12/05/2014 - The cult German director has won gold at the national cinema awards; Viennese Prochaska was given eight awards, including a silver Lola for The Dark Valley

Last Friday at Berlin’s Tempodrom, the German cinema Lola awards were handed out before culture minister Monika Grütters and the academy president of German cinema, Iris Berben.

The great winner and recipient of the gold Lola award for best film, best director and best screenplay was Home from Home - Chronicle of a Vision [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by cult director Edgar Reitz, a piece of work divided into two parts, which picks up on the plot of the famous mini-series by the “new German cinema” filmmakers, which takes place in a fictitious village named Schabbach, in the region of Hunsrück. This plot goes even further back in time, to the heart of the 19^th century, a moment when the inhabitants of the village are divided among themselves between emigrating to the new world or staying put and putting foundations down for a new age at home, influenced by the Enlightenment and the French revolution.

While the film by Reitz conquered the three ruling categories, the other indisputable triumph of the night hosted by Jan Josef Liefers was that of The Dark Valley [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Viennese Andreas Prochaska (director of successful horror film Dead in 3 Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile]), a story of vendetta starring British Sam Riley, which takes place in the Alps of the 19^th century. This film, which was the occasion for a gala screening at the last Berlin Film Festival (read the review), was a great favourite at this year’s Lola edition (read the article): of the nine categories it was nominated in, The Dark Valley came top in eight, specifically winning the silver Lola for best film and a majority of the technical awards.

COMPLETE LIST OF THE 2014 LOLA AWARDS FOR GERMAN CINEMA

Gold Lola for best film
Home from Home - Chronicle of a Vision by Edgar Reitz

Silver Lola for best film
The Dark Valley by Andreas Prochaska

Bronze Lola for best film
Two Lives [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Georg Maas

Best director
Edgar Reitz for Home from Home - Chronicle of a Vision 

Best screenplay
Edgar Reitz and Gert Heidenreich for Home from Home - Chronicle of a Vision 

Best actress
Jördis Triebel in West [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Christian Schwochow

Best actor
Dieter Hallervorden in Sein letztes Rennen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Kilian Riedhof

Best supporting actress
Sandra Hüller in Finsterworld [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Frauke Finsterwalder

Best supporting actor
Tobias Moretti in The Dark Valley

Best photography
Thomas W. Kiennast for The Dark Valley

Best editing
Hansjörg Weißbrich for Two Lives

Best screenplay
Claus Rudolf Amler for The Dark Valley 

Best costumes
Natascha Curtius-Noss for The Dark Valley 

Best make-up
Helene Lang and Roman Braunhofer for The Dark Valley 

Best music
Matthias Weber for The Dark Valley 

Best sound
Dietmar Zuson, Christof Ebhardt and Tschangis Chahrokh for The Dark Valley

Best documentary
Beltracchi - The Art of Forgery [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Arne Birkenstock

Best children’s film
Windstorm [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile] by Katja von Garnier

Audience award
Suck Me Shakespeer [+see also:
trailer
making of
interview: Jella Haase
film profile] by Bora Dagtekin

Bernd Eichinger Award
La bicicletta verde [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Haifaa Al Mansour

Career award
Helmut Dietl

(Translated from French)