Baden-Wuerttemberg Film Academy student Neele Leana Vollmar was awarded this year's Kodak Eastman Support Award for her short My Parents (Meine Eltern) at this year's Hof International Film Festival (October 22-26).

Vollmar joins an illustrious list of previous Kodak Eastman prize-winners such as Oscar winner Caroline Link (Nowhere In Africa), Tom Tykwer (Heaven), Soenke Wortmann (The Miracle Of Bern), Hans-Christian Schmid (Distant Lights) and Detlev Buck (Maennerpension).

The spotlight was also on the Eastman Award at the beginning of the festival when Kodak's Bernd Bartelt was presented with a Special Award by the town of Hof in recognition of the company's 20 years of supporting up-and-coming filmmakers through the prize.

The town's annual Film Prize for services to German cinema and the Hof International Film Festival went to director Dominik Graf, whose last feature Der Felsen was shown in the Berlinale's Official Competition in 2002.