As part of the closing ceremony, hosted by NDR Kultur presenter Julia Westlake, more awards from the 34th FilmFest Hamburg were presented this evening before the screening of Josef Kubota Wladyka’s film Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! at CinemaxX Dammtor. With some 65,000 visitors, including those at the Binnenalster Filmfest and attendees of the FilmFest Hamburg Industry Days, the festival can look back on a successful run, having increased attendance by five per cent compared with last year. 

 

“What a ten days! Full cinemas, lots of lovely encounters and an audience that embraced our films with great curiosity and enthusiasm. We are delighted that we were able to build on last year’s success whilst continuing to grow. The Mayor’s good wishes for a sunny festival also came true. For us, this year’s FilmFest Hamburg had a very special warmth and radiance. It is precisely this feeling that we’re coming away with,” says festival director Malika Rabahallah. 

 

An overview of the awards: 

 

The award The Political Film of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, worth 10,000 euros, goes to director Laïla Marrakchi for Strawberries (Morocco, France, Spain, Belgium 2026). 

 

Excerpt from the jury’s statement:  

 

“The jury has seen a film that sheds light on the working conditions of female seasonal workers in Europe: economic dependencies, exploitation and violence, without reducing its characters to the role of victims or glossing over their contradictions. This is where its political and humanistic power lies. The film does not portray solidarity as a self-evident or unambiguous stance. It reveals how solidarity must be constantly re-established through the actions of its protagonists: amidst hierarchies, language barriers, fear, and patriarchal and sexual violence. Solidarity does not appear as a moral gesture, but as a practice that must be renegotiated time and again. For ultimately, the film does not merely tell the story of women harvesting strawberries under precarious conditions. The question that arises is how closely this form of exploitation is linked to our everyday lives. After watching this film, a punnet of strawberries no longer seems quite so self-evident (…) this film draws connections without oversimplifying them. It brings our responsibility home to us without preaching about it. And it creates a space in which political reality and human experience are not pitted against one another.” 

 

(Jury: Mehria Ashuftah, lawyer & Member of the Hamburg Parliament; Dan Thy Nguyen, freelance curator, singer & actor; Merle Kröger, author and dramaturg) 

 

 This year’s NDR Young Talent Award for feature film debuts, worth 5,000 euros, goes to directors Ezequiel Salinas and Ramiro Sonzini for their documentary The Night is Fading Away (Argentina, 2025). 

 

Excerpt from the jury’s statement:  

 

“The Night is Fading Away depicts the everyday life of Pelu, a humble cinema night watchman, and thereby offers us a sensitive and down-to-earth glimpse behind the scenes, without succumbing to the spectacle of conventional cinema. Instead, we witness how a cinema can become a place of refuge for Pelu and for people who otherwise have little access to such a space (…). The social divide that the film brings to light is never paraded or explained, but is simply part of its characters’ everyday lives. The Night is Fading Away stands as a symbol for all the films nominated for the NDR Young Talent Award, which are given a platform through cinema as a public space. Every film has an audience on the other side who laugh, cry, sit it out, or perhaps simply doze off for a moment – which is perfectly fine, as the film by the two Argentine directors proves (…).” 

 

(student jury: Marie Hügel, Kaan Çelimli, Sarah Pommerening) 

 

The Critics’ Choice Award has been presented since 2018 in collaboration with Verband der deutschen Filmkritik  (Association of German Film Critics). The award goes to the film Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors by Lav Diaz (Philippines 2026). 

 

Excerpt from the jury’s statement:  

 

“This film has stayed with us all week. We admire its narrative mastery and its courage to leave things unsaid: a dramaturgy that takes the off-screen into account. The shimmering texture of the images gives rise to a world that is sensually concrete yet strangely impenetrable. Within the dense interweaving of colonialism, patriarchy and Christianisation, the mechanisms of systemic oppression of the indigenous population become visible. Told through distanced shots, this anti-colonial epic moved us deeply.” 

 

(Jury: Friederike Horstmann, Cargo, Perlentaucher, critic.de; Nele S. Kayser, Nowhen, Jugend ohne Film; Danny Marques Marçalo, NDR) 

 

The FilmFest Hamburg Audience Award, worth 5,000 euros and sponsored by the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, which recognises the festival’s audience favourite, goes to Just an illusion by Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache. 

 

The first batch of awards was presented on 30 September: the Hamburg Producers Award for International Film Co-productions went to producers Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul and Christiane Sommer (Razor Film) for the international co-production Minotaur (directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev; screenplay: Simon Lyashenko, Andrey Zvyagintsev; France, Latvia, Germany). The winners of the Hamburg Producers Award for German Cinema are producers Tristan Bähre and Philipp Maron (Maverick Film) for the film I spy with my little eye (directed by Alisa Kolosova; screenplay: Judith Rose Gyabaah). Both prizes are worth 25,000 euros each and are funded by the Department 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 (directed and written by Caren Wuhrer). The Hamburg Producers Award for German Series has been awarded to producers Simon Amberger, Korbinian Dufter and Rafael Parente (NEUESUPER) for the series Blindspot Berlin (Director: David Nawrath; Screenplay: David Nawrath, David Marian). 

 

The prize money, totalling 35,000 euros, is sponsored 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.), goes 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. 

 

The MAJA Junior Film Award, worth 10,000 euros and sponsored by the Hamburg-based cinema operator Hans-Peter Jansen, was presented by the junior jury on 2 October to the animated film Julián (Ireland, Luxembourg, Canada, Denmark 2026; directed by Louise Bagnall). There was also a special mention for Brave Cat by Gabriel Osorio (Chile 2026).  

 

This year’s Douglas Sirk Award went to the British actress Helen Mirren. The Albert Wiederspiel Award, worth 10,000 euros and sponsored by the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, was presented to the Congolese director Rafiki Fariala for his film Congo Boy. 

 

Stars, industry guests and a thriving film industry 

 

On the red carpet, Malika Rabahallah and her team welcomed a total of 653 guests from 32 countries, including, amongst others, the directors Lukas Dhont, Martin McDonagh, Fatih Akin, Wim Wenders, Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Doris Dörrie, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Laïla Marrakchi, Anton Corbijn, Pegah Ahangarani, Olivier Nakache, Éric Toledano, Rachel Rose, Manuela Martelli, as well as the actors Helen Mirren, Barbara Sukowa, Saskia Rosendahl, Maximilian Mundt, Luna Wedler, Alexander Fehling, Mina Rahimzadeh, Golo Euler, Rosalie Thomass and Christian Friedel. 

For the second time, the international formats European Work in Progress (EWIP) and the International Film Distribution Summit (IFDS) formed part of the FilmFest Hamburg Industry Days. Industry guests from all over the world, including producers, distributors and international sales agents, made use of the expanded industry platform – including the Explorer Konferenz and the national event series Made in Germany – to network and exchange ideas. 

 

FilmFest Hamburg is funded and supported by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, as well as by its loyal main partners: the Deutsche Fernsehlotterie, the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung, the Studio Hamburg Group, the Grand Elysée Hotel and the mobility partner MOIA. Further sponsors include the Karin and Walter Blüchert Memorial Foundation, ARTE, the main media partner NDR, and a further 60 partners, sponsors and supporters. 

 

The 35th edition of FilmFest Hamburg will take place from 30 September to 9 October 2027.