26/06/2014 - Lutz Konermann, Hansjörg Weissbrich, Bigna Tomschin and Renato Berta have done Swiss cinema proud at the 24th edition of the prestigious Deutscher Kamerapreis

Switzerland has been extremely successful in Cologne, where four awards have paid tribute to the country’s cinema, including an Honorary Award given to the great Swiss DoP Renato Berta. He has had a career studded with remarkable collaborations with high-profile directors, such as Claude Chabrol, Éric Rohmer, Patrice Chéreau, Manoel de Oliveira, Amos Gitaï and Alain Tanner. It was with the latter that he took his first steps into the “big leagues”, working as DoP on six of his films.

Renato Berta has left his own unique mark on Swiss cinema as well as on the wider European cinematic landscape, through his crystal-clear, precise style, and through his unique viewpoint, especially during his work with the biggest names in New Swiss Cinema – not just Tanner, but also Goretta and Daniel Schmid. Over the last 45 years, his meticulous and passionate work on films that have subsequently achieved iconic status – movies such as The Wounded Man by Patrice Chéreau and Au revoir les enfants by Louis Malle (which earned him a César Award for Best Cinematography) – has left a lasting impression on European cinema.

In the “documentaries” category, another prize for cinematography was handed over to Lutz Konermann for his work on My Name Is Salt [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Farida Pacha. In this film, camera on shoulder, he went around following the hard lives of the families of Indian labourers who mainly work in salt mines in near-apocalyptic desert areas. The jury wished to award it for its powerful and rich viewpoint, which rises above “the aridity” of these barren landscapes, on the very edges of alienation.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Hansjörg Weissbrich was triumphant in the editing category, thanks to his collaboration with Swiss director Petra Volpe on Traumland (which was nominated several times at the latest edition of the Swiss Film Award).

Lastly, young director/editor Bigna Tomschin received an award for the editing of her graduation film (from the Zurich School of Art and Design), Blue Blue Sky, which was nominated in the “New Talents” category.

(Translated from Italian)