For giving voice and space to the victims of war – enough voice and space to allow us to live together with them through times of uncertainty and fear, at the precise moment when their lives are suddenly and violently changed. For creating a grand yet intimate and nuanced picture of that fragile state when people leave their homes without any belongings or understanding whether it will ever be possible to come back. For telling a story of one ethnic group as a metaphor for war migrants of all times and places. For disorienting us in order to make us see and feel what a straight narration never could.

Frédéric Jaeger, Yulia Serdyukova, Ulla Simonen

We have decided to give an honorary mention to a film that touched and impressed us. It was brought to us by combination of experience and new talent. This film of strong understanding of storytelling and vision, with stunning cinematography makes us await many
new films from Anna Zamecka, the director of Communion and her DoP Malgorzata Szylak.

Frédéric Jaeger, Yulia Serdyukova, Ulla Simonen

Dear all,
it is an important chance for the Syrians & their stories to meet you out of the mass media codes, as human beings. Syrians are writing their epical story with beauty & love in spite of all wars and crimes which are surrounding us.
It is an important chance for The War Show to reach more audience & make a contribution to spreading awareness and consciousness, so we can recheck reality and start building a new path for a better understanding and a better collaboration to solve future problems. It is a huge mission for all of us, knowledge is a key word for that in art & cinema we believe. Thanks for all the efforts that have been made and thanks for the audience prize of Nuremberg International Human Rights Film Festival.
We are honored to be part of it.
Warm regards,
Obaidah Zytoon

As part of our school’s P-Seminar “Human Rights Films and Documentaries”, we got the chance to spend a week watching 9 of the participating films for this festival.
We were fascinated by how broadly the topic of “human rights” was taken up here, no two films were really similar and every single one would be an enrichment if used as educational material. Which of course made it harder for us, because after the week we had to sit down together and decide on a winner.

As expected, this was not an easy decision and before we announce the winner, we would first like to highlight another film in particular.
For Ahkeem by Landon Van Soest and Jeremy S. Levine, the story of a young black girl who tries to make her way against the odds in a racially motivated America, made a deep impression on us with its subject matter and the way in which this subject matter was implemented, and we would like to expressly recommend this film here.

Now to the winning film.
After a long discussion, we finally agreed to give the first prize to a film that captivated us not only but above all with the topicality of its plot. The director accompanied a young female politician from Cizre, south-east Anatolia, for some time as she fought for peace and justice in her home country. The young woman at the centre of the story touches the viewer with her open passion, her courage and her will to fight.
The film does not use any dramatising devices, but it doesn’t need to. With simple, clear images, it portrays the situation in an unadulterated way and shows just how shocking it is.
Although it is a well-known fact that the situation in Turkey has been out of control for a long time, there are few sources that give us such a close and real insight into what it is really like there and we believe that the film is an important educational tool for schoolchildren. Therefore, the award of the Open Eyes Youth Jury goes to Dil Leyla by Aslı Özarslan.