The 2025 A MAZE. Awards submissions broke every record
The independent arthouse games community is thrilled: from May 14-17 A MAZE./ Berlin 2025 – 14th International Games and Playful Media Festival will open its doors at silent green Kulturquartier and Panke Culture, Berlin Wedding. Today A MAZE. is pleased to announce the nominees and honorable mentions for the A MAZE. Awards 2025.
This year, artists from a record-high 72 countries submitted 364 works in the field of games, art and playful media. This includes 58 entries beyond the screen. That’s +100 entries, +12 countries and around +40 works beyond the screen. The international Selection Committee and the A MAZE. team chose the 25 nominees for the main awards “Most Amazing”, “Long Feature”, “Digital Moment”, “Explorer” and “Human Human Machine”, five nominees were selected for the WINGS Award and 15 more works received the festival`s honorable mention.
“For a festival focussed on the fringes and combinations of arthouse games and playful media in theater, xr, performances as well as other artforms, I couldn’t be happier with the overwhelming number of diverse artists submitting their entries from even more places in the world – Not because more is better, but because it shows that people trust us in providing a platform for this very specific combination of arts; that we are the meeting spot for the community of this colorful international movement. Thank you!”
– Matthias ‘Mat’ Löwenotter | Award Coordinator
The international jury, consisting of, amongst others, Aluta Null (Digital Artist, South Africa), Ludipe (Experimental Games, Spain), Somi (Winner Most Amazing Award 24, South Korea) and Tanja Tankred (Winner WINGS Award 24, Denmark) will select the nominees categories and winners. The winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony on May 16, 2025 at silent green Kulturquartier (Betonhalle).
This selection of interactive masterpieces will be exhibited at A MAZE. / Berlin 2025 from May 14-17, 2025.
A MAZE. Awards Nominees
- Breaking News by Danil Bialo, Tamir Herzberg, Evyatar Cohen (Israel)
- CHILDREN OF SATURN by Boie Thomsen and Nils Schulze (Germany, Austria)
- despelote by Julián Cordero, Sebastián Valbuena, Gabe Cuzzillo, Ian Berman (Ecuador, USA)
- Endoparasitic 2 by Deep Root Interactive (USA, Germany, Canada, UK)
- Flock by Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg (UK)
- Flora by Flora (Spain, Peru, Colombia)
- Growth Spurt: A Meandering Intermission Into the Afterhours of a Miscalculation by Biagi Calicchia, Hanwen Xu, Hatim Benhsain, Isabelle Smith and Nichole Shinn (USA, China, Morocco)
- In Their Shoes by We Are Muesli (Italy)
- Karting K.O. by Bastien Loizillon and Lilonna Rondeleux (France)
- Keep Driving by Y/CJ/Y (Sweden)
- LIMINAL by Rowan Wood (Canada)
- Mouthwashing by Wrong Organ (Sweden)
- PROXIMATE by Cain Maddox (Australia)
- PRŠÍ by Herdek (Czech Republic)
- Pull Stay by Nito Souji (Japan)
- RiceBoy Dreams by Charles Hanil Roberge (Switzerland)
- ROAMance by Stanislaw Liguzinski, Ibrahim Quraishi, Julia Braenzel (Germany, Poland, The Netherlands)
- Some Goodbyes We Made by Safe Flight Games, Joey Schutz (Taiwan, USA)
- Soul Paint by Hatsumi & Monobanda (UK, The Netherlands)
- Space Sprouts by Schleuder Games (Germany)
- Synch.Live by Hillary Leone (USA, UK)
- Take Us North by Anima Interactive (USA, Mexico, UK, Guatemala, Colombia, Argentina, The Netherlands, Portugal)
- The Holy Gosh Darn by Perfectly Paranormal (Norway)
- THRESHOLD by Julien Eveillé (France)
- Tide Breakers by brainfruit (USA)
WINGS Award Nominees
- Cabernet by Party for Introverts (UK)
- Curiosmos by Céline & the Silly Stars (Belgium, The Netherlands)
- Discounty by Crinkle Cut Games (Denmark)
- IKEELYA by ALL DAY ALL NIGHT (Henrike Lode, Cukia Kimani) (South Africa)
- STREET UNI X by daffodil & friends (Canada)
Honorable Mentions
- Arctic Eggs by Kevin Brown (USA)
- Children of the Sun by René Rother (Germany)
- Clone Drone in the Hyperdome by Lucas Pessoa de… (USA, Spain, Sweden, UK, Mexico, France)
- Crossing Lines by Leah Churchill and Mike Ren (USA)
- Death of the Reprobate by Joe Richardson (UK)
- individualism in the dead-internet age: an anti-big tech asset flip shovelware r̶a̶n̶t̶ manifesto by Nathalie Lawhead (Slovenia)
- PARADE by Allis Amaz, Ratvader, Kjell Håftén (Sweden)
- PortalVision by Robin Forster (Germany)
- The Dice Test by Stanley Baxton, Dagny “shredtune” Hella (UK)
- The M/S Cornelia II Incident by Matias Ekebom (Åland Islands)
- The Museum of Screens by Liz Alfos (France)
- the weird & the eerie by KATHARINA ERNST / THOMAS KÖCK/ ANNEA LOUNATVUORI / MARTIN MIOTK / ANDREAS SPECHTL / MICHAEL V. ZUR MÜHLEN (Germany)
- TÖLT by ENIGMA STUDIO (Ireland)
- TRIP by Bastinus Rex (France)
- Wednesdays by Pierre Corbinais, Exaheva, Christophe Galati, Virginia B. Fernson, Nico Nowak, Diane Landais & Florent Maurin (France, Belgium)
See all submissions at: https://2025.amaze-berlin.de/
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ABOUT: A MAZE. is a unique and cultural investigating international platform for games and playful media that invites professionals and creatives from various fields to exchange their knowledge and visions, presenting their projects, playing, making contacts to collaborate on future projects. The festival A MAZE. / Berlin represents interactive works beyond the mainstream and celebrates the art-form and the rise of arthouse. Festival’s website: www.amaze-berlin.de
