12/03/2012 - The biannual Luxembourg Film Awards were handed out this weekend, with sauna comedy Hot Hot Hot! taking the main prize.

The biannual Luxembourg Film Awards, the Lëtzebuerger Filmpräis, were handed out this weekend, with sauna comedy Hot Hot Hot! [+see also:
trailer
film profile] taking the main prize.

The event took place in the spa town Mondorf-les-Bains, where around 800 people from the Luxembourg film industry gathered for this celebration of local cinema, organised by Luxembourg Film Fund at the tail end of the Discovery Zone Luxembourg City Film Festival.

This year’s jury consisted of French Arte presenter Marie Labory, as well as local cinema workers Vesna Andonovic, Max Permentier, Roger Fohl and Claude Frisoni, film critic Jean-Pierre Thilges and Claude Bertemes, the director of the Luxembourg Cinémathèque.

The best documentary Filmpräis went to High Low from cinematographer-turned-director Jean-Louis Schuller and Sam Blair, produced by Samsa Film. Schuller also went home with the Filmpräis for best technical contribution for his camerawork of the last two years.

Best artistic contribution went to composer André Dziezuk for his work over the past two years, and to Maisy Hausemer and Paul Scheuer, for their screenplay of D’Symmetrie vum Päiperlek (The Symmetry of the Butterfly).

Best short film went to Govinda van Maele, whose En Dag am fräien was co-produced by Lucil Film and Red Lion and which, rather unusually, was made without a production grant from the Luxembourg Film Fund.

Belgian film Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile] by Olivier Masset-Depasse, was crowned best co-production (Iris Production S.A.), while the Best Animated Film statue went to Rose & Violet from Claude Grosch and Luc Otter (Samsa Film).

Samsa also took home the top prize for their production Hot Hot Hot!, directed by Beryl Koltz, which won the best film category. The English-language title was up against several other films, including the Luxembourg-language films D’Symmetrie vum Päiperlek and Trouble No More.