A French Music Video Won the First Europumpeli

The Europumpeli award at the Oulu Music Video Festival was won by a French music video directed by Anouk Moyaux and Huiqin Li. The video was made for the song Lluvia de Ceniza by Glox Olia.

Jury statement:In this eerie work, sound and image are actively engaged in the act of haunting one another - and, as a result, all of us.  Using the scratch as AV texture, light as a horizon and narrative as the elegantly indirect vehicle by which it is uncovered, this ghostly black and white hand-processed 16mm music video joins seeing with hearing with feeling in a remarkably contemporary form.

Other awards:
KULTAPUMPELI
Ida-Maria Olva
Olva - Keijut ja perhoset

Who wouldn't want to be a sweet little critter in love? An invitation to a well-crafted world of its own that is not afraid to be cute, sensual and serene, and touches on a wide range of emotions. The narrative builds a feel-good fairy tale and a delicate love story that bridges from whimsy to modern reality with small strokes. The playful surface conceals a bold visual intelligence and formal daring.

TEINIPUMPELI
Seena Talvi
Turisti – Leipää

Inventive satire of gangster hip hop and action-movie conventions. While the video treats familiar tropes as material to be taken apart, it also crafts the glossy scenes with love and precision. The execution is flawless: an exceptional achievement in terms of production.

LINSSIPUMPELI
Annika Miettinen
Alma Alanko - Ilmaa

One room, fans and the singer — and out of that, an entire emotional universe. The cinematographer commands the space with absolute assurance, and every image earns its place

POSTPUMPELI 
Juha Ilmari Laine
Laura Hynninen – Lammella

The daring, hallucinatory video demonstrates a remarkably fluid command of post-production in various aspects across animation and striking composite images that blend the real and the enigmatic.

KANSANPUMPELI, PEOPLE'S FAVOURITE
Anna Eriksson

Stam1na – Käärmeennyrkki

HONORABLE MENTION
Sami Sanpäkkilä
Draamakuu - Pitti

Rare precision in both its black-and-white cinematography and narrative rhythm. Visual and emotional contradictions are handled with extraordinary confidence.

HONORABLE MENTION
Eino Manner
AB – Barcan paita

A delightful blend of narrative imagination, understated humour and matter-of-fact truthfulness. The storytelling here is bigger than it looks, and assured enough not to say so.

HONORABLE MENTION
Minna Långström
Ya Tosiba – If Separation Didn’t Exist 

An Arctic milieu expands into both microscopic and cosmic dimensions. Cleverly playing with scale and full of dark wit, with an abundance of themes that appear both tangible and humorously abstract.

HONORABLE MENTION
Atte Merikallio
Mirella – Vähän enemmän

An intriguing and energetic dreamscape with meticulous choreography of movement. The horror references are precise but so understated they almost slip past you, and they work all the better for it. Ambitious set design of a claustrophobic maze makes the video bigger than its budget.

HONORABLE MENTION (EURO)
Tina Frank
General Magic - Datna Éclat

Out of the diverse assembly of 14 European music videos that we watched and discussed and rewatched and discussed again, we chose to give an honorable mention to a decidedly pleasurable music video that takes the idea of music itself as subject – one in which rhythm equals edit, name equals content, and sound equals color.