The British Shorts Jury Award 2024 goes to White Ant by Shalini Adnani

We are thrilled to award a film that is a bold and delightful original. A playful, unique and yet global story about the relation between humankind and nature, about kinship and solitude, about leaving and returning.

Using elements of magical realism, this film confidently leaves details out to focus on the essence, creating time and space to experience. All elements intertwine artfully and unpretentiously to serve the story, creating a world that is captivating all the way down from every character and their magnificent performance to every creative department such as editing, sound, script, camera and lights. The supporting characters are narrated in a complex and yet tenderly way, allowing you to directly empathize with them.

The film not only deals with issues of urban-rural divide, the ecological crisis and power relations within contemporary Indian society, but ultimately with the question of what it means to lose or find one’s home. While our protagonist can afford to capitulate to the termites that are devouring his family home, the farmers seem to have no choice but to find solutions that could secure their livelihood. Ease and humor allow the filmmakers to create a truthful portrayal of social inequalities.

From the pacing to the use of sound, from framing to the script, WHITE ANT is a gem of a film which clearly establishes Shalini Adnani as an exciting new directorial voice, who uses the genre of the short film in an elegant and eloquent artistic way. We are very much looking forward to the director's upcoming projects.

The festival jury 2024
Florian Opitz (director, writer, journalist)
Evelyn Rack (film editor, media artist)
Zara Zandieh (director, filmmaker)