Honorary awards for Arnold and Audiard
3. September 2024
Two outstanding voices of world cinema will be honored with the Douglas Sirk Award at FILMFEST HAMBURG this year: The festival’s honorary awards go to British director Andrea Arnold and French director Jacques Audiard. The award ceremonies will take place on the occasion of the German premieres of their current films Emilia Pérez (September 28) and Bird (October 2).
»It is a great honor for me to be able to award two such important European directors in my first festival year. Both are united by their perspective on all people in our society, but while Arnold chooses an intimate, naturalistic and visually poetic approach, Audiard combines stylized narrative techniques with socially and politically charged themes. The works of both great directors have had a decisive influence on world cinema,« says Festival Director Malika Rabahallah.
Andrea Arnold moved to Los Angeles in her late 20s and studied directing at the American Film Institute. Her breakthrough came with Wasp (2003), a short film shot in her hometown of Dartford that won an Oscar in 2005. Her subsequent feature-length films Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009) and American Honey (2016) were awarded the Jury Prize in Cannes. The last of these screened at FILMFEST HAMBURG. In 2021, Andrea Arnold presented her first documentary film Cow in person in the Hanseatic city and was a guest in the »Contemporary Cinema in Focus« format, which featured a retrospective of her earlier films. Now the British filmmaker is returning to Hamburg with her new film Bird. 12-year-old Bailey (Nykiya Adams) lives with her single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
After prison movie (A Prophet, 2009), romantic drama (Rust and Bone, 2012), migration thriller (Dheepan, 2015), western (The Sisters Brothers, 2018) and the romantic comedy and FILMFEST HAMBURG closing film of 2021, Paris, 13th District, French director Jacques Audiard has chosen show full of vitality and energy, which captivates all the senses for his latest film Emilia Pérez. Emilia Pérez tells the story of a Mexican drug baron who wants to leave the past behind and start a new life as a woman. Jacques Audiard was awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Festival for his tenth feature film. Neue Visionen and Wild Bunch Germany will release Emilia Pérez in cinemas on November 21. Like his father Michel, Audiard initially worked as a screenwriter before directing his first film See How They Fall. The 72-year-old has been invited to Cannes six times with his films, winning the Palme d’Or in 2015 for Dheepan. His eighth feature film, The Sisters Brothers, screened at the 2018 Venice Festival and was awarded the Silver Lion.
The Douglas Sirk Award, named after the Hamburg-born director Detlef Sierck, has been an integral part of FILMFEST HAMBURG since 1995. The award is presented to personalities who have made an outstanding contribution to film culture and the film industry through their work. Previous winners include the directors and actors Sandra Hüller (2023), Leos Carax (2021), Nina Hoss (2019), Jafar Panahi (2018), Wim Wenders (2017), Catherine Deneuve (2015), Fatih Akin (2014), Tilda Swinton (2013), David Cronenberg (2007), Jim Jarmusch (1999) and Jodie Foster (1996).
