The Jury Prize in the German Competition at the Hamburg Short Film Festival was awarded to HGB graduate Mahshid Mahboubifar for her film “The Muscles Are Tense”. Mahshid Mahboubifar successfully completed her diploma in the expanded cinema class under Prof. Clemens von Wedemeyer and Mareike Bernien in 2025. “The Muscles Are Tense” is a film essay compiled from archive footage of the 2024 Palestine protests in Berlin. The film celebrated its world premiere in February as part of the 2026 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
The jury’s statement reads:
“In the tradition of the political essay film, the work examines the manifestations of power. Through its depiction of the demonstrators’ bodies, its analysis of the technologies deployed by the police, and its masterful observation of the space, it transforms the materiality of the protest into a powerful cinematic engagement. At the same time, it is a meta-commentary and a testimony that captures the tensions and fears shaping this specific political moment, whilst offering a deeper insight into the history of state control. More than a film about protest, this work is itself a protest.”
The Jury Prize in the German Competition, worth 2,000 euros, was awarded by a three-member jury during the festival in Hamburg. The festival’s three competitions feature feature films, documentaries, hybrid formats, animations and 3D productions. The Hamburg Short Film Festival presents the state of the art in short-form filmmaking and operates at the intersection of cinema, exhibitions, performance art, concerts and discourse. As one of Europe’s most renowned and important short film festivals, it has screened around 350 films since 1985. Selected programmes bring to life the diversity of bold, experimental and artistic short films.