WatchDocs Awards 2025/1

This year, 12 outstanding documentaries were competing for the DOCS Award. 🥇 The judges of the Main Competition were: Emi Buchwald, Niklas Engstrøm, Andrej Kuciła, Tue Steen Müller and Laura van Halsema.

🟠 “The jury of the Main Competition was impressed by the outstanding selection of films that took us to very different realities, viewed from multiple perspectives and told using a variety of visual languages.” First of all, we would like to thank all filmmakers and festivals for collecting their works and giving us the opportunity to watch and discuss together.

And while we agreed that there is something strange about comparing and classifying documentaries that represent a world in crisis on so many levels, we were unanimous in deciding which film to award the Best of Them.

“This film invites the viewer to a world rarely seen from the inside. With precision, care and without judgment, it shows the human faces of ideology and regime not usually associated with sensitivity or ambiguity. This is a movie that carefully composes each frame, and tells both what is in front of our eyes and what is left out. We have been transported to an unknown, sinister world in a subtle and moving way. The movie maker is completely in control of his material and shows outstanding cinematic talent in every frame and scene.”

🏆 The award for the best film in the Main Competition goes to the movie “Kabul. Warrior’s Prayer by Aboozar Amini

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.

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