Prize for the best short videos on science and technology

The ON ZIENTZIA video competition, organised annually by Elhuyar and the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) as part of the Teknopolis TV programme, sets out to produce and disseminate short, original videos on science and technology and geared towards the general public. This year's prize-giving ceremony for the thirteenth edition of the competition was held today at Tabakalera.

A total of 80 entries were submitted this year with a gender balance among the participants. Videos were submitted in Basque, Spanish and also in English, as the participants were spread worldwide. The fact is that although most of the works were sent in from the Basque Country, several videos were also received from countries such as Poland, Mexico and India. All the participating videos can be watched on the competition website: www.onzientzia.tv.

The jury decided to award prizes to the following works in each category:

The award for best popularization video (€ 3,000) went to the Madrid-born computer engineer Daniel González-Escudero for the video "Loquita por sus huesos” (Wild about Bones). The jury emphasised the fact that “it is a highly original work that uses the tale format for popularization purposes. The video succeeds in getting the viewer to empathise with the narrator and the protagonist, creating a robust audiovisual work that used animation together with a range of resources”.

The Usurbil-born architect Ane Ibargoyen-Alvarez won the prize for best video in Basque (€ 2,000) for the work “Mina edo pikantea?” (“Hot or Spicy?”). According to the jury, “it is an aesthetically simple yet very effective work. The colour red plays a major role as it is closely linked to the subject matter. She manages to explain an everyday subject very clearly and succeeds in reaching out to the viewer”.

The Youth Award (€ 1,000) went to the students at the Luis Amigó school in Mutiloa (Navarre) Fermín Martínez-Zabalza and Aitor Ros-Bengochea for their work “Storytime con mi primo y con Mendel” (Storytime with my cousin and with Mendel). In the words of the jury, “it is a project that has been executed with great originality and a good dose of humour, and which has been able to explain Mendel's laws very clearly, which is no easy task”.

In addition to the jury's awards, the videos that got the most votes on the www.onzientzia.tv website received the Audience Award; they were “La IA y el arte” (AI and Art) by the Mexican students Carlos David Macias-Santillan and César Hilario Gómez-Fonseca, and “Zoriontasunaren zientzia” (The Science of Happiness) by Aimar Luis and Elene López, students at the Axular High School in Donostia-San Sebastian; they all received prizes.

The awards were presented by Adolfo Morais-Ezquerro, Deputy Minister for Universities and Research of the Basque Government; Jon Abril-Olaetxea, General Coordinator of Elhuyar; and Ricardo Díez-Muiño, Director of the DIPC.

The jury responsible for judging the videos was made up of Marian Iriarte-Ormazabal, dean of the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and science communicator; Onintze Salazar Pérez, physicist at Euskalmet; Sara Hernández-Askasibar, head of 2deo at Tabakalera; Jon Mattin-Matxain, researcher at the UPV/EHU and associate of the DIPC; and Nagore Rementeria-Argote, member of Elhuyar and director of the Teknopolis programme.

The ceremony will be broadcast as a special on the television programme Teknopolis, together with the winning entries and comments by the prize-winners. The programme will go on air on 17 June at 13:30 on ETB1, and on 18 June at 13:30 on ETB2.