Presentation of the Hamburg Production Awards 2024
30. September 2024
At the award ceremony on September 30, 2024, in Halle D, the three Hamburg Production Awards were presented by Hamburg’s State Secretary for Culture, Jana Schiedek. Established in 2014, the award recognizes the outstanding achievements of German producers and film and television production companies. It is awarded in the categories “International Cinema Co-Productions”, “German Cinema Productions” and “German TV Productions”, each with prize money of 25,000 euros. The special award for serial formats is endowed with 10,000 euros.
The Hamburg Production Award for “International Cinema Co-Productions” went to producer Dorothe Beinemeier (Red Balloon) for the international co-production Happy Holidays (Director and Screenwriter: Scandar Copti; Palestinian Territories, Germany, France, Italy). The jury (Fatih Akin, director, screenwriter, and producer; Melanie Andernach, producer; Lillah Halla, screenwriter, and director) was impressed by the clever dramaturgy. The film tells “in a very sensitive and precise way the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict across many generations. It only needs the span of two holidays, two families, and four perspectives. It exposes a patriarchal, militarized society in which women are deprived of the right to control their own bodies. Despite this, the film approaches all its characters with great empathy and grants us insights into a world where everyone is trapped.”
The award in the “German Cinema Productions” category went to the producers Dietmar Güntsche, Martin Rohé, and Svenja Vanhoefer for the film Vena by director and screenwriter Chiara Fleischhacker. The jury (Fabian Gasmia, producer; Ayşe Polat, director, producer, and screenwriter; and Paolina Theophil, agent) praised “the impressive debut of young director Chiara Fleischhacker, who has made a big leap. We would like to highlight the achievement of the producers, who recognized the talent of the young director early on and supported her throughout the production.” The film is “a precise study of a milieu that captivates its audience with immense power in image, sound, and music. The film looks at the painful spots in our society and unfolds an emotional intensity that resonates long after.”
The jury also gave an honorable mention to the production Blindgänger (Production: Tamtam Film, Dirk Decker, Andrea Schütte; Director and Screenwriter: Kerstin Polte): “The bold and original episodic film impressed us.” The film shows “that big stories can be told even with limited budgets.”
The prize money for both categories, totaling 50,000 euros, is provided by the Department of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
The winners of the Hamburg Production Award for “German TV Productions” are producers Bernd von Fehrn, René Jamm (Warner Bros.), Roxana Richters, and Alexander Wadouh (Chromosom Film) for Von uns wird es keiner sein (Director: Simon Ostermann; Screenwriter: Lucas Flasch). The film approaches the subject of “suicide in an unprecedented way,” according to the jury (Margarete Broich, actress; Deborah Congia, casting director; and Lasse Scharpen, producer). “This film is a testament to the fact that theme-based films can be powerful and still sensitive without being didactic.”
The prize money for this award, amounting to 25,000 euros, is donated by the Film and Television Producers’ Rights Association (VFF), which also provides the prize money for the special award for serial formats, amounting to 10,000 euros.
This special award was given this year to producers Martin Danisch and David Hadda (Turbokultur) for the series Deadlines (Director: Sonja Heiss; Screenwriters: Johannes Boss, Nora Gantenbrink, Sonja Heiss). The jury’s reasoning stated, “This series, or rather this season, is a feminist manifesto, while also being the most entertaining format we have seen in the past three days. Amazing writing, amazing cast, amazing directing. Things like this just don’t happen by chance.”
The other FILMFEST HAMBURG awards will be presented on October 5 before the closing film The Room Next Door.
