Werner Herzog Honors Rising Filmmaker Harley Chamandy, Whom He Compares to a Young Kiarostami or Korine

The Werner Herzog Foundation revealed at a recent ceremony in Munich that Canadian filmmaker Harley Chamandy will receive the 2024 Werner Herzog Film Prize for his feature “Allen Sunshine.”

The annual award, presented in collaboration with the Munich Film Museum, comes with a 5,000 euro (or $5,445 U.S. dollars) prize. Herzog, in a statement, praised Chamandy’s work: “The Werner Herzog Foundation Prize in 2024 will go to Harley Chamandy for his film ‘Allen Sunshine.’ One of the foundation’s tasks is to promote young talent, and it is remarkable that Harley Chamandy took part in my first workshop for young filmmakers in Cuba when he was just 17 years old. At the age of 21, he made his subtle film, which has been awarded here.”

Herzog added, “The criteria for the award from my foundation are always innovation, courage, and initiative, and Harley Chamandy has demonstrated all of these. He already possesses a unique voice. Congratulations to him.“

The award ceremony took place on Friday, December 6, 2024 at the Munich Cinematheque (Filmmuseum München), followed by a screening of the film. IndieWire shares the exclusive video below.

Previous winners of this prize include Oscar-winning directors Chloé Zhao and Asghar Farhadi. Chamandy is the youngest person to receive the award, at age 22. Per a synopsis, “Allen Sunshine,” which you can stream on Apple TV and Prime Video, “follows a former music mogul who retreats to a secluded lake house after his famous wife’s suicide. The protagonist copes with his loss by composing electronic music and forming an unlikely bond with two local boys. His journey through grief is punctuated by encounters that remind him of his past and future.”

Here’s more from Herzog about the film, and watch the Q&A below:

“‘Allen Sunshine’ is about a music producer who, after a personal tragedy, seeks solitude and lives in a cabin and records ambiance and bird sounds and creates records, and bit by bit, some of his stories is being revealed. His wife, a great singer, whose work he produced, died, apparently committed suicide, and he befriends two boys who take him slowly out of the state of solitude,” Herzog said in Munich.

“The film doesn’t live from pure storytelling. It is something else; instead of story, you will see much more of a state of solitude, a state of seeking serenity, a state of living in nature, which reveales, bit by bit, a story that’s behind it. You will see it, for example, in the creatures who appear, for example a very big dog… the way the dog is present is remarkable. The way the two boys befriend him is remarkable… He is hiding a past that slowly throughout the film becomes present. He’s also questioning reality. There are certain mysterious phone calls with nobody on the line, and it becomes very strange what kind of reality is this and what kind of reality does the protagonist live in. 

“Aesthetics is more important than pure storytelling. In a way, vaguely, it reminds me of how the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami would start his story, with very much a state of things, a state of friendship among two children, that becomes a deeper and deeper story. It reminds me a little bit of Harmony Korine, in particular his film, “Gummo.” I’m sure Harley knows the film, and it’s probably deep in his heart.

“There are no real comparative films in existence, at least not of this generation. This generation does not exist yet. 22-year-olds are just applying to film school here in Munich… I salute a new generation of filmmakers, and I salute Harley Chamandy having made this film, which truly deserves this award.”