The Prix Europa – Media Competition for all over Europe 2025 has just sent us the jury’s reasoning for the award of Mankind’s Folly, by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, which received the Special Commendation of the Jury in the Documentary category.
Excerpt from the jury’s reasoning:
“The jury was deeply moved by Mankind’s Folly, a film that takes us deep into the Arctic, where the ice still holds the memory of the world. We follow Nikita in Eastern Siberia and Martha in Northern Alaska, two lives separated by the Bering Strait yet united by the same dread, watching the ground beneath them give way. As the permafrost that has been frozen for millennia begins to thaw, it carries away homes, hopes, and the very idea of permanence.
The jury highlights the film’s powerful depiction of an absurd paradox: as the ground collapses, Russian and American oil companies install devices to keep it frozen, trying to preserve the stability of the very soil their activities are melting.
This contradiction, the jury believes, encapsulates the essence of our time. In one haunting scene, a protagonist gazes at a river locked in ice, searching for traces of past lives. The melting ice becomes a mirror of memory and a symbol of resilience. Through its restrained beauty and profound meaning, Mankind’s Folly weaves invisible connections between landscapes and human histories.
The jury honours this work as both intimate and vast; a call to rethink how we inhabit this fragile, shared planet.”
We are deeply honored and moved by the words of the jury, to whom we extend our heartfelt thanks.