‘Broken Voices’ Wins Best Film at German Indie Fest

Ondřej Provazník’s Broken Voices has won the German Independence Award for best film at this year’s Oldenburg International Film Festival. The Czech drama, inspired by real events, follows a renowned youth choir whose musical director is a sexual predator.

Presenting the award, the Oldenburg jury praised the film as a subtle and intense coming-of-age story, noting how it “masterfully guides us through the delicate yet profound journey of a young girl whose dreams and hopes are threatened by forces seeking to silence her.”

Oldenburg’s acting awards, named after legendary American character actor Seymour Cassel, went to Irish actor John Connors for his performance in Jason Byrne and Kevin Treacy’s Crazy Love, and Sabrina Amali for her turn in Nancy Biniadaki’s Maysoon.

In Crazy Love, Connors plays a suicidal man who voluntarily checks in to a mental hospital for treatment, only to fall in love with a schizophrenic patient who can never leave. “In every seemingly unremarkable moment on screen, the full complexity of the human heart and soul resonates,” the jury said of Connors’ performance.

Amali in Maysoon plays the titular character, a young Egyptian archaeologist, almost 10 years after the Arab Spring, now living in Berlin with her German boyfriend and their two children. An unexpected threat to her political status unearths old fears that she, again, might lose everything that is dear to her, leading Maysoon to again fight for her independence as a woman and as a citizen. The Oldenburg jury called Amali’s performance “flawlessly authentic and full of nuance… a true tour de force into the soul of a character and the heart of a story that must be heard.”

Yun Xie’s Under the Burning Sun received Oldenburg’s Audacity Award, which recognizes originality and boldness. The jury highlighted the director’s debut as a boundary-pushing work combining “painful brutality and visual poetry” in a sweeping epic they compared to John Ford and David Lean.

Alejandro Castro Arias took home the Hans Ohlms Award for best debut film with Harakiri, I Miss You. The jury praised its unflinching approach to loneliness and alienation, calling it “an unfiltered and honest reflection on the depths of human despair and the necessity of overcoming it.” Jorge Florez Arcila’s The Flower of Fear won the German Independence Award for best short film, described by the jury as “an extraordinary achievement” that transforms the horrors of child abuse into a work of “magical realism, beauty, and art.”

The audience selected Vincent Grashaw’s Keep Quiet as the winner of the Spirit of Cinema Award.

This year’s retrospective honored American director and music producer James William Guercio, best known for producing Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears and for his sole directorial feature, Electra Glide in Blue (1973). Actor Scott Glenn received a lifetime achievement tribute, with the festival screening four of his films alongside his new feature Eugene the Marine, which opened the event. Don Keith Opper was also honored as a cult figure of the 1980s, presenting four films together with his brother and producing partner Barry Opper.

With support from the Irish embassy in Berlin and Screen Ireland, the festival also highlighted contemporary Irish cinema, with ambassador Maeve Collins attending the opening and participating throughout the program.

Attendance at the Oldenburg Film Festival was up nearly 10 percent this year, with more than 13,000 visitors across the 4-day event, which wrapped on Sunday.