Cinema Without Borders jury announced the winners of the Bridging The Borders Award for 2025 Lucas International Film Festival for Young Film Lovers in Germany. GIRLS DON’T CRY a documentary film by Sigrid Klausmann and Lina Luzyte wins 2025 Bridging The Borders Award and our Honorary Mention goes to the OLIVIA AND THE INVISIBLE EARTHQUAKE Directed by Irene Iborra Rizo. Bridging the Borders Award is offered by Cinema Without Borders Foundation and sponsored by 360 MEDIA Consulting
Kelly Barger, one of the jury members announced the winner of Bridging the Borders Award and also the Honorary Mention in a video message that was played in the award ceremony of the festival:
Born in Furtwangen in the Black Forest, grew up as the third of seven children, as she says herself, in a childhood home which was materially poor, but tolerant and full of joy. This childhood, she says, has been the cornerstone for her activities as an adult and her great interest for art and children. At first she worked as a sport and physical education teacher, was a modern dance teacher and choreographed and staged e.g. full-length plays such as „Die Räuber von Kardemomme” (The Robbers of Kardemomme), „Der überaus starke Willibald” (The Extremely Strong Willibald), „Freiheit” (Freedom), „Countdown der Gefühle” (Countdown of the Feelings) and „Unterwegs” (On the Road) – a project with 19 children and 19 suitcases.Cinema Without Borders presents its Bridging The Borders Award, sponsored by 360 MEDIA Consulting, for the 5th time at LUCAS International Festival for Young Film Lovers. The jury members include:
Keely Badger is the Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of 360 MEDIA Consulting; a woman-owned, woman-led digital marketing agency for storytellers, changemakers, and brands working on the frontlines of social impact and innovation. Her high-performance multimedia campaigns have attracted influential clients such as The Sundance Institute, The Redford Center, Human Rights Watch, KPJR Films, and over 50 award-winning indie films.
Developing a love for the transformative potential of documentary film to bridge communities and awaken critical consciousness, Keely has worked in the public and private sector over the past 15 years, using social impact cinema as a tool to inspire audiences to meaningful action. With a background in helping produce, brand and market films by providing strategic audience engagement models, impactful multimedia campaigns and community partnership-building, Keely has successfully helped independent filmmakers galvanize social change in both grassroots and international arenas.
360 MEDIA is proud to serve as a presenting sponsor of the 2024 Bridging The Borders Award.
Rodrigo Garcia – Born in Colombia and raised in Mexico City, Rodrigo Garcia is a celebrated WGA Award-winning screenwriter, Emmy-nominated director, Golden Globe-nominated producer, and author. A consistent figure in independent film for over 20 years, Rodrigo has directed the multiple Academy Award-nominated film Albert Nobbs, starring Glenn Close, Mother and Child, starring Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, and Samuel L. Jackson, Apple TV+’s Raymond & Ray, starring Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor, Nine Lives, and most recently Netflix’s Familia, starring Daniel Giménez Cacho and Maribel Verdú. Garcia has also written and directed several films which have attracted critical acclaim, such as his first, Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, which won the Un Certain Regard Award at Cannes Film Festival in 2000, and his sophomore film, Nine Lives, for which he received Independent Spirit Award nominations for both directing and screenwriting in 2006. Last Days in the Desert, starring Ewan McGregor, and Four Good Days, starring Glenn Close and Mila Kunis, each earned Sundance premieres in 2015 and 2020, respectively.
In addition to his distinguished career in film, Garcia has worked on several television shows including The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Affair, and Big Love, for which he directed the pilot episode and was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. In 2008, he developed, showran, and directed HBO’s American adaptation of In Treatment, which earned him a WGA Award, an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, and an AFI Award for TV Program of the Year in 2009. In 2022, Garcia directed, and executive produced two limited series: News of a Kidnapping, an adaptation of his father Gabriel García Márquez’s book, for Amazon Prime Video, and Santa Evitafor Star+/Hulu. In 2024, he and his brother, Gonzalo García Barcha, executive produced the on-screen adaptation of their father’s best-selling and Nobel Prize-winning novel One Hundred Years of Solitude for Netflix, which was met with praise for its faithful rendering of the beloved novel. His memoir, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son’s Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha, was published in July 2021 by HarperCollin’s HarperVia and was an Autobiography finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards.
Chale Nafus was born in Dallas during World War II, he attended public schools, spent summers on his sister’s ranch in Comanche County in the 1950s, learned Spanish from schoolmates, and dreamed of getting out of Dallas. After getting through freshman year at SMU, he worked at Texas Instruments before realizing he really needed a college education. After attending the University of Texas at Arlington (B.A., English), La Universidad Autónoma de México, and UT Austin (M.A., English/RTF), he began a long college teaching career at Texas Southmost College (Brownsville), La Universidad de Puerto Rico at Mayaguez, Borough of Manhattan Community College, Kingsborough Community College (Brooklyn), and finally Austin Community College (1973-1998). At the latter, he founded the Department of Radio-TV-Film, taught classes in film studies, and for seven years served as Chair of Humanities (Northridge Campus). Retiring in 1998, Chale spent 4 years traveling and writing before joining the staff of Austin Film Society as Director of Programming (2002-2015). He is now totally retired and happily serving on the boards of Austin Film Society and OUTsider Fest as well as the advisory committees of IndieMeme (South Asian film organization) and Cine Las Americas.
Shirin Sohani, is an Iranian animation artist and an Academy Award winner. Shirin Sohani was born on September 8, 1986 in Tehran, Iran and after completing an M.A. in animation directing (Tehran University of Art) she started her professional career in 2012 and has worked as a Concept artist, Background artist, Script writer & Production manager.
