At an awards ceremony on 1 October, held at the Filmfest Bar@Coda Club as part of Filmfest Hamburg, four Hamburg Producers Awards were presented by Hamburg’s City Councillor for Culture, Jana Schiedek. In addition, the Arthouse Cinema Award and the Best International Innovation Distribution Award in the International Film Distribution Summit, which took place in Hamburg for the first time this year, were also given out.

Since 2014, the Hamburg Producers Awards have honoured the outstanding achievements of German producers as well as film and television production companies. They are awarded in the “International Cinema Co-Production”, “German Cinema” and “German TV Films” competition categories, each with prize money of €25,000 attached. Meanwhile, the Hamburg Producers Award for German Series is endowed with €10,000.

The Hamburg Producers Award for International Cinema Co-Production went to producers Georg Neubert, Katharina Weser and Jasper Wiedhöft (Reynard Films) for Cyril Aris’s international co-production A Sad and Beautiful World [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Cyril Aris
scheda film] (Lebanon/USA/Germany/Saudi Arabia/Qatar). “The winning film managed to make us laugh and cry,” stated the jury members (producer Bettina Brokemper, director İlker Çatak and talent agent Mechthild Holter). “It is political in its intimacy, allows us to dream of a better world and never forgets that the personal is always political.”

The Hamburg Producers Award for German Cinema went to producer Kirill Krasovski (Blue Monticola Film) for Phantoms of July [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Julian Radlmaier
scheda film] by director and screenwriter Julian Radlmaier. The jury members (actress Lena Urzendowsky, cinematographer-director Zamarin Wahdat and producer Silvan Zürcher) praised the film: “Beautifully shot, it floats from character to character, weaving its fragments, layers and motifs into a lovingly playful and poetic cinematic mosaic. It touches on themes such as exclusion and the longing for belonging, raising questions about the kind of society we want to live in.” The jury also gave a Special Mention to Gavagai [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by writer-director Ulrich Köhler, and producers Sutor Kolonko and Ingmar Trost.

The prize money for both categories, totalling €50,000, is provided by the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

The Hamburg Producers Award for German TV Films went to producer Peter Hartwig (KINEO Film) for Polizei, which was written by Laila Stieler and directed by Buket Alakuş. “It is not only important but unfortunately also courageous to make a film about police violence. The film does not present us with a simple dichotomy of ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’,” said screenwriter-dramaturg Sabine Steyer-Violet, actor Malick Bauer and producer Sarika Lakhani, who were jury members. “Instead, it tells of all the shades of grey in between – through which the emotional core of the story shines.”

The Hamburg Producers Award for German Series was awarded to producers Kirstin Wille, Alexandra Bauermeister, Phil Laude and Ralph Schiller (DCM Pictures in cooperation with DiggiTales) for the series Almania by David Gruschka. “Full of humour and affection, Almania uses clever dialogue to lovingly let its characters clash without portraying any of them as one-dimensional,” the jury explained. The prize money of €35,000 is provided by the Collecting Society for Film and Television Producers (VFF).

The newly established Arthouse Cinema Award from CICAE, endowed with €25,000, went to German distributor Port-au-Prince Pictures for Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film]. The MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, as the sponsor of the award, is supporting the film’s release with PR activities. For the jury (consisting of exhibitors Verena von Stackelberg from Wolf Kino in Berlin, Aurel Graf from Arthouse Kinos in Zurich, and Mustafa El Mesaoudi from Lichtblick Cinema and Immegutefilme Distribution in Wuppertal), The Secret Agent “is not only a portrait of a dark period in Brazil’s history, but also an example of how arthouse cinema combines social relevance with cinematic intensity and artistic precision.”

As part of the expanded Filmfest Hamburg Industry Days, the Best International Innovation Distribution Award at this year’s International Film Distribution Summit was also presented during the evening. The award recognises the work and commitment of international distributors who, with innovative and forward-looking strategies, help make high-quality films accessible to a wide audience. This year’s winner is French international sales agent Charades. The prize is endowed with in-kind services worth €10,000, provided by Comscore, Gruvi and Usheru.

On the previous evening, 12 awards worth a total of €140,000 were presented at Café Schöne Aussichten to the best project pitches at this year’s European Work in Progress (see the news).

The remaining Filmfest Hamburg awards will be handed out on 4 October, ahead of the closing film, Rental Family.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Hamburg Producers Awards

Hamburg Producers Award for International Cinema Co-Production
A Sad and Beautiful World [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Cyril Aris
scheda film] - Cyril Aris (Lebanon/USA/Germany/Saudi Arabia/Qatar)
Producers: Georg Neubert, Katharina Weser, Jasper Wiedhöft (Reynard Films)

Hamburg Producers Award for German Cinema
Phantoms of July [+leggi anche:
recensione
intervista: Julian Radlmaier
scheda film] - Julian Radlmaier (Germany)
Producer: Kirill Krasovski (Blue Monticola Film)

Special Mention
Gavagai [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Ulrich Köhler (Germany/France)
Producer: Ingmar Trost (Sutor Kolonko Filmproduktion)

Hamburg Producers Award for German TV Films
Polizei - Buket Alakuş (Germany)
Producer: Peter Hartwig (KINEO Film)

Hamburg Producers Award for German Series
Almania - David Gruschka (Germany)
Producers: Kirstin Wille, Alexandra Bauermeister, Phil Laude, Ralph Schiller (DCM Pictures in cooperation with DiggiTales)

Arthouse Cinema Award
The Secret Agent [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil/France/Germany/Netherlands)

Best International Innovation Distribution Award
Charades (France)