15 November, 2022
For the 9th consecutive year, DokuFest was delighted to host the Young Audience Award (YAA) event for Kosovo. The Young Audience Award, an official category of the European Film Awards, is dedicated exclusively to the "audience of the future", or more precisely to the age group of 12-14 year-olds.
Three films – two feature and one documentary – were selected by the European Film Academy and for the first time by a film jury composed of five 13 to 14-year-olds former YAA participants, including our very own Riana Gashi from Kosovo. The nominated films that the young juries watched were: ‘Animal’ by Cyril Dion (France 2021, 105'), ‘Comedy Queen’ by Sanna Lenken (Sweden 2022, 93'), ‘Dreams Are Like Wild Tigers’ by Lars Montag (Germany 2021, 95').
This year DokuFest organized the event in a hybrid format, holding both physical and online discussions for the nominated films. For the online event, students aged 12-14 years from all over Kosovo watched the three films in advance and then held an open conversation with their peers, led by the DokuFest team. The physical event was held at DokuKino, on November 13, welcoming 70 students from ‘Mati Logoreci’ and ‘Loyola Gymnasium’ middle-school, both schools from the municipality of Prizren. The screenings were each followed by a Q&A session with the students, led by the DokuFest team.
At the end of the day the young juries all around Europe, cast their votes and the Young Audience Award announced that ‘Animal’ by Cyril Dion is the winner of the 2022 Young Audience Award. The winning film follows the story, of two teenagers who embark on an extraordinary quest: to find another way of living alongside other species, more as roommates than predators.
At the end of the day, the juries were provided with ‘Certificates of Honor’ for their participation.