Tiger Short Competition winners 2026
Earlier tonight (Monday 2 February), the winners of the Tiger Short Competition and KNF Award were announced during a ceremony held at WORM’s Central Station. The jury also selected the nominee for the European Short Film Award.
From the 22 titles in the Tiger Short Competition at IFFR 2026 The Second Skin (USA, Mexico) by Mariia Lapidus, The Apple Doesn’t Fall… (China) by Dean Wei and Ndjimu (Deep Cobalt) (Democratic Republic of the Congo, USA) by Petna Ndaliko Katondolo have been selected to receive Tiger Short Awards, with each prize worth €5,000. Additionally, CUL-DE-SAC ! (Belgium, France) by Clyde Gates and Gabriel Sanson was selected to compete for the next European Short Film Award, with a jury from the KNF (Circle of Dutch Film Journalists) awarding the KNF Award to The Apple Doesn’t Fall… (China) by Dean Wei.
The Tiger Short Competition 2026 Jury featured Sammy Baloji, who won the Special Jury Prize in the Tiger Competition IFFR 2025 for L’arbre de l’authenticité; visual artist Anka Gujabidze, whose first film Temo Re received the Tiger Short Award and KNF Award at IFFR 2025; and Jukka-Pekka Laakso, the Festival director of Tampere Film Festival since 2002.
The jury on The Second Skin: “This is a film that truly succeeds, in its relentless and uncompromising way, in leading the viewer to the reality of womanhood, experiencing the hellish acts of violence and rape.”
The jury on The Apple Doesn’t Fall…:“The film has a truly cinematic quality that naturally blends and uses different forms of storytelling, creatively and without words emphasising the social constraints that are imposed on us, leading to performative lives that are full of boredom and misunderstanding.”
The jury on Ndjimu (Deep Cobalt): “This is a film about invisible people, literally people hidden underground. People who produce materials that our affluent world runs on. Amazing images from the mines in Katanga show something we know, but perhaps understand now a bit better.”
European Short Film Award 2026 nomination
IFFR is one of a series of film festivals throughout Europe that submits a candidate for the short film category of the European Film Awards. The jury nominated CUL-DE-SAC ! directed by Clyde Gates and Gabriel Sanson for the European Short Film Award.
The jury on CUL-DE-SAC ! : “This is a film with a remarkable cinematographic quality; economical storytelling, not without humour or metaphor; and criticism of the system.”
KNF Award 2026
A jury from the Kring van Nederlandse Filmjournalisten (Circle of Dutch Film Journalists), consisting of Fritz de Jong, Navid Nikkhah-Azad and Timna Rauch, selected The Apple Doesn’t Fall…by Dean Wei.
The KNF jury on The Apple Doesn’t Fall…: “This film was most exemplary for what a great short film could be. It cleverly plays with both the abstract and the narrative, the theatrical and the cinematic. It conveys a strong message, comments on society, politics and perhaps even film itself. And it made very economical use of time: It elaborated just enough to surprise us, it never felt rushed and in under twenty minutes this film made us think, wonder, doubt and made us laugh.”
