Audience Award - Best Short Film
The first of our beauties, the "Silver Razor Blade", goes to the film from our two short film blocks that won the most favor with the audience. It will embark on a long journey across the pond and will hopefully be received in the next few days by a beaming young man named Neil Ferron. His entry FISHMONGER created a great atmosphere and lots of laughs in the packed Ostentor Cinema. Really funny, beautifully disgusting and superbly staged - something the HARD:LINER simply love! And we also agree wholeheartedly with the audience's decision.
Audience Award - Best Feature Film
The audience favorite in the feature-length film category, "Golden Razor Blade", broke an unwritten law of the HARD:LINE code this time. This states that, as a rule, the Sunday 1 p.m. film gets the best audience votes. But rules are there to be broken, which is why the prize went to a completely different time slot in the 2024 edition of the festival. The audience showed exceptionally good taste and chose the dark, abysmal and fascinating marvel STOPMOTION as the winner of the hearts. We warmly congratulate director Robert Morgan and look forward to more great and disturbing cinematic visions from this man!
Jury Award - Méliès D'Argent
However, the festival's most prestigious prize is the Mèliès D'Argent, which HARD:LINE is the only German member of the Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) to be able to present. The winner of the Regensburg competition will compete against the winning films of all other Federation festivals in October and vie for the award for best European fantastic short film. The jury chose the atmospheric and emotional science fiction film PESUDO and was "extremely moved and extremely impressed". We can more than endorse this decision and send lots of "Felicidades" to filmmaker Miquel Díaz Pont in Spain.
Jury statement
PESUDO is a film that both touched and impressed us in equal measure.
We were moved by the story and the sensitive portrayal of its lonely, vulnerable and often wounded main character, who longs only for acceptance, for a sense of humanity - and finally finds it in a machine of all things.
We were impressed by its cinematic realization at an extremely high level: a visual design that transports us directly into the protagonist's world of experience, a sound design that makes this world directly tangible and a score that not only underlines the mood of the narrative, but also connects Pesudo and the android character in a very concrete way.
Director Miquel Díaz Pont demonstrates a very independent artistic vision with his film, which he realizes in a formidable audiovisual way, giving his tragic story enormous impact. A story that is both highly topical and - unfortunately - timeless.
In the field of tension between artistic intelligence and genuine emotionality, PESUDO proves to be a focused portrait of desperate loneliness. Deeply sad and harrowing, yet characterized by a poetic mood and tenderness towards its main character, the film leads to an uncompromising ending that hurts - and yet is just as liberating.
An organic combination of ultimate escapism and absolute realism, in a beautiful guise. As intelligent as it is creative and moving. For us, absolutely outstanding.
