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Closing Film, Award Ceremony & Balance Sheet

 

08. Oktober 2022

 

The awards of the 30th FILMFEST HAMBURG were presented at the closing ceremony in the evening before the screening of Maryam Touzan’s film The Blue Caftan at CinemaxX Dammtor.

 

A total of 477 guests from 31 countries came to the anniversary edition, including the festival organisers and filmmakers from Ukraine, who were guests at the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival at the Alabama Kino and hosted their national short and feature film competition in Hamburg. Albert Wiederspiel and his team welcomed directors Santiago Mitre, Ruth Mader, Ruben Östlund, Gunnar Vikene, Ulrich Seidl, Fatih Akin, Aelrun Goette, Lukas Dhont, Emmanuelle Nicot, Lisa Akoka, Daniel Goldhaber, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Joya Thome as well as the actresses Angeliki Papoulia, Zar Amir-Ebrahimi, Vita Smachelyuk, Merve Dizdar, Rosalie Tomass, Ursina Lardi, Sunnyi Melles, Fritzi Haberlandt, Iris Berben, Mala Emde, Jonas Dassler, Emilio Sakraya, Lars Eidinger and Stefan Kurt. 116 feature films were shown in ten sections from 58 production countries. The three-day INDUSTRY DAYS dealt, among other things, with the compatibility of family and career in the film business, producing in Eastern European countries and the situation of female filmmakers in the Islamic world. The third Explorer Conference dealt with the challenges and opportunities of producing in the digital age and in the near and distant future. The »Filmfest ums Eck« programme showed five films in seven district cinemas this year.  

 

41,500 visitors came to FILMFEST HAMBURG this year, which is only 7.8 percent less than in the pre-pandemic festival year 2019.

 

Festival director Albert Wiederspiel: »Ten days of films on the big screen with film-loving people in one room. There can’t be a better advertisement for cinema and experiencing stories together. We thank our audience from the bottom of our hearts for this enthusiasm and are happy about these good numbers in a situation that is still extremely tense overall.«

 

 

The prizes at a glance:

 

This year, the NDR Young Talent Award for feature film debuts or second directorial works, endowed with 5,000 euros, goes to director Emmanuelle Nicot for her film Love According to Dalva (Belgium, France, 2022).

 

Jury statement: »Following the path of 12-year-old Dalva as she tries to be a child again after severe abuse has made a deep impression on us. Emmanuelle Nicot tells this story with emotional acuity and psychological precision, without ever exposing a character. The closeness, distance and respect that Emmanuelle Nicot maintains for each individual character always gives the viewer the opportunity to engage with the very moving and demanding subject matter like a satellite. Almost like a documentary, we follow the emotional life of the very engaging Zelda Samson in the title role, as well as the rest of the great ensemble. The cinematographer (Caroline Guimbal) and the costume designer (Constance Allain), with their attentive and loving eye for subtleties, are also part of this great cinema film…«

 

Jury
Andriy Khalpakhchi, Festival director (Ukraine)
Farahnaz Sharifi, Director, Editorin, Author (Iran)
Adina Vetter, Actress (Germany)

 

 

The Political Film Prize of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, endowed with 5,000 euros, goes to director Daniel Goldhaber for his film How To Blow Up A Pipeline (USA, 2022).

 

Jury statement: »Where our society is under existential threat from many directions, political film in particular is of great importance as a source of inspiration. We were able to view outstanding examples of this subject that deal with the urgent questions of our time. We decided on a film that deals with the fight against climate catastrophe in an exciting, entertaining and uncompromising way. How to Blow Up a Pipeline by Daniel Goldhaber takes the classic heist as a model to take up a highly political debate and takes a clear position in the process. The film’s characters plan a spectacular act of sabotage for a variety of motivations. The ensemble of hardliners, lifestyle activists and those affected does not negate the social consequences of the action or its legal assessment, but simply considers the plan to be without alternative and justified. The plot thus gives a cinematic foretaste of possible radicalisation scenarios within the climate protection movement and their individual motives. One does not have to share the film’s stance, but recognise that it is particularly suited to triggering fruitful controversies and promoting the discussion about combating climate catastrophe.«

 

Jury
Julia Cöllen, Producer
Barbara Denz, Editor
Alexander Mohrenberg, Politician

 

 

The Arthouse Cinema Award of the International Association of Art Cinemas (C.I.C.A.E.), endowed with 5,000 euros, goes to the film Close (Belgium, France, Netherlands, 2022), directed by Lukas Dhont, distributed by Pandora Film. The prize money is provided by MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein for PR measures of the German distributor.