“In the Shadow of the Cypress” (2023) co-directed with Hossein Molayemi received the 97th Academy Award for Best Animated Short film. Her graduation animated film, “The Fan” (2014) won both national & international awards.
Bijan Tehrani founder and Editor in Chief of Cinema Without Borders (CWB) online- publication and Cinema Without Borders Foundation is an award-winning author of children’s books and short films. Tehrani has been a passionate advocate of human rights, which he has actively pursued as a filmmaker, historian, and -critic over the past five decades.
Bijan Tehrani has organized a numerus cultural events dealing with international cinema and social justice. The ongoing ELAC International Animation Day is an annual festival showcasing international animation and I, Immigrant International On-line Film Festival portrays the positive impact of immigrants in their new societies. Bijan is also the creator of the Bridging the Borders Award that is offered in ten international film festival in US, UK, and Australia. Bridging the Borders Award goes to the films that help bring people of the world closer together. Bijan Tehrani has won several awards and has been recognized by several film festivals and cultural institutes as Ambassador of International Cinema because of his services to the world film community through 15 years of publishing Cinema Without Borders.
Terry George, Academy winner and director of Hotel Rwanda, had this to say on the 10th anniversary of CWB:” At a time when media consolidation is threatening diverse and unique voices, Cinema Without Borders provides a forum for underrepresented perspectives and stories. Now more than ever, we need to reach across cultural, political, and national lines. Cinema Without Borders is part of this critical work.”
Abbas Yari is an Iranian journalist and film critic born in Arak in 1951. He graduated from the School of Television and Cinema in 1975. Yari began his journalism career at Sobh e Emrouz, Tehran Mosavvar, and Kayhan, before co-founding Film magazine, which he directed until 2021. He launched Film Emrooz in 2021 after Massoud Mehrabi’s passing. Mr. Yari currently is Editor in Chief of Cinemaye Bedoon Marz a new Iranian online film publication. Yari also helped establish the Iranian cinema museum in Tehran and the foundation of art critics and writers about Iranian cinema. He is also notable for organizing cultural events in Arak.
Hammad Zaidi founded The Lonely Seal Company Group , Lonely Seal Releasing and The Lonely Seal International Film, Screenplay, and Music Festival. Lonely Seal Streaming is launching in 2024. Zaidi also founded Hourglass24 . In addition, Hammad is an early investor/co- owner of Designware.io . Most recently, he accepted a position to serve on the Board of Directors of Cinema Without Borders.
Zaidi is an award-winning creator. He is a member of The Producers Guild of America, and he served as a member of the Video Game Caucus for the Writers Guild of America.
Hammad has produced and written filmed content; executive produced 29 video games, 200 plus episodes of Limping On Cloud 9 , a podcast, and 300+ articles on Going Bionic , his film distribution and career strategy column.
Zaidi has been a jury member, filmmaker advisor, curator, panelist, advisory board member, and world cinema screener at several major film festivals, such as Sundance, SXSW, Slamdance, and many more. Hammad has served as an adjunct professor, guest lecturer, and panelist at several universities, including but not limited to his alma mater UCLA, USC, Vanderbilt, Chapman, Avila, The Watkins Film School (acquired by Belmont University), San Diego State, The University of Kansas, The University of Missouri, and numerous others. Hammad Zaidi received his Master of Fine Arts from the UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television in 1994.
Nominees for Bridging the Borders Award were: GIRLS DON’T CRY, HOW DARE YOU?, OLIVIA AND THE INVISIBLE EARTHQUAKE, SLACKERS, WILD FOXES, LIVE A LITTLE, I SHALL SEE, and READY OR NOT.
Winner of Bridging the Borders Award:
GIRLS DON’T CRY a documentary film by Sigrid Klausmann and Lina Luzyte (co-directors) follows girls around the world in their everyday lives. An encouraging, inspiring film that conveys the message of empowerment to the big screen in the best possible way.
What does it mean to be a girl? And what connects girls worldwide? GIRLS DON’T CRY seeks answers to these questions. Nancy, Nina, Sheelan, Sinai, Selenna and Paige live in different countries under very different conditions. So Sheelan fled with her family from Iran and starts a new life in Germany. Nancy lives in a shelter in Tanzania to defend her right to her own body. Sinai struggles with ideals of beauty and the pressure to perform in South Korea. Six stories about courage, self-determination and the fight against discrimination – and about the search for one’s own place in the world. An episodic documentary for all identities. (SoS)
CWB’s Honorable Mention:
OLIVIA AND THE INVISIBLE EARTHQUAKE
Irene Iborra Rizo, director of OLIVIA AND THE INVISIBLE EARTHQUAKE is a film director, screenwriter and stop-motion animator from Spain. Her award-winning films combine poetic imagery with social commitment. Her latest film is based on the novel “The Film of Life” by Maite Carranza, Irene’s co-screenwriter. “We all have a superpower: the choice of how we react to life,” says the director.
We can’t always control what happens to us, but we can control how we deal with it.
When the police turn up at the door, everything changes for twelve-year-old Olivia, her little brother Tim and their mother: they are suddenly thrown out of their apartment. To protect Tim from the harsh reality, Olivia passes the situation off as a movie shoot with him in the lead role. In the new neighborhood, the mother falls into deep mourning and Olivia suddenly has to take responsibility. The stop-motion film, animated from plasticine, sensitively captures both sad and light-hearted moments. A touching story about poverty, emotional crises and the courage to be there for each other – and a strong plea for solidarity and hope in difficult times. (LGR)
