At the awards ceremony on 30 September 2026 at the FilmFest Bar @CODA CLUB, four Hamburg Producers Awards were presented by Hamburg’s State Secretary for Culture, Jana Schiedek. The winner of the Arthouse Cinema Award was also announced. 

 

Since 2014, the Hamburg Producers Awards have recognised the outstanding achievements of German producers and film and television production companies, with prizes of 25,000 euros each awarded in the competition categories “International Cinema Co-Productions”, “German Cinema” and “German Television Films”. The Hamburg Producers Award for “German Series” is endowed with 10,000 euros. 

 

The Hamburg Producers Award for International Cinema Co-Production goes to producers Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul and Christiane Sommer of Razor Film for the international co-production Minotaur (directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev; screenplay: Simon Lyashenko, Andrey Zvyagintsev; France, Latvia, Germany). “Through their co-production, the German partners have enabled a filmmaker living in exile to tell this story. This demonstrates not only an excellent instinct for sophisticated international cinema, but also commitment and courage,” said the jury (Vanessa Ciszewski, producer/Katuh Studio & distributor, Luftkind/Filmverleih; Leila Hamid, media manager & distributor; Philipp Trauer, producer/BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion). 

 

The Hamburg Producers Award for German Cinema goes to producers Tristan Bähre and Philipp Maron (Maverick Film) for the film I spy with my little eye (director: Alisa Kolosova; screenplay: Judith Rose Gyabaah). The film captivated the jury (Johannes Hegemann, actor; Sonja Heiss, director and writer; Solmaz Azizi, producer, Zentropa Germany). “The atmosphere is intense, not always pleasant, at times gruelling and painful, but suffering alongside the characters is also a special quality of this film. It has an effect on you that is hard to describe, but you can still feel it long, long afterwards.” The jury’s statement continues: “The direction and the acting are subtle and delicate, precise, and never over the top, yet all the more powerful in their effect. Not a single word or sentence feels scripted, such is the fantastic performance of the actresses Saskia Rosendahl, Svenja Jung, Soma Pysall and Meret Becker.” 

 

The prize money for both categories, totalling 50,000 euros, is provided by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. 

 

The winner of the Hamburg Producers Award for German Television Films is producer Markus Mayr (MÄKSMY Films) for LORD (director and screenwriter: Caren Wuhrer). According to the jury, he succeeded in “giving the creative team the space to realise a film as profound as this, despite very limited resources”, according to the jury (Vic So Hee Alz, screenwriter and dramaturg; Anne Ratte-Polle, actress; Maren Knieling, producer/Florida Film). “We are honouring a television film – a strong debut in the emerging talent programme – which successfully strikes a balance between sensitivity and pathos, between drama and humour, and between authentic and magical storytelling.” 

 

The Hamburg Producers Award for German Series goes to producers Simon Amberger, Korbinian Dufter and Rafael Parente (NEUESUPER) for the series Blindspot Berlin (director: David Nawrath; screenplay: David Nawrath, David Marian). In its statement, the jury emphasises the special responsibility associated with a subject of this magnitude: “Production work can take many different forms. It can be loud or quiet, visible or almost invisible. But ultimately, it is always about taking responsibility, bringing the right people together and creating the conditions under which something special can emerge. […] Our winning project is one such example.” Intensive research was carried out over several years, involving, amongst others, legal advisers, terrorism experts, investigators from the state security services, victims’ organisations and former members of the Islamist scene. The series focuses primarily on state institutions and their failings, whilst also examining the perpetrators and the mechanisms of radicalisation. Linked to this is also the question of what perspectives such material adopts, what images it conjures up, and how these might be interpreted or appropriated outside the series. “It is precisely for this reason that, for us, responsibility for such a project does not end with its completion. It continues to require careful contextualisation and communication that clarifies the context and complexity of the material.” 

 

The prize money, totalling 35,000 euros, is donated by Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten (VFF). 

 

The Arthouse Cinema Award, worth 25,000 euros, presented by the International Confederation of Art Cinemas (C.I.C.A.E.), has been awarded to the German distributor Grandfilm for the film La Gradiva by Marine Atlan. MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, as the sponsor of the award, is supporting the prize with PR activities to promote the film’s release. For the jury (Chrissy Grundl, cinema manager at Filmgalerie Regensburg; Madita Kondratjuk, programme director at Kino Schloßtheater, Münster; Eva Buchmann, programme curator at Wolf Kino, Berlin), the film’s strength lies “in the profound emotional connection it establishes, without ever becoming didactic or exploitative. This is also where its political power lies. This film gives space to a young generation whose present is characterised by deep uncertainty about their future. Volatile relationships and the search for one’s own place are not formulated as theories, but can be experienced through bodies, glances and relationships. And that is precisely why the award-winning film belongs in cinemas.” 

 

The night before, ten prizes totalling 102,500 euros were awarded at Café Schöne Aussichten to the best project pitches at this year’s European Work in Progress. 

 

And another winner has been announced: Rafiki Fariala received the Albert Wiederspiel Award, sponsored by the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, for his film Congo Boy. 

 

The remaining FilmFest Hamburg awards will be presented on 3 October before the closing film, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!.