"We decided to split the award for two films which encompass the various roles of cinema: to explore, expand and stimulate the collective imagination - in poetry and in politics - two equally important facets of the human condition. With deceptive simplicity and profound depth, the film places us at the precipice of civilization, tracing a path from dinosaurs to Hiroshima. Using minimal elements and a repetitive structure that mirror the cycles of history, it suggests that we are trapped in a loop of forgetting and repeating. Assuming the gaze of the "little boy" - both the bomb and the child within - it listens to the past to warn about the future, exposing the failures and hypocrisies of American idealism. By revealing how war, memory, and identity are constructed through models, myths, and mechanisms, it distills historical trauma into a radically personal and politically charged gesture, perfectly embodying the singular and rebellious spirit of the Silvestre competition, we are proud to honour Little Boy by James Benning."
