‘Variations on Violence’ Wins Best Film at Oldenburg

Zachary Nichols’ Variations on Violence won the German Independence Award for Best Film at this year’s Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie film festival. The film follows a military drone operator whose remote-controlled violence follows him home, along with his sister Mary, who is caught in a cycle of unstable relationships as Johnny’s grip on reality deteriorates. Nichols originally developed the project as an art installation before expanding it into a feature. Boris Mojsovski’s Foreign Tongue received the Spirit of Cinema Award, which is determined by festival audience vote. The Canadian film, in its German premiere, stars Steve Byers, Cynthia Aspherger and Greg Bryk. It centers on Kathy (Kim Sue Murray) a single woman who falls into a coma after a fall at a speed-dating event and wakes up speaking with a Bosnian accent — a change that alters how she is perceived and treated, and that connects her with a hospital cleaner who introduces her to a new social world. Marjorie Conrad’s The Joyless Economy won the German Independence Award for Originality, Daring and Audacity. The 58-minute film is built from the video collection of an unnamed woman and follows her sexual history and infidelities in a split-screen structure, pairing her cinematic tastes, particularly her growing porn obession, on one side of the frame with her life story on the other. The Oldenburg jury called the film “hypnotic and ethically complex.” The Joyless Economy premiered in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight section. Matthew Osubor’s Big Daddy’s Flowers received the Hans Ohlms Award for Best Debut Film. The jury noted the film, which had its world premiere at Oldenburg, was made without a budget and praised the resourcefulness that constraint produced, comparing its tone to the irreverence of 1990s comedies. Osubor, who also stars, made the film under the mentorship of 90s indie film stalwart Alexandre Rockwell (In the Soup) follows an ambitious flower-delivery driver (Osubor) who gets drawn into the orbit of a powerful local figure called Big Daddy. Matthew Osubor in Big Daddy’s Flowers. Courtesy of the Oldenburg Film Festival The Seymour Cassel Award for acting went to Frank Mosley for Jackrabbit and Gia Crovatin for Murderous. Mosley was recognized for his role as T.A. Diamond in Jared Hogan’s film, set in 1930s Utah, about a miner disabled in an accident who leaves his family under false pretenses with a hidden revolver. The jury called the performance non-performative, saying it reflected honesty and authenticity within a bleak setting while retaining the character’s humanity and humor. Crovatin was honored for her role as Marian, a filmmaker accused of creative theft by a former classmate, in Neil LaBute’s Murderous, a psychological thriller LaBute has said drew on Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s Sleuth and Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope and Dial M for Murder. The jury noted the difficulty of embodying dialogue-driven material and called the performance an achievement within that tradition. The 107-minute film, co-starring Thomas Sodaski and Jordan Baker, had its world premiere at the Globe Oldenburg. Gia Crovatin in Murderous. Courtesy of the Oldenburg Film Festival Michele Leonardi’s White Whiter Whitest Black won the German Independence Award for Best Short Film. The jury praised the 15-minute film’s restraint, saying it trusted its audience without over-explaining, and described it as addressing themes of innocence and guilt through a betrayal the jury called difficult to reconcile morally, handled with simplicity. This year’s retrospective was dedicated to LaBute, who attended alongside Crovatin. The festival screened LaBute’s In the Company of Men (1997), Your Friends & Neighbors, Nurse Betty (2000), Some Velvet Morning (2013) and House of Darkness (2022) in conjunction with the retrospective. Stunt performer Zoe Bell received a tribute in recognition of more than three decades of work in the field; the festival screened Double Dare (2004), Death Proof (2007), Angel of Death (2009) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) as part of the program.