Zachary Nichols’ Variations on Violence won the German Independence Award for Best Film at this year’s Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie film festival. The film follows a military drone operator whose remote-controlled violence follows him home, along with his sister Mary, who is caught in a cycle of unstable relationships as Johnny’s grip on reality deteriorates. Nichols originally developed the project as an art installation before expanding it into a feature. Boris Mojsovski’s Foreign Tongue received the Spirit of Cinema Award, which is determined by festival audience vote. The Canadian film, in its German premiere, stars…
