Tim Fehlbaum’s thriller September 5 was the big winner at this year’s German Film Awards, clinching nine statuettes in total including the Golden Lola for best film.
The film also won prizes for direction, screenplay, supporting actress, cinematography, editing, sound, production design and make-up.
Swiss-born Fehlbaum’s third feature had been this year’s hot favourite after it received 10 nominations from the German Film Academy’s members ahead of the weekend’s gala ceremony in Berlin. It only missed out on winning the Lola for best film score which went to Dasha Dauenhauer for Jan-Ole Gerster’s English language debut Islands.
September 5 world premiered as the opening film of Venice’s Orizzonti Extra sidebar last September and had nominations for Best Original Screenplay at the 97th Academy Awards and for Best Motion Picture - Drama at the 82nd Golden Globes.
It is produced by BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion and Projected Picture Works in co-production with Constantin Film Produktion and Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion.
The Silver Lola for best film went to Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof who accepted the award on stage in person along with his producers Mani Tilgner and Rozita Hendijanian The Seed of the Sacred Fig. A video link to Iran enabled Misagh Zare to thank the Film Academy for naming him as the winner of the Lola for best lead actor.
Meanwhile, the Bronze Lola was presented to Andreas Dresen’s Berlinale 2024 Competition film From Hilde, With Love which also picked up the Lola for best female lead for Liv Lisa Fries.
Director-screenwriter-producer Veit Helmer took home his first ever Lola in the best children’s film category for Akiko - The Flying Monkey which is being handled internationally by Loco Films.
Helmer had previously been nominated for a Lola for his 2014 children’s film Fiddlesticks and won a German Short Film Award in Silver in 1995 for his multi-award-winning Surprise!
Meanwhile, Doris Metz’s portrait of one of the co-founders of Germany’s Green Party in Petra Kelly - Act Now! beat off competition from Andres Veiel’s Riefenstahl and Ibrahim Nash’at’s Hollywoodgate to win the Lola for best documentary.
Other films finding favour with the Film Academy’s membership were Sad Jokes (best male supporting role), Cranko (best costume design) and Hagen (best visual effects)
Standing ovations
The 3 ½ hour long ceremony at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz featured several emotional high points as the audience gave standing ovations to casting director An Dorte Braker, the recipient of this year’s Honorary Lola, the German singer-songwriter, poet, and former East German dissident Wolf Biermann, and director Mohammad Rasoulof and his lead actor Misagh Zare.
Several pronouncements made by presenters and winners during the ceremony to fight the current surge in far-right extremism in Germany and encourage greater empathy with one’s fellow citizens received an additional poignancy when the pianist Igor Levit announced to the audience before revealing the winner of the music score Lola that he had just been informed behind stage that the Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer had passed away at the age of 103.
In a spontaneous and moving tribute to Friedländer, Levit called her “a miracle of humanity” and “a warm-hearted, generous and incredible person.”
It was only at last year’s Lola awards ceremony that Friedländer had appeared on stage with the human rights activist Düzen Tekkal and director Wim Wenders to make an urgent appeal to the assembled film community about the changes in Germany’s political landscape.
“There are a lot of storytellers in this room. You have a responsibility to use the power of film to make sure it never happens again,” she said at the time.
Culture minister debut
Meanwhile, this year’s ceremony provided the backdrop for the first public appearance by the new State Minister for Culture and Media Wolfram Weimer who had only officially taken up his post as successor to Claudia Roth two days beforehand on (7 May).
Speaking to the 1,600-strong audience, he said that the new German Film Law (FFG), which came into effect at the beginning of this year as part of a far-reaching reform package, “is only a first step”. He said he was now ready to come together with film industry bodies to work on the next steps of the proposed reforms which would see the introductions of a tax incentive model and investment obligation.
Asked by the Film Academy’s co-president actress Vicky Krieps about Donald Trump’s proposal for a 100% tariff to be made on films shot in foreign countries, Weimer commented: “That sounds like a bitter grotesque. All that’s missing is that he’ll be imposing tariffs on jokes tomorrow so that one doesn’t make fun about it!”
“Tariffs are always bad, but tariffs on films are an attack on cultural freedom,” he declared, adding that there had already been an exchange between the Trump administration and the new Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz about this issue.
“Those are positive signs because we don’t want to end up [with a situation] where customs officers are impounding films, that’s something we want to prevent,” Weieme concluded.
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