Last weekend was the biannual ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin, the world’s largest and most prestigious poetry-film event. Six prizes were awarded in all.

The International Jury, with filmmaker and journalist Jasmine Kainy, Dutch poet Erik Lindner and publisher of poetry film magazine Guido Naschert, awarded four prizes:

The “ZEBRA Prize for the Best Poetry Film”, donated by the Haus für Poesie, goes to Boy Saint by the Irish director Tom Speers (based on the poem of the same name by Peter LaBerge). “Boy Saint” sensitively tells the story of the confusing feelings of two adolescent boys who become aware of their budding sexuality.

The “Goethe Film Award”, donated by the Goethe-Institut, goes to Stad in die mis | City in the Mist. The elaborate animation from South Africa, based on the poem by the Afrikaans writer D.J. Opperman, tells the story of a man who experiences the city as an enemy animal.

The “Award for the Best Film for Tolerance”, donated by the Federal Foreign Office, goes to Anna Eijsbouts’ silhouette animation Hate for Sale based on the poem by Neil Gaiman. The film by the Dutch director and animator tells of a world in which people consume hatred and are consumed by it. Ayny – My Second Eye received a special mention, which tells of the strength of people who have lost their homes, their homeland and their fundamental rights. The film, which has already won a Student Oscar, is based on a tragic event that director and author Ahmad Saleh himself experienced ten years ago in a refugee camp.

The “Ritter Sport Filmpreis” in the German-language competition goes to Standard Time, a timeless, self-referential meditation on the power of communication that changes and sometimes falsifies – by Hanna Slak based on a poem by Daniela Seel.

Merle Radtke, the new director of the Kunsthalle Münster, the filmmaker Rainer Komers and the author Sabrina Janesch formed the jury for the NRW competition.

In the NRW competition, the film (No) We, I, Myself and Them? by Christin Bolewski, which impressively illustrates the poem “massacre” by Liao Yiwu with passing drawings, sketches and image sequences, impressed the jury. An old Chinese hand-written scroll of a cityscape “opens up” to documentary video footage taken on Tian’anmen Square in Beijing.

And finally, an enthusiastic young audience awarded the Zebrino Prize, donated by Filmwerkstatt Münster, to the American real film Scrappy by American filmmaker Dawn Westlake. She adapted a poem by her father Donald G. Westlake – which tells of a courageous little girl, a dog and stolen chickens.

For four days, the Schloßtheater offered the filmmakers, poets and viewers of the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin space for discoveries and encounters. The winning films and other entries from the competitions will be presented at the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival at the Kulturbrauerei cinema in Berlin from 6 to 8 December 2018. Next autumn, the Filmfestival Münster will again be presented at the Schloßtheater.

The festival is organized by Filmwerkstatt Münster in cooperation with Haus für Poesie, Berlin. It is supported by the Kunststiftung NRW, the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Münster.

Click through for photos, stills, and more.

The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival website has posted several announcements in English about the upcoming festival on the 27-30 September at Schloßtheater in Münster — though not, at the time of writing, the full programme yet. We’re told that 66 films were nominated from 1,200 entries to the five competitions, and that

Ten directors from eight countries followed the call to film this year’s festival poem “Endless wall-to-wall carpet (of the VIP foyer)” by Ann Cotten. Four of them will be shown at the festival in the presence of the filmmakers and the poet.

Also of note:

The focus of this year’s ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is on the USA. Selected poetry films from this year’s entries will present the current facets of the US film and poetry scene. Readings and performances complete the range of films at the festival cinema Schloßtheater in Münster, a scientific lecture on the Beat Generation provides exciting background knowledge.

What drove the early representatives of the beat generation to the medium of film?

How do international filmmakers take up the poems of the Beat Generation in their poetry films today? In her lecture “Beat & Picture: A flashback and flash forward to the poetic and cinematic activities of the Beat Generation”, the specialist in American studies Dr. Martina Pfeiler invites us to take a closer look at the cinematic and lyrical heritage of the Beat Generation. The 90-minute lecture followed by a discussion will take place on Sunday, 30.9. at 1:30 p.m. in the Schloßtheater in Münster.

The whole series of events sounds pretty unmissable.