Editor

Four awards were presented tonight within the framework of the closing event of Filmfest Hamburg in the cinema CinemaxX Dammtor:
The Hamburg Film Critics Award, presented this year for the fourth time by ‘Der
Spiegel’, ‘Stern’, ‘Hamburger Abendblatt’ and ‘NDR 90,3’, went to the English film ‘Control’ (director: Anton Corbijn, German distributor: capelight pictures).
Endowed with 30,000 euros by the Department of Economy and Finance, the TV
Produzentenpreis (TV Producers Award) went to magnolia Filmproduktion
FROM Hamburg (producers: Nina Bohlmann and Babette Schröder) for the NDR/ARTE
TV film ‘Kuckuckszeit’ (director: Johannes Fabrick). The prize is available exclusively for commissions with postproduction companies from Hamburg. The jury was made up of actress Karoline Eichhorn, journalist Peter Luley and producer Claudia Schröder.
Endowed with 10,000 euros and presented for the first time ever this year, the
Montblanc Script Award went to Jan Hinrik Drevs for his film-script of
‘Underdogs’ (production: Wüste Filmproduktion), which he also directed.
The Montblanc Script Award is presented in the section NORDLICHTER (NORTHERN
LIGHTS). The jury was made up of Ursula Keller (author and former head of
Literaturhaus Hamburg), Sigrid Behrens (author from Hamburg) and Nikolaus Hansen (publisher, Mare Buchverlag).

Presented for the second time at Filmfest Hamburg, this year’s ‘DAS VIERTE
micromovie-Award’ went to ‘Unser Kind’. Florian Siegrist, the creative mind
behind the winning film, which had been selected by the Filmfest Hamburg audience and TV channel DAS VIERTE viewers, received 4,444 euros and will take part in an exclusive scriptwriting workshop.
The TV Movie-Audience Award, endowed with 5,000 euros, for which eight films
from the section eurovisuell had been nominated, was presented to the Czech film ‘Empties’ by director Jan Sverák, whose film ‘Kolya’ had won the 1997 Oscar forBest Foreign Language Film.
The award is donated by the TV programme guide TV Movie.
Canadian director David Cronenberg was awarded the Douglas-Sirk-Award on 28th
September on occasion of the German premiere of his film ‘Eastern Promises’. The renowned prize is awarded annually to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to the benefit of cinema culture. The laudatory speech was held by Matthias Matussek, head of cultural desk at the weekly news magazine ‘Der Spiegel’, from Hamburg.
The awards at the 5th Children’sFilmfest were presented on 3rd October.
Donated by Universal Pictures German, the Michel award for the best children’s
film went to the Italian film ‘Red Like the Sky’ (director: Cristiano Bortone). A children’s jury of seven selected the film out of ten nominations from the children’s film programme. The ‘Michel’ is endowed with 2,500 euros.
The audience award sponsored by new Children’sFilmfest partner RWE Westfalen-
Weser-Ems went to the German animated film ‘Die Drei Räuber’ (director: Hayo
Freitag).

More than 141 national and international feature- and documentary films from 43
countries celebrated their world-, European- or German premieres in Hamburg. More than 200 directors, actors, producers and screenwriters presented their films in person at the 15th Filmfest Hamburg from 27th September to 4th October.
The international guests included: David Cronenberg and Armin Mueller-Stahl (director and actor: ‘Eastern Promises’), Anton Corbijn and Alexandra Maria Lara (director and actress: ‘Control’), Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt (director:’Odette Toulemonde’), Per Fly and Sonja Richter (director and actress: ‘Performances’), Jan Decleir (actor: ‘A Perfect Match’), Masahiro Kobayashi (director: ‘The Rebirth’), Faouzi Bensaïdi (director:
‘WWW - What a Wonderful World’) and Antonin Svoboda and Heinz Strunk (director
and actor: ‘Immer nie am Meer’).

The 16th Filmfest Hamburg will take place from 25.09 to 2.10.2008.