Marceline Loridan-Ivens has been awarded the Euros 25,000 "Bernhard Wicki Film Prize - The Bridge 2003" for her exploration of her own and Germany's past in La Petite Prairie Aux Bouleaux (A Birch Tree Meadow) at a gala ceremony during this week's Munich Film Festival. The film's lead actress Anouk Aimee was presented with an Honorary Award.

The Prize, which was created last year by legendary German filmmaker Bernhard Wicki's widow Elisabeth Wicki-Endriss "to honour filmmakers and artistic works which build bridges where others tear open trenches", was given to Loridan-Ivens for a film which Wicki-Endriss described as "an important film in our time which reminds us to keep awake. Its message is hope, the vision of reconciliation in our world."

La Petite Prairie Aux Bouleaux, which was co-produced with Munich-based filmmakers Peter and Marie-Noelle Sehr with backing from public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk and FFF Bayern, received its world premiere "out of competition" at this year's Berlinale.