8 November 2026 | By Molly Lipson | SPONSORED CONTENT
Moving Images – Open Borders (MIOB) is a European network of six film festivals dedicated to promoting European cinema in all its diversity, fostering cross-border dialogue and supporting emerging filmmakers. Its members are:
Crossing Europe Film Festival Linz (Austria)
FilmFestival Cottbus (Germany)
European Film Festival Palić (Serbia)
Les Arcs Film Festival (France)
European Film Forum Scanorama (Lithuania)
Trieste Film Festival (Italy)
This year’s annual MIOB In Shorts Award, worth €1,000, was awarded to Marnie Blok for her short film Beyond Silence and was announced last night at the FilmFestival Cottbus Awards Ceremony in Germany. Beyond Silence featured as one of twelve films shortlisted by the MIOB member festivals that competed online for public vote between 1st Sept-15th Oct on the This Is Short streaming platform.
Having previously screened at Tribeca Film Festival and Palm Springs International ShortFest in 2025, Beyond Silence received the most audience votes. The film follows d/Deaf PhD student Eva and her sister and interpreter Anna as they meet programme director Sandrien to report a professor's sexual abuse. When Sandrien refers Eva to a male counsellor, she refuses. Confronted with institutional defensiveness and resistance, Eva finds the strength to persist and demand that her voice be heard.
“Silence may feel safe at first. But in choosing it, we rob ourselves of something fundamental, our voice, and with that, a very basic human right: to be heard and to participate,” says Blok. “Beyond Silence holds space for those who've been silenced. By championing our film, [MIOB has] expanded that space [and] amplified voices that need to be heard.”
Merlin Bodenstedt, Head of Programme Coordination at FilmFestival Cottbus, says:” With the MIOB In Shorts Award, we want to contribute to one of our network’s goals and give a platform to recent European cinema by bringing together various cinematic voices, perspectives and stories, offering a glimpse into the diversity of European filmmaking. What makes MIOB in Shorts exciting is that short films allow us to showcase a wide range not only of these perspectives, but also of different styles, from more classic approaches to experimental forms, with short films often pushing the boundaries of storytelling. By letting the audience vote for the winning film, we try not only to bring together the films and stories, but also to connect audiences across borders.”
