Bern Film Awards go to two documentaries and one feature

One of the honoured films, Simon Baumann's documentary film Wir Erben (We, The Heirs), also won the Swiss Film Prize. Keystone-SDA

Forces of nature, moral contradictions and courage: this year's Bern Film Awards honour documentaries about inheritance, the island of Stromboli and a feature film about a single mother.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

With IDDU – Racconti dell’isola, director Miriam Ernst has created an impressive portrait of the island of Stromboli and the people living in the shadow of the volcano, the cantonal education and culture directorate said in a press release on Tuesday.

The jury praised the atmospheric camera work and the sensitive film music. The prize money for the film is CHF30,000 ($37,315).

Simon Baumann’s documentary film Wir Erben (We, The Heirs) was also honoured. The prize money is CHF10,000. The film uses his family as an example to shed light on the moral contradiction between property and justice.

Baumann tells this inheritance story with subtle humour and personal wit, the canton added. We, The Heirs has already won this year’s Swiss Film Prize.

The feature film Les Courageux by Biel-based author and director Jasmin Gordon was also honoured with prize money of CHF10,000. The film captures the audience with its beautiful moods, the canton explained.

The film portrays a single mother who has had enough of rules and social expectations. She does everything she can to prove to her three children and herself that she is still a good person.

Prize for animation

A special prize went to animator, illustrator and storyboarder Etienne Mory. His prize is also endowed with CHF10,000. The Bernese artist worked on the animated film Bot und TV, among others, as the canton explains in its press release.

His earlier works include Matta & Matto, Lachsmänner and Coyote. Mory’s artistic work will be honoured with a special prize in the animated film category.

The Bernese Film Weekend will take place in 13 cinemas in the canton of Bern from November 20-23. The winning films of the Bernese Film Prize can also be seen there.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail].