The current state of the world, inner conflicts and future scenarios were topics that were tackled in several award-winning films at the 32nd edition of Filmfest Hamburg (26 September-5 October). The festival opened with the French tragicomedy Holy Cow [+lee también:
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entrevista: Louise Courvoisier
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Thanks to the introduction of a free-for-all day, new festival director Malika Rabahallah (see the interview) managed to boost the number of admissions to a total of 59,000. “With over 90% of capacity [filled] that day, this newly introduced initiative was a huge success in its first year,” says Rabahallah, whose team welcomed a total of 312 guests from 29 countries.

The Audience Award winner was the documentary Freiheit im Herzen – Lasst es uns eilig haben, menschlich zu sein by first-time filmmaker Roxana Samadi. In her film, she portrays Iranian women who protested on the streets of Tehran as well as in Germany after the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahas Amini, who had been detained by the “morality police” in Iran. Young women’s protests in Tehran also serve as a background story in Mohammad Rasoulof’s award-winning political thriller The Seed of the Sacred Fig [+lee también:
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entrevista: Directors Talks @ European…
entrevista: Mohammad Rasoulof
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Famous Iranian singer Googoosh also got arrested and was only able to continue performing when she left the country 20 years later. The Iranian pop icon is portrayed in the documentary Googoosh – Made of Fire by Niloufar Taghizadeh. “We were only able to produce this film because we had the support of broadcaster ARTE,” says the filmmaker, who saw people punished and shot in the streets when she was growing up in Iran. Meanwhile, in the Canadian comedy Universal Language by Matthew Rankin, the world in Winnipeg seems to have been turned upside down because everyone is speaking Farsi.

A different aspect of Canada is approached in the documentary Sugarcane by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, who investigated the physical and sexual abuse of indigenous children by the Catholic Church. The movie won the coveted Political Film Award. The protagonist in the award-winning Ukrainian feature Stepne [+lee también:
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A dip into the past can also bring up dark memories in families, as Swiss filmmaker Ramon Zürcher shows in his family drama The Sparrow in the Chimney [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ramon y Silvan Zürcher
ficha de la película], which earned him the Critics’ Choice Award. Another family drama unfolds in Haifa: in Happy Holidays [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] by Scandar Copti, a pregnant woman is caught in the middle. While her boyfriend doesn’t want a child, his mother is already planning a huge event and her sister suggests a separation. In Vena [+lee también:
entrevista: Chiara Fleischhacker
ficha de la película], the debut movie by German filmmaker Chiara Fleischhacker, pregnancy causes mixed feelings for the protagonist because she and her boyfriend are drug addicts. Nevertheless, she decides to take responsibility for the unborn child and herself. Vena received the German Cinema Production Award. In Nineteen [+lee también:
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ficha de la película], Italian first-time filmmaker Giovanni Tortorici portrays a young student who delves into art, music and literature, and who finds a foothold in his loneliness.

Filmfest Hamburg presented several animated films in the children’s programme, such as the action-adventure The Super Elfkins by Ute von Münchow-Pohl, as well as the Christmas flicks Niko – Beyond the Northern Lights by Kari Juusonen and Le Grand Noël des animaux by Camille Alméras, Caroline Attia Lariviere, Ceylan Beyoglu, Haruna Kishi, Natalia Chernysheva and Olesya Shchukina. The Michel Award for Best Children's and Youth Film went to the live-action drama Lars er LOL by Eirik Sæter Stordahl, in which an 11-year-old is put in an awkward position when her friends start making fun of a new student with Down’s syndrome.

A special highlight at Filmfest Hamburg was the presentation of the Douglas Sirk Award, which was offered to French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, who showed his award-winning melodrama Emilia Perez [+lee también:
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ficha de la película]. Hamburg-based filmmaker Fatih Akin has been inspired by Audiard because he dives deep into the world of his protagonists. “He is the best filmmaker,” Akin summed up in his speech. Andrea Arnold was a further recipient of the award. Among the guests at Filmfest Hamburg were directors such as Mohammad Rasoulof, Michel Hazanavicius, Joshua Oppenheimer, Nora Fingscheidt, Thomas Vinterberg, Christian Schwochow and Ali Samadi Ahadi. “It was overwhelming to see so many renowned directors, actors and filmmakers in Hamburg, all enjoying the special festival atmosphere with us,” concludes Rabahallah.

Here is the complete list of award winners at the 32nd Filmfest Hamburg:

Political Film Award
Sugarcane - Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie (Canada/USA)

Critics' Choice Award
The Sparrow in the Chimney [+lee también:
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entrevista: Ramon y Silvan Zürcher
ficha de la película] - Ramon Zürcher (Switzerland)

Scythian Deer Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival Award
Stepne [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Maryna Vroda (Ukraine/Germany/Poland/Slovakia)

Douglas Sirk Award
Jacques Audiard
Andrea Arnold

Arthouse Cinema Award
Universal Language - Matthew Rankin (Canada)

Hamburg Audience Award
Freiheit im Herzen – Lasst es uns eilig haben, menschlich zu sein – Roxana Samadi (Germany/Iran)

Michel Award for Best Children's and Youth Film
Lars er LOL - Eirik Sæter Stordahl (Norway)

NDR Young Talent Award
Nineteen [+lee también:
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ficha de la película] - Giovanni Tortorici (Italy)

International Cinema Co-production Award
Happy Holidays [+lee también:
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entrevista: Scandar Copti
ficha de la película] - Scandar Copti (Palestine/France/Germany/Italy/Qatar)

German Cinema Production Award
Vena [+lee también:
entrevista: Chiara Fleischhacker
ficha de la película] - Chiara Fleischhacker (Germany)

German Television Production Award
Von uns wird es keiner sein - Simon Ostermann (Germany)

Special Prize for Serial Formats
Deadlines - Sonja Heiss (Germany)