International Feature Film Competition

Home Fest 2021 Programme International Feature Film Competition

The Dortmund Feature Film Competition features some of the best films from around the world. It showcases the latest productions from highly-renowned women directors. Notable grandes dames of the film industry such as Agnieszka Holland, Andrea Arnold and Sally Potter line up against younger stars such as Maren Ade, Athina Rachel Tsangari and Teona Strugar Mitevska.

Dortmund will host the award for best feature film woman director for the ninth time this year. Eight new international feature films will compete for the winning prize of €15,000. The prize money is split between the director (€5,000) and the German distributor (€10,000) to promote distribution of the films in Germany.
The prize will be awarded by the international jury at the special award ceremony.

20 June 2021: The International Feature Film Award 2021 went to Quo Vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić. farbfilm distribution will release the film in German cinemas on August 5, 2021.

>>Statement by Jasmila Žbanić

Curators:

Sonja Hofmann

Stefanie Görtz

Awardees
2021: Jasmila Žbanić mit Quo Vadis, Aida? (BA/AT/RO/DE/NL/PL/FR/NO 2020)
2019: Teona Strugar Mitevska for God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya (MK/BE/SI/HR/FR 2019)
2017: Delphine and Muriel Coulin for Voir Du Pays (FR 2016)
2015: Naomi Kawase for Still The Water (JP/ES/FR 2014)
2013: Małgorzata Szumowska for In The Name Of… (PL 2012)
2011: Athina Rachel Tsangari for Attenberg (GR 2010)
2009: Maren Ade for Everyone Else (DE 2009)
2007: Andrea Arnold for Red Road (UK 2006)
2005: Keren Yedaya for Or (My Treasure) (IL 2004)

Jury

Elma Tataragić

Born 1976 in Sarajevo. Tataragić is a screenwriter, director, producer and film curator. She has a PhD in film and literature. Her extensive filmography includes the multi-award winning feature films Snow (screenplay, production) and God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya screenplay), which won the IFFF Dortmund+Köln main award in 2019. Tataragić has worked for the Sarajevo Film Festival since 1995, and is now curator for its Competition programme. She is President of the Association of Filmmakers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and also its European Film Promotion (EFP) representative. She has been teaching screenwriting at Sarajevo Academy of Performing Arts since 2002, now as a professor and vice dean coordinator for international cooperation. She is currently working on three feature films as well as a short film.

Marga Almirall Rotés

Marga Almirall Rotés holds a Bachelor in audiovisual communication and a postgraduate diploma in audiovisual editing, and has further training in film theory and criticism. Since 2015, she has been the co-director of content for Drac Màgic, where she develops film literacy projects (Construir Mirades), is co-responsible for the content of children’s film distributor Pack Màgic and programmer for the Barcelona International Women’s Film Festival (Mostra Internacional de Films de Dones de Barcelona).

Monika Treut

Monika Treut has been working in the medium of film for more than 30 years. Her works span all formats, from documentary and experimental films to feature films. She founded her own production company Hyena Films together with Elfi Mikesch in 1984. In the same year, she completed her doctorate at the Philipps University of Marburg with her dissertation The cruel woman. The image of women in de Sade and Sacher-Masoch. Treut has won numerous awards for her work. These include the Special TEDDY Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlinale in 2017 and an honorary award at the TLVFest (Tel Aviv International LGBT Festival) in the same year. Alongside her work as a film-maker, Treut teaches at numerous academic institutions, especially in the US.