Neurovision Film Contest
Can you show us the invisible?
For the second time, the NeuroVision Film Contest took place in parallel to the Bernstein Conference. We had asked neuroscientists and film students to express their ideas about neuroscience with the medium of film, to „show us the invisible“. The conditions for entering a film were simple: The films had to be 5min or shorter, they had to deal with a topic of neuroscience and the directors were not allowed to be media professionals.
We then received 6 submission which were screened in rotation at the Bernstein Conference. For three days the conference participants had the chance to enjoy a mix of short films all dealing with neuroscience, but each in its very distinct way. A jury composed of scientists as well as media professionals awarded two prizes: One for the greatest inforamtional value and one for the most creative handling of a neuroscientific topic. Also, the audience could cast their vote for the Audience Award.
The jury members were:
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Robin Greene (on3, BR)
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Markus Schulte von Drach (Süddeutsche Zeitung)
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Jenny von Sperber (BR)
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Florian Rau (TU Berlin, winner of last year's Award)
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Prof. Jan Benda (Uni Tübingen)
...and the winner is...
In the award session of the Bernstein Conference, the prizes were then awarded. Robin Greene, chair of the Award Jury, emphasized that it was very hard to agree on a winner as the jury had two clear favorites in both categories. Finally, the Jury Award for the most creative handling of a neuroscientific topic was given to the film „Phi“ by Guillaume Dumas and Luc Halard.
The jury motivated their decision as follows:
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the film is very well crafted, has an engaging story and is very well acted and photographed
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refers to many film classics of great movie directors, like Chris Marker, Daran Aronofski and even Ingmar Bergmann.
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although it sometimes gets dark and deals with a serious topic, it is still humorous.
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to the scientist in the audience it asks the straigth question, how can we combine the two souls in our chest: the nerd and the human.
The award for the film with the greatest informational value was given to "Vision impossible?“ by Anna Stöckl, a parody of the X-Files, in which Mulder and Scully were looking for supernatural creatures that can see at night and turned out to be moths.
The jury highlighted about this film:
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the film entertains while providing a detailed understanding of the scientific matter
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focuses on an interesting and complex phenomenon bringing it accross on a very understandable level
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in the end presents a stunning practical application.
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also this film dismisses the viewer with a profound question: can science really conceive the whole world around us?
The audience agreed with the jury in this respect, and so „Phi“ received most votes for the audience award. Overall, the film contest was very well approved by the congress participants. Many expressed their amusement from watching the movies and we hope to be able to present the neurovision film contest next year as well.
Until then, you can find the participating films here:
- „Phi“ by Guillaume Dumas and Luc Halard
- „Vision impossible?“ by Anna Stöckl
- Decisiones by Javier Martinez and Pablo Tain
- Binaural Beats by Felix Albrecht
- Functional Connectomics by Allen Chuang
The awards were sponsored by the Assign Group, the Innovations- und Gruenderzentrum Biotechnologie and the Elisabeth und Helmut Uhl Stiftung.
