The juries’ notes:

The Youth Award

The Short Film Festival’s Youth Award for 2024 goes to a short film that explores contemporary themes such as identity, love, and self-acceptance. The film places great emphasis on the circumstances one is born with in life and how these affect one’s own life. We believe this resonates with youth while being crabtastically fun. So now, the Short Film Festival’s Youth Award 2024 goes to……………………………………..  Pisko the Crab Child is in Love!!

The Spark Award 2024

For the sixth time Altibox has the pleasure of handing out the Spark Award, Gnistprisen, to a filmmaker here in Grimstad. The award is 50 000 Norwegian Crowns. We are looking for creative, playful, brave and original filmmaking. Good storytellers who can say something essential about our time. This year’s program here in Grimstad has many brave and original voices, and for us, one stood out in particular. The filmmaker turns a deeply personal story into something that is also universal: the need to understand and connect with one’s parents. Her brave and artistically daring portrayal of an untraditional father is brimming with creativity and authenticity. The audience becomes involved in the emotional stakes in this father-daughter relationship, where they both are searching for mutual love. The winner of The Spark Award is Camilla Stefanie Jämtinge, for Project Dad.

The Hourglass Award

On behalf of the Norwegian Writers Guild I am presenting the award for best screenplay. This award goes to a film that stands out with its originality and unpredictability, depth and complexity. This film takes us on a journey through a dark, fairy-tale-like world, led by a vengeful protagonist. It masterfully uses metaphors that reflect the political landscape we live in today. The story is rich with layers and narrative techniques that constantly surprise us. It transitions brilliantly from the grand and seductive to what is most essential in any story: the human element. At its core, this story distills the simple, fundamental, and universal need that all humans share: the need to love, and to be loved. The winner for best screenplay goes to The Tyrant written by Kristin Jess Rodin and Eirik Svensson.

The Norwegian Film Workers Association’s Technical Award

The Norwegian Film Workers Association’s Technical Award goes to someone who has significantly distinguished themselves through their detailed and atmospheric use of space and color in the film. The production design in this film is not only aesthetically pleasing but also narratively precise. Through it, we become acquainted with the protagonist’s lonely existence, making his emotional development all the more compelling. The Professional Award is presented to production designer Madeleine Kinney for the short film Cucumber.

The Norwegian Film Critics’ Award

A film with exceptional characters that combines lightness and humour with heartfelt emotion, depth and complexity, applying a variety of stylistic approaches – yet with impressive coherency. A story of differences, the yearn to be seen and acknowledged by our most beloved ones, and investigating the complex political structures defining both our society and close relationships. It’s an intimate and personal story reaching far beyond the private and self-centred – although self-centeredness certainly is one of the topics of this both charming and deeply moving documentary by an emerging new talent. Prosjekt Dad, by Camilla Stefanie Jämting