DVB Peacock Film Festival/ Awards

International Jury Decision:

The DVB Peacock Film Festival is honored to announce the official results as decided by the International Jury, composed of distinguished film professionals from across the region and the world:

·         Brenda Danker, Co-founder, Freedom Film Network

·         Chalida Uabumrungjit, Co-founder & Festival Director, Thai Short Film & Video Festival

·         Isabel Arrate Fernandez, Artistic Director, IDFA

·         Rada Šešić, Film curator and director; Head of Documentary Competition, Sarajevo Film Festival

·         Tue Steen Müller, Documentary consultant and film educator

After careful consideration of all films in competition, the International Jury presents the following awards:

Special Mention – DCDC Category:  Melody of Hope

Directed by: Haki

Jury Statement: 

In Melody of Hope, we follow refugee children who pursue their dream of becoming musicians at the secluded Htel Phoe Music School—using music as their weapon for freedom under the constant threat of airstrikes. This visit to a music school hidden deep in the forest reveals both vulnerability and astonishing resilience. A teacher instructs the children, gently reminding them of what could happen if they are discovered. The film is filled with joy, infused with resistance songs, and charged with the quiet bravery of those who create beauty in the face of terror. 

For this moving portrayal, the jury awards a SPECIAL MENTION to Melody of Hope.

Special Mention – CJ Category: Star

Directed by: Ugly Crow

Jury Statement:

In Star, we witness lecturer Daw Radi Ong, who joins the Civil Disobedience Movement. The film closely follows her life in Kalay, including the emotionally complex story of her student who has joined the revolution. Citizen journalists are skillfully choosing urgent topics and, with remarkable access, telling stories that matter. Here, the filmmaker offers an engaging visual narrative that reveals a protagonist who openly shares her doubts, weaknesses, and fragility, yet whose actions radiate deep love and care for others. The delicate approach to character results in an in-depth, rounded portrayal that transcends its context to become a universal human story of resistance.

The jury is pleased to award a SPECIAL MENTION to Star by Ugly Crow.

⭐ BEST FILM – International Jury Award ⭐  Fragment of Witness

Directed by: Kha Baung

Jury Statement:

In Fragment of Witness, a filmmaker walks through a devastated landscape after the eartquake, filming remnants of homes and searching for a place that no longer exists. This poetic journey expresses a profound longing for a better world that cannot be found today. The film impressed the jury with its cinematic precision—from a carefully crafted visual approach to effective sound design and a deeply relevant thematic core. It is a contemplative reflection on destruction, displacement, and the fragile traces of memory left behind. Through precise camerawork and a powerful voice-over text, the film becomes an essayistic meditation on what it means to document ruins only days after an earthquake.

For its artistic strength, emotional depth, and conceptual clarity, the BEST FILM award goes to Fragment of Witness by Kha Baung.

Congratulations to all filmmakers!

Your courage, creativity, and commitment to truth-telling illuminate stories the world needs to hear.

Del din kærlighed
Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

Artikler: 4059