Female Gaze – CineOne & sPOTTlight National Award for Best Female Director of Photography in a Documentary

Jury’s statement (Greta Isabella Conte, Eva Maschke, Gisela Tuchtenhagen)

With Where the Waves Took Her, Sophia Fenn delivers outstanding cinematography that approaches a deeply complex subject with sensitivity and clear purpose. Her camera stays close to the action without ever becoming intrusive, moving confidently between observational documentary and poetic visual storytelling.
Her deliberate use of long exposures and blurred images during the actual sea rescue operations is especially striking. This formal choice preserves the anonymity of those being rescued, softens the brutality of the situation and transforms the emotional impact into a visual language that leaves space for the audience’s own reflections.
Fenn’s feel for intimacy and dignity is equally evident in the interviews with three refugee women. Filmed in an unusual, protected setting, a focused visual environment emerges in which the camera listens rather than explains. The calm, restrained style gives the women’s voices weight and presence without exposing them.
By consistently juxtaposing the sea as a place of longing and as a site of existential threat, Sophia Fenn constructs a visual narrative that conveys conviction and resonates long after viewing. It is for this courageous, thoughtful and deeply humane cinematography that this award goes to Where the Waves Took Her.

Guest: Sophia Fenn