Starting in 2020, the IFFMH will award five monetary prizes in the international competition ON THE RISE. In addition to the traditionally non-monetary prize of the International Federation of Film Critics FIPRESCI, which has been awarded in Mannheim since 1960, and the Ecumenical Jury Prize worth €2,500 (since 1963), four new monetary prizes will be introduced starting in 2020. "The competition focuses on the works of outstanding talents," says Frédéric Jaeger, Head of Programme and Curator of ON THE RISE. "The fact that the new monetary prizes will make it possible, from this year on, to offer them concrete support as they work on their next projects is linked to a hope that is essential to ON THE RISE. We are thus looking to the future".

The INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER AWARD, the main prize of the IFFMH, is endowed with €25,000 and funded by the Manfred Lautenschläger-Stiftung. The international jury awards this prize to the best directorial work of the respective year, honouring the strongest film and the talent for directing that it showcases. "We are very pleased to be able to support the traditional and renowned IFFMH with the prize money for the INTERNATIONAL NEWCOMER AWARD," says Markus Lautenschläger. "And it fits in very well with our philosophy to honour and highlight the outstanding achievements of talented artists with such an award."

Newly introduced is the RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER AWARD for best screenplay, endowed with €10,000 and funded by the Festival. The international jury will award it to the authors of the best screenplay of a film in the competition, thus honouring the features of the screenplay realised in the film. "Our festival is closely associated with the name Fassbinder, the outstanding screenwriter who sometimes stands in the shadow of the furious director who celebrated one of his first successes at the International Film Week Mannheim as early as 1969," says festival director Sascha Keilholz. "With this new award we are expressing this connection.” On behalf of the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation, Juliane Lorenz expresses her gratitude for the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Award as a new screenplay prize: "A discipline that particularly distinguished Fassbinder, but never received a special prize. We wish the future award winners much courage and confidence in telling their stories. Stories that they alone know."

Also new at the IFFMH is the AWARD OF THE STUDENT JURY, awarded by a jury of students from the region who are intensely engaged with film theory and practice. The prize is endowed with €5,000 and is intended to render the perspective of students visible at the Festival.

The traditional AUDIENCE AWARD will also be endowed with €5,000 by the IFFMH starting in 2020. In light of the social distancing restrictions, voting for the award will take place exclusively online for the first time. The criteria for selection – be it rational, emotional or aesthetic – are left fully up to the audience.

Festival director Sascha Keilholz thanks the partners with whose support the IFFMH is able to award six important prizes to ON THE RISE. "Our special thanks go to the Manfred Lautenschläger-Stiftung, Catharina Seegelken and Markus Lautenschläger, and to Juliane Lorenz from the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation for their trust."