1st place – Grand Prize of the City of Innsbruck (3000 €)
VIRUNGA – directed by: Orlando von Einsiedel, GBR/DRC 2014
Jury statement:
VIRUNGA is a highly emotional, suspense-packed environmental thriller. It not only tells the story of courageous men and one woman that have a lot more to defend than a few mountain gorillas. VIRUNGA manages to combine three plots into an extremely thrilling story. The emotional connection of mountain gorillas and national park rangers, the civil war ravaging the national park and the threat from multi-national oil companies are interwoven in VIRUNGA, making it an environmental/political film that concerns and affects all of us.
2nd place (2000 €)
MUSTANG – FLUCHT AUS DEN BERGEN – directed by: Holger Riedel, GER 2013
Jury statement:
Initially, the film narrates the story of a small village community at an altitude of 4000 meters that loses its home through climate warming and the melting of the glaciers. “Mustang” becomes the epitome of a global problem initiating large-scale migration. At the same time, the film stays very close to its protagonists and provides intimated insights into their lives. Documentary TV at it’s best – the author makes no judgment, but leaves that to the audience.
3. Platz (1000 €)
ARE VAH! – Regie: Micha Patault & Sarah Irion, FRA 2014
Jury statement:
Let there be light! – at least if French nuclear corporations had their way. Ignoring the needs and opinions of the local Indian population, multi-national nuclear interests are to prevail. The film describes this perfidious conflict of interest in a masterful way and leaves the audience shocked!
Honorable mention
HIDDEN PARADISE – Regie: Serge Dumont, Frank Nischk, Sarah Zierul & Thomas Weidenbach, FRA 2012
Jury statement:
A nature film about a small, hidden ecosystem, showing something really new and unknown: the fascinating underwater world of a quarry pond. Right in front of one’s doorstep – a mysterious world beyond rabbits and hedgehogs. Bravo!