Renowned filmmakers, personalities from politics and the media, as well as Hamburg students, will once again serve as expert juries at FILMFEST HAMBURG this year to decide the winners of a total of eight jury awards. 

 

FILMFEST HAMBURG was delighted to win over the producer of Cologne-based Heimatfilm, Bettina Brokemper (La mort viendra, Des Teufels Bad, Hannah Arendt among others), the acting agent and managing director of Berlin based Players Mechthild Holter, and the multi-award-winning director İlker Çatak (The Teachers’ Lounge, Es war einmal Indianerland a.o.). The Hamburg Producers Award International CoPro, worth a total of 25,000 euros, is awarded across all sections and goes to the German co-producer of the winning film.

 

The jury for the Hamburg Producers Award German Cinema, also worth €25,000, includes actor Lena Urzendowsky (Sound of Falling, Zwischen uns der Fluss, a.o.), cinematographer and director Zamarin Wahdat (Liberty, Spirit in the Blood/camera; Bambirak/director), and Swiss producer and screenwriter Silvan Zürcher (Zürcher Film), who attended FILMFEST HAMBURG in 2024 with The Sparrow in the Chimney, directed by his brother Ramon Zürcher, and was awarded the Critics’ Choice Award. The prize money for both awards is provided by the Hamburg Ministry for Culture and Media.

 

Actor Malick Bauer (Sam – A Saxon, Wunderschöner), screenwriter, dramaturge and creative producer Sabine Steyer-Violet (Other Parents, Eldorado KaDeWe/screenplay; Unorthodox/creative producer) and producer at X-Filme Creative Pool, Sarika Lakhani, are part of the jury for the Hamburg Producers Award German Television Films and Hamburg Producers Award German Series. The prize money of €25,000 and €10,000 is provided by the VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten. Films and series in the ‘Television’ section are nominated, with the producer receiving the award.

 

Irene Appiah is a lawyer, member of the Hamburg Parliament and SPD speaker for equality, anti-discrimination and churches and religious communities. Together with journalist and television presenter Aimen Abdulaziz-Said and director, screenwriter and distributor Ali Samadi Ahadi (Seven Days, Moonbound, Lost Children,The Green Wave, a.o.), she decides on the winners of the award The Political Film of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. From this year onwards, the prize is endowed with 10,000 euros and is provided by the FES. Nominated are feature films and documentaries in the ‘Veto!’ section, with the award going to the best director.

 

The Arthouse Cinema Award of the International Association of Art Cinemas (C.I.C.A.E.) will be supported by MOIN Film Fund Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein for the first time this year with €25,000 for PR campaigns for German distributors. Films released in cinemas by German distributors are nominated across all sections. The winner will be selected by Verena von Stackelberg, founder and managing director of Wolf Kino in Berlin, Mustafa El Mesaoudi, owner and managing director of Rex Filmtheater Wuppertal, and Aurel Graf, head of programming at Arthouse Kinos Le Paris, Piccadilly and Movie, as well as Kino Frame in Zurich.

 

Film critics and cultural journalists from German daily and trade newspapers, radio stations and online media award the prize to a film from the programme that stands out for its original perspective. The Critics’ Choice Award is not endowed and will be awarded in cooperation with the Association of German Film Critics. This year’s jury members are journalists Danny Marques (NDR 90, 3), Sofia Glasl (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and Felicitas Kleiner (Filmdienst).

 

Five Hamburg students, Julia Giang, Valentina Cuadros Biggemann, Tara Grubac, Leo Kröhnke and Julian Wichert, share their great passion for cinema and comprise this year’s jury for the NDR Young Talent Award: The award honours directors who are presenting their feature film debut across all sections. The prize is endowed with 5,000 euros and is provided by broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk.

 

Additional awards include the FILMFEST HAMBURG Audience Award, donated by the Hapag-Lloyd Stiftung (5,000 euros), the MICHEL Film Award MAJA, donated by Hamburg cinema owner Hans-Peter Jansen (10,000 euros), the Albert Wiederspiel Award for International Film Direction (€10,000) in honour and recognition of the former festival director of FILMFEST HAMBURG, donated by the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation, and the Douglas Sirk Award, which is presented to individuals who have made outstanding achievements in film culture and the film industry.

 

FILMFEST HAMBURG will take place from 25 September to 4 October 2025. More than 120 productions from around the world will be shown as world, European, German or Hamburg premieres. The festival cinemas are Abaton, CinemaxX Dammtor, Metropolis, Passage and Studio Kino. On 3 October, FILMFEST HAMBURG will celebrate the ‘Free Admission Day’. All festival films showing in the five festival cinemas on this day will be free of charge. The FILMFEST UMS ECK cinemas will also participate in the event with one free film screening each on 3 October 2025. The complete festival programme will be announced on 9 September 2025.