‘Beyond Silence’, the directorial debut of Dutch filmmaker Marnie Blok, has won the 2026 MIOB In Shorts Award, announced during the awards ceremony of the 36th FilmFestival Cottbus in Germany. The €1,000 prize marks another achievement in the film’s international festival journey. Its significance, however, lies in how the winner was selected: audiences from around the world chose the film through an online public vote, making the Cottbus recognition a cross-border response to a story about the right to be heard.
The result followed an online competition hosted on the This Is Short streaming platform, where viewers could watch and vote for the nominated films between September 1 and October 15, 2026. The selection featured 12 short films from 11 countries, nominated by the six festivals that form the European network Moving Images – Open Borders (MIOB).
Unlike awards determined by a festival jury, the MIOB In Shorts Award is decided entirely through public voting. The competition was closely contested, with Merlin Bodenstedt, head of programme coordination at FilmFestival Cottbus, confirming that ‘Beyond Silence’ won by a narrow margin. The result gives the film a distinction beyond another festival award, as its recognition came directly from viewers who encountered the story across national borders.
A 17-minute drama, ‘Beyond Silence’ centres on Eva, a deaf PhD student who meets the director of her academic programme, accompanied by her sister and interpreter, Anna, to report sexual abuse by a professor. Instead of receiving support, Eva encounters institutional defensiveness and resistance. When the programme director attempts to redirect her complaint, Eva refuses to retreat and insists that her experience be taken seriously.
The story unfolds through a tense encounter rather than a series of elaborate settings. Within its brief running time, Blok examines institutional power, sexual abuse, generational tensions and shared trauma, while keeping the focus on one woman’s effort to make herself heard. FilmFestival Cottbus praised the film’s narrative and cinematic compression, highlighting its emotional force and its ability to bring complex subjects into a tightly controlled short-film format.
The film also marks the acting debut of Henrianne Jansen, a deaf actress who plays Eva. Her performance has been recognised for its authenticity and emotional impact, earning a Special Mention for Best Acting at the 2025 Palm Springs International ShortFest. Jansen’s portrayal gives the central conflict a personal focus, allowing Eva’s determination and frustration to register through the character’s experience rather than reducing her story to a statement about institutional failure.
For Blok, the award adds another chapter to a career that has moved from acting to screenwriting and now directing. The Dutch filmmaker has written films including ‘Jackie’, ‘Simon and the Oaks’ and ‘Open Seas’. With ‘Beyond Silence’, she makes her directorial debut, bringing her experience as a performer and screenwriter to a story built around listening, accountability and the consequences of institutional silence.
‘Beyond Silence’ had already attracted international attention in 2025, winning Best Narrative Short at the Tribeca Festival and Best International Short at Palm Springs International ShortFest. The Tribeca win was an Oscar-qualifying award, while the Palm Springs festival also gave Jansen a Special Mention for Best Acting. The Cottbus honour adds a different form of recognition, with the film winning the support of a public audience rather than a festival jury.
Blok’s response to the award returns to the film’s central idea: “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.”
With its latest win, ‘Beyond Silence’ has carried its message from a tightly focused screen story to audiences across borders. The film’s recognition through a public vote also reinforces the connection between its subject and its reception: a story about the struggle to be heard has found an international audience willing to listen.