 

Jury statement: »We award the CICAE Art Cinema Prize Hamburg 2022 to a young filmmaker, who’s rich artistic voice has impressed us. Through his film he tells a deeply human story about love and loss, friendship and separation. With a firm sense of direction he leads his two young actors – on the brink of their teenage years – through a deeply emotional story. In using close-ups the director puts us in touch with the two brother-like boys, never forgetting their school and family life. The dynamic camera work allows us to participate fully in the boys world. We were especially impressed by the films ending: seeing the protagonist taking a step forward into adulthood overcoming the most traumatic experience of his young life. Lukas Dhont wins the Art Cinema Award for his film Close. Congratulations!«

 

Jury
Danilo Clematide, Cinema operator, Roxy Cinema, Romanshorn/Switzerland
Dominique Henz, Programmer and curator
Erdmann Lange, Programme creator, Atlantis / Odeon, Mannheim

 

 

The Film Critics’ Prize has been awarded in cooperation with the Association of German Film Critics since 2018. The prize goes to R.M.N. by Cristian Mungiu (Romania, France, 2022).

 

Jury statement: »’From home, everything is in the West’. This is true for the Transylvanian Saxon in the German slaughterhouse as well as for the subaltern labour migrant from Sri Lanka in the Transylvanian bread factory. Cristian Mungiu’s drama R.M.N. brings these two perspectives and many more together in a Romanian village. Historical conflicts between different ethnic groups erupt again with the arrival of the guest workers. In an impressively multi-layered way, Mungiu portrays male violence, racism and the failure of enlightenment. Local and global intertwine to create a poetic aporia: the real predators lurk at home.«

 

Honorable mention: »The jury gives an honourable mention to Wissam Charaf’s film Dirty Difficult Dangerous. In Beirut, an Ethiopian domestic worker and a Syrian war refugee lift their love alone out of everyday poverty and discrimination. A film that magically amalgamates the difficult into surprising lightness.«

 

Jury:

Volker Behrens, Hamburger Abendblatt
Yun-Hua Chen, Film International
Katrin Hillgruber, Deutschlandradio, Tagesspiegel
Danny Marques, NDR 90,3
Karsten Munt, Filmdienst, Perlentaucher, Filmbulletin
Parvin Sadigh, ZEIT online
Philipp Stadelmaier, Süddeutsche Zeitung

 

 

The FILMFEST HAMBURG PUBLIC PRIZE, endowed with 5,000 euros, donated by the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation for the best film from the programme goes to Amerikatsi (Armenia, 2022), Director & Screenplay: Michael Goorjian.

 

 

On the previous evening, the Hamburg Producer Awards »German Cinema Productions« and »International Cinema Coproductions« were presented to the producers Tobias Walker and Philipp Worm / Walker + Worm Film (Skin Deep, directed by Alex Schaad) and to the producers Michael Reuter, Saar Yogev and Naomi Levari /Electric Sheep (Victim, directed by Michal Blaško). An honourable mention was given to the film Holy Spider, directed by Ali Abbasi. The prize money of 25,000 euros each for these categories is provided by the Ministry of Culture and Media. The Hamburg Producer Award »German Television Productions«, also in the amount of 25,000 euros and donated by the Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten (VFF), goes to Christian Popp / Producers at Work Film (The Capetown Miracle, directed by Franziska Buch). The special prize for serial formats in the amount of 10,000 euros donated by the VFF was awarded to Christian Beetz / gebrüder beetz filmproduktion (Reeperbahn Special Unit 65, director: Georg Tschurtschenthaler, Carsten Gutschmidt, Ina Kessebohm).

 

The MICHEL Film Prize, endowed with 5,000 euros and provided by the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung and von Berlichingen & Partner Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, was already awarded by the MICHEL jury on 5 October to The Time of Secrets (France 2021, Director & Screenplay: Christophe Barratier).

 

The 2022 Douglas Sirk Award winner is Ulrich Seidl. FILMFEST HAMBURG suspended the ceremony because of the allegations against the production surrounding working conditions during the shooting of the film Sparta (Austria, Germany, France, 2022), which would have overshadowed an award ceremony. The film was shown. Ulrich Seidl was a guest in Hamburg. The award will be presented to the Austrian director at the German premiere in Hamburg of his next film.

 

The jury of the Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival, consisting of actress Fritzi Haberland, director and screenwriter Eva Neymann and producer Farzad Pak, awarded the Scythian Deer Award worth 2,000 USD to Nikon Romanchenko and his film Leopolis Night in the category best short film on 5 October. Dima, Dmitry, Dmytro Glory to the Heroes by Clemens Poole was commended. Stop-Zemlia by Kateryna Gornostai, which screened out of competition at the MICHEL Children and Youth Film Festival, won in the Best Feature Film category. The jury presented the Scythian Deer statuette and 3,000 USD. The jury gave an honourable mention to Pamfir by Dmytro Sukholytkiy-Sobchuk, which also screened in the FILMFEST programme. The Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival was supported by Hamburg Marketing and ART CONNECTS* – aid fund for projects with cultural workers seeking protection.

 

The main sponsor of FILMFEST HAMBURG is the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg. Long-standing partners include the Deutsche Fernsehlotterie, the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation, the Grand Elysée Hotel, MOIA, Studio Hamburg as well as NDR and ARTE. New main partners are maxdome and Signal Iduna.

 

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