‘Variations on Violence’ Takes Top Prize at Oldenburg Film Festival

Zachary Nichols’ Variations on Violence has claimed the German Independence Award for Best Film at the 2026 Oldenburg Film Festival, marking a major win for the independent drama about the psychological toll of remote warfare.

The 71-minute film stars Lars Drew and Noelia Antweiler as Johnny, a U.S. drone operator whose job involves conducting lethal strikes from thousands of miles away. When he returns home to live with his sister Mary, the violence he witnessed through a screen refuses to leave him. His nightmares increasingly blur into waking life, straining his relationship with Mary and unraveling his grip on reality.

What makes Nichols’ approach distinctive is its origins. The director initially conceived Variations on Violence as an art installation before transforming it into a feature-length narrative. The final film uses fragmented imagery and computer-generated sequences to mirror Johnny’s deteriorating mental state, creating a visceral portrait of trauma and emotional isolation.

The Oldenburg jury singled out the film’s unflinching examination of the person pulling the trigger, rather than just the machinery of war itself. They praised how it grapples with the paradox of violence conducted from a distance ‘Variations on Violence’ Takes Top Prize at Oldenburg Film Festivaland its intensely personal consequences.

Nichols’ film wasn’t alone in earning recognition. The closing ceremony on September 20 also awarded the Spirit of Cinema Award to Foreign Tongue (Boris Mojsovski), the Audacity Award to The Joyless Economy (Marjorie Conrad), and the Hans Ohlms Prize for Best Debut to Big Daddy’s Flowers (Matthew Osubor). Michele Leonardi’s White Whiter Whitest Black won Best Short Film, while Frank Mosley and Gia Crovatin received the Seymour Cassel Award for acting.