Ella Cieslinski and Nina Wesemann, the co-directors of Dear Future Self, won the € 30,000 award for best directing for their feature debut at this year’s edition of the German Cinema New Talent Awards during the Munich International Film Festival (MIFF).
The two produced the film about the fragility of female friendships and how two friends drift apart as they question their own decisions in life, through their own production company, Freundinnen Film.
“The film proceeds with such thoughtfulness and complexity that it feels as though it were one of the characters itself,” said a statement by the jury. “A film that tells of the here and now, and asks us what our tomorrow should look like.”
The jury was comprised of writer-director Visa Morina, actress Haley Louise Jones and producer Trini Götze,
Dear Future Self also picked up the €10,000 award for actress Ricarda Seifried.
The award for best production with a cash prize of €20,000 went to film editor Christoph Otto’s feature directorial debut The Ballad From Wednesday To Thursday, an ensemble comedy set in a neighbourhood bar in Cologne and capturing the mood of a whole country.
Otto produced the film through his own company Monte Kalk Film, with Ana Maria Wanda Produktion and btf as co-producers. He will also receive 50,000 “reference” points from the German Federal Film Board (FFA) towards the funding of a future project.
Meanwhile, Susanne Heinrich took home the €10,000 award for best screenplay for her second feature film The Miserable Mother which the jury described as “ like a fever dream – yet so playful and artful, with a unique sense of rhythm”.
Produced by Katharina Weser’s Leipzig-based Reynard Films with Philippe Bober’s Essential Filmproduktion, the musical comedy featuring fairies, talking babies and a heavenly children’s choir had its world premiere at last month’s Shanghai International Film Festival where it won the outstanding artistic achievement award in the main competition.
Heinrich will also be able to participate in a mentoring programme organised by Bavaria Fiction and led by producer Ronald Mühlfellner.
The German Cinema New Talent Award is sponsored by Bavaria Film, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and DZ Bank, and recognises outstanding achievements by emerging talent in feature films screened in MIFF’s New German Cinema section.
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