VRACHT wins German Documentary Film Music Award 2025
Switzerland 2024, 80 min., director: Max Carlo Kohal, composition: Mirjam Skal
Swiss composer Mirjam Skal has been announced as the winner of the German Documentary Film Music Award 2025 for her music for the film VRACHT directed by Max Carlo Kohal. Sincere congratulations!
About the film: Rudmer is an trainee on a barge. He defies the hard life on board because he is pursuing a dream: to be a captain on the bridge. VRACHT is not a sociological study, but a wondrously entertaining film: playful scenes, sophisticated editing and monumental images. Honoured with the German Documentary Film Music Award!
About the award winner: Mirjam Skal is a freelance media composer from Zurich. She studied composition for film, theatre and media at the Zurich University of the Arts and has composed numerous soundtracks for short films, games, commercials and documentaries, for radio and television. In her works, she prefers to interweave synthetic textures with orchestral sounds, and is also fascinated by instruments such as the theremin and hurdy-gurdy. In 2021 she was part of the Berlinale Talents, followed by a mentorship from film composer Mychael Danna (LIFE OF PI) and collaboration on DER GESANG DER FLUSSKREBSE. Since then she has worked for national and international TV and film productions, including two Zurich ‘Tatort’ films and Jasmin Gordon's debut film LES COURAGEUX. She has been honoured with the Zollinger Art Prize, the Rolf-Hans Müller Prize for best film music at the Televisionale Baden-Baden and other awards. She also tours America and Europe as a keyboardist with her band ILLUMISHADE.
Jury statement
‘What does a freight container feel? The container ship ‘Panerai’ travels up and down the Rhine at a leisurely pace, but nevertheless steadfastly on course. Mooring and casting off manoeuvres, loading logistics and maintenance work characterise the day-to-day work on board. Mirjam Skal‘s highly sensitive, reduced film music takes us deeper into this harsh and unfamiliar world than the images alone could. It defines the timing and atmosphere of the film. Music and sounds can make us feel things that remain hidden to the eye. We hear sounds inspired by steel, wind and weather that bring the freight containers to life. The interplay of visual and acoustic levels is perfectly mastered in VRACHT. We experience an immersive film for eyes and ears, in which the individual artistic voices of the director, camera, editing and music have become a harmonious whole. Now we can better understand the containers.’
- The 2025 jury of the German Documentary Film Music Award
- Press release on the winner of the German Documentary Music Award 2025
- The nominees 2025
The film at the festival
The winning film VRACHT will be screened at the 40th DOK.fest München in May 2025:
The German Documentary Film Music Award will be presented at a festive award ceremony with film screening on Sunday, 11 May 2025 at 8 pm at the HFF Munich.
An award for the score of reality
The German Documentary Film Music Award annually honours a composition that connects with the documentary film narrative in an outstanding way and will be awarded for the thirteenth time in 2025. It provides a platform for the work of the composers and the value of music as an additional means for the narrative in documentary films.
The prize is endowed with 5,000 euros and is awarded to the team of filmmakers and composers. The German Documentary Film Music Award is donated by the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung.
Many thanks to our award donors and funders:
