Alzheimer’s film scoops Golden Owl Prize

Every year the University of Bergen (UiB) and the Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) award the Golden Owl Prize to the best science documentary film of the year. The prize is awarded at the end of the festival in September.

The prize comprises 25,000 Norwegian kroner, a picture by Harald Kryvi and a diploma.

A documentary look at Alzheimer’s

This year’s winner is Monster in the Mind, a film that explores the hidden depths of the dreaded Alzheimer’s disease.

In its verdict the jury says about the film:

“This year's winner of the Golden Owl Prize is a wonderful example of how science can enlighten questions of individual and societal concern. With engagement, curiosity, and personal investment, the audience is guided through the film’s multiple perspectives and facts, without losing momentum.”

• Read more on the film’s homepage.

Nature Vs. Nurture

In its verdict the jury also points to the enduring question of nature versus nurture in its verdict:

“Against the enduring question of nature versus  nurture, we follow three decades of research, encounter personal nightmares and shifting opinions, in an ever widening search for preventive measures of Alzheimer’s disease, which is portrayed as a slowly unfolding epidemic.”

In their conclusion the jury says that the film “exposes how science and society are intertwined. Through a critical and historical perspective, it shows how a once vague disease was deliberately branded and marketed to sharpen focus, funding, and progress. (…) By pointing to demographic and systemic risk factors and their possible mitigation, the film raises what will be an important debate in times to come.”