“Jam-packed cinemas, international industry guests at our Filmfest Hamburg Industry Days, and a hugely successful ‘Free Admission Day’: I’m truly overwhelmed by our audience, our guests, the positive feedback – and the weather! What a heart-warming ten days,” said Malika Rabahallah, director of Filmfest Hamburg. “My heartfelt thanks go to everyone who made this edition so special.”

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On the red carpet, Rabahallah and her team welcomed 814 guests from 36 countries, including directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Akinola Davis Jr, Fatih Akin, Anne Émond, Ali Asgari, Cherien Dabis, Zinnini Elkington, Tarik Saleh, Rosanne Pel, Zhanna Ozirna, Kate Beecroft, Till Endemann, Ferzan Özpetek, James Sweeney, Julia Ducournau and Kleber Mendonça Filho.

The Douglas Sirk Award, Filmfest Hamburg’s honorary prize instigated in 1995, was awarded to Belgian helmers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who presented their latest drama film Young Mothers [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Luc e Jean-Pierre Dardenne
scheda film] at the gathering. The Political Film Award of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, endowed with €10,000, was granted to Lana Daher’s debut feature, Do You Love Me [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lana Daher
scheda film], a personal journey through Lebanon's audiovisual memory that is composed entirely of archival footage. By piecing together a mosaic of memories, she has created a poetic movie that shows Beirut through the eyes of its inhabitants. “She shows us a city seemingly trapped in an endless loop of violence and uncertainty, lacking a shared story. The film is an emotional homage to buried homelands,” commented jury members Irene Appiah, Member of the Hamburg Parliament, and director Ali Samadi Ahadi.

The NDR Young Talent Award for a feature debut, worth €5,000, was given to Lloyd Lee Choi for Lucky Lu, a striking portrait of the daily struggle for survival faced by migrant communities in the USA today. A Chinese bicycle messenger comes to realise that he must give up his dreams in order to survive in the concrete jungle of New York City. “It is Choi’s sensitive approach to the complex, ambivalent relationships between Lu, his daughter, old acquaintances and his social environment that makes him a most promising new voice in cinema,” stated jury members Valentina Cuadros Biggemann, Julia Giang, Tara Madelaine Grubac, Leo Kröhnke and Julian Wichert.

The Critics' Choice Award, presented in cooperation with the German Film Critics’ Association since 2018, went to the debut feature Second Victims by Danish director Zinnini Elkington. In this moving drama, a young doctor struggles with the stress and pressure of working in the healthcare system. She finds out that despite the miracles of science and medical technology, human power over life and death has its limits. “Thanks to its powerful visual language – an expressive use of locations, a dynamic depiction of stress, and long takes that give the strong ensemble space to unfurl the emotional journey – the film deeply immerses us,” said German film critics Sofia Glasl, Felicitas Kleiner and Danny Marques Marçalo.

The Filmfest Hamburg Audience Award, endowed with €5,000 and provided by the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation for the festival’s audience favourite, went to the French flick Love Letters [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by Alice Douard. The Michel MAJA Award, endowed with €10,000 and donated by Hamburg cinema operator Hans-Peter Jansen, was awarded by the Michel children’s and youth jury to the Czech stop-motion animation Tales from the Magic Garden [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] by David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar and Jean-Claude Rozec. In it, three kids spend the night at their grandpa’s house. To fill the silence after losing their grandma, the family’s storyteller, they create their own stories and discover the power of imagination. Finally, the Arthouse Cinema Award was snagged by Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent [+leggi anche:
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scheda film].

Here is the complete list of award winners at the 33rd Filmfest Hamburg:

Political Film Award
Do You Love Me [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lana Daher
scheda film] - Lana Daher (France/Lebanon/Germany/Qatar)

Critics' Choice Award
Second Victims - Zinnini Elkington (Denmark)

Douglas Sirk Award
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne

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

Hamburg Audience Award
Love Letters [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] - Alice Douard (France)

Michel MAJA Award for Best Children's and Youth Film
Tales from the Magic Garden [+leggi anche:
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trailer
scheda film] - David Súkup, Patrik Pašš, Leon Vidmar, Jean-Claude Rozec (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Slovenia/France)

NDR Young Talent Award
Lucky Lu - Lloyd Lee Choi (USA/Canada) 

International Cinema Co-production Award
A Sad and Beautiful World [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Cyril Aris
scheda film] - Cyril Aris (Lebanon/Germany/USA)

German Cinema Production Award
Phantoms of July [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Julian Radlmaier
scheda film] - Julian Radlmaier (Germany)

German Television Production Award
Polizei - Buket Alakuş (Germany)

Special Prize for Serial Formats
Almania - David Gruschka (Germany)