this film manages to show empathy, imagination and tenderness about mental illness, while avoiding stereotypical thinking about this subject. The director transforms her painful personal experience into an intimate universe.”

The main award for Non-Narrative and Abstract Animation went to Sakshi Jain, an Indian director living in the United States for So Many Different Things, where she animated tiny unrelated black-and-white drawings. The award for Best Music Video will travel all the way to Japan to director Hoji Tsuchiya for his video for Prime by musician Tomoaki Baba. The special mention in the same category was won by the directorial duo Julie Černá and Lene Lekše for their video for Pařezy by Czech musician Johuš Matuš. The category of VR films was dominated by Kristina Buožytė and Vitalijus Žukas from Lithuania and their VR film Creation of the Worlds, inspired by the visionary paintings and music of the Lithuanian genius Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. The award for Best Computer Games for Children went to Michael Frei's Time Flies from the Swiss studio Playables and the award for Best Visual Art in Computer Game went to Carimara by Bastien Mahaut from Bastinus Rex. The Best Student Computar Game was awarded to SPRKLS.exe from the creative team of Stanislav Khaidarov, Egor Tomilov, Alexey Klishin, and Sofia Maslennikova.

One of the awards were solely in the hands of festival visitors. The Audience Award of the Liberec Region went to the film Dog Ear by the Hungarian director Péter Vácz.