The prizes for this year’s Filmfestival Münster were awarded at the Schloßtheater on 27 September. The Irish coming-of-age drama Christy by director Brendan Canty won the 5,000 euro prize for best director in the European feature film competition for debut films. Leading actor Diarmuid Noyes accepted the prize on behalf of the winner.
The short film Eigentlich wollte ich nicht lange bleiben by filmmaker Andreas Grützner was awarded the Filmwerkstatt Grand Prize in the European short film competition, which is endowed with 3,000 euros. The jury also awarded an Honourable Mention to Ultraviolet by Veerle De Wilde. The Audience Award, endowed with 1,000 euros and donated by Münstersche Filmtheater-Betriebe, went to Skin on Skin by Simon Schneckenburger.
In the Westfalen Connection category, which features films from the region, Viel Nebel im November by Anna Lena Höhne received the prize for the best film over 30 minutes, endowed with 1,500 euros and donated by the Westfalen-Initiative Foundation. The prize for the best film up to 30 minutes, endowed with 1,000 euros and also donated by the Westfalen-Initiative Foundation, went to How to kill your family by Dominic Wittrin. The jury also awarded an Honourable Mention to The Potter – Vessels of Exploration by Florian Ropers.
For ten days, the festival celebrated European film and delighted audiences with a varied programme at the Schloßtheater Münster. “Many sold-out screenings, full auditoriums and an audience that followed the films with enthusiasm and curiosity reflect the positive response to the festival. We were particularly pleased with how strongly students and first-time visitors characterised the atmosphere,” summarises Risna Olthuis, who runs the festival together with Carsten Happe.
“With more than 100 filmmakers attending and presenting their films in person, the festival underlines its role as an important platform for encounters and dialogue,” adds festival director Carsten Happe. “Especially in times of global crises and social challenges, the art of film allows us to broaden our horizons and create moments of connection.”
Industry days, pitching events, panel discussions and the masterclass with filmmaker Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay and Claus Herzog-Reichel flanked the festival and offered young filmmakers in Westphalia valuable impulses and new experiences.
The Filmfestival Münster returns in autumn 2027. Next year, the fourth edition of the LITFILMS Literatur Film Festival Münster will take place from 18-27 September.
This year’s prizes were awarded by three juries:
European First Feature Film Competition (prize for best director endowed with 5,000 euros):
Christy by Brendan Canty
Jury statement Director and actor Erol Afşin, director and screenwriter Christina Ebelt and producer Eurydice Gysel:
“Brendan Canty’s feature film debut Christy is told with great authenticity and hope and deals with themes such as origin, belonging, anger and vulnerability. The film impresses with its deep trust in the characters and a cinematic language that creates closeness. The two brothers Christy and Shane are caught between anger and loyalty – their acting is outstanding and certainly also the result of a direction that leaves space and creates trust. We were impressed by the acting, the humour, the camerawork – by the raw honest power of the film. This is thanks to a director who puts people at the centre. Canty achieves the rare feat of creating a deeply realistic film that is also a powerful plea for empathy, second chances and family bonds. We hope that this award will encourage the director to make many more films!”
European Short Film Competition (Grand Prize of the Filmwerkstatt, endowed with 3,000 euros):
Eigentlich wollte ich nicht lange bleiben by Andreas Grützner
Jury Statement Actor Jonathan Berlin, writer and director Alina Cyranek and director Frederic Kau:
“Over the past few days, we have been able to watch 36 short films whose diversity has inspired and stimulated us. Once again, this competition made it clear how important artistic voices that are looking for new forms are right now. Both aesthetically and politically. Our thanks and congratulations to all the filmmakers who have dared to break away from convention. We have decided to honour two films that we hope will receive special attention.
The film that we have selected for the Filmwerkstatt Grand Prize achieves something very unusual: namely, to sharpen our emphatic gaze, to connect historical periods in an undidactic way and to provoke thoughts that make us question our relationship to our own past. In doing so, the director chooses an extremely personal starting point and moves deep into the abysses of Germany’s past in very self-sufficient, documentary images – namely the treatment of people in sanatoriums and nursing homes. From the 1930s, through the 1970s to the present day. The direct and yet extremely gentle look at the people portrayed in combination with a voice-over by the director, who questions his own family history – all this makes this film a harrowing and inspiring plea for inclusion and empathy in social interaction. A film that comes at exactly the right time and should be seen by many. The grand prize of the Filmwerkstatt of the Münster 2025 film festival goes to Eigentlich wollte ich nicht lange bleiben by Andreas Grützner.”
Honourable mention:
Ultraviolet by Veerle De Wilde
“We would also like to give an honourable mention. To a very affectionate and delicately woven film that interweaves the genre of coming of age with a story of letting go and thus juxtaposes the youthful departure with a farewell. We were very touched by the unpretentious but all the more precise sensitivity with which the film follows its characters, constantly searching for nuances and pleasantly questioning the classic gender roles of teenagers. The sensitive image design manages to capture the fragility of this summer and lend a special feel to the development of the story. The material has all the elements that might be expected of a debut film. An honourable mention goes to Utraviolet by Veerle De Wilde.”
Westfalen Connection (prize for the best film over 30 minutes, sponsored by the Westfalen-Initiative Foundation and endowed with 1,500 euros):
Viel Nebel im November by Anna Lena Höhne
Jury statement Film mediator Sophie Charlotte Erichsen, producer Lotte Ruf and head of the Münsterland cultural office Andre Sebastian:
“The film deals with a moving subject: in order to keep the family farm going while the father is in a coma, the protagonist works with determination and dedication, which is clearly visible to the audience. Shot in Münsterland, the film shows family cohesion, but also the challenges that come with running a farm.”
Westfalen Connection (prize for the best film under 30 minutes, donated by the Westfalen-Initiative Foundation, endowed with 1,000 euros):
How to kill your family by Dominic Wittrin
“The film succeeds in telling a difficult and emotional story with humour and lightness – without cringe and far from pathos. The protagonist carries the audience along with her trenchant performance, which is both touching and hilarious. With subtle situation comedy, the film manages to get to the heart of the art of comedy in a very short space of time. A film that makes us feel and almost makes us look forward to Christmas.”
Honourable mention:
The Potter – Vessels of Exploration by Florian Ropers
“It is a film about the art of pottery—and at the same time, without ever saying so, it also seems to tell us something about filmmaking. This poetic documentary accompanies its protagonist from the initial idea to the finished work. With poetic images and a restrained narrative style, the film invites us on a special journey that allows us to experience the dedication involved in every single step. Watching it, you immediately want to reach for the potter’s wheel yourself or hold one of these unique pieces in your hands. And when it says at the end that a work is only truly complete when it finds someone to use it, we also understand: films are only complete when we experience them together in the cinema.”
