Wladimir Klitschko was also included at the German Film Awards
Source: dpa/Britta Pedersen
The favorite “Dear Thomas” won nine Lolas at the German Film Awards. The evening is dedicated to the European war in the Ukraine – and the question of whether, in times like this, one should and should celebrate in tails and evening gowns.
In the run-up to the 72nd German Film Awards, it was actually pretty clear how it would turn out. And so it happened. The big favorite “Dear Thomas” won nine Lolas, including those for Best Film, Director (Andreas Kleinert), Screenplay (Thomas Wendrich) and Lead Actor (Albrecht Schuch). The second winner was “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush“: The leading actress (Meltem Kaptan) and the supporting actor (Alexander Scheer) were honored here, and there was also a silver Lola. Two Lolas went to “Great Freedom” – the bronze one and for the mask.
If that had been all on Friday evening in the Palais under the Berlin radio tower, you could forget about the show of the German film industry; one of the better cinema years, but still damaged by the pandemic. But it was also a Lola during the European war in Ukraine. Whether in times like this one should and may celebrate in tails and evening gowns was a serious concern of the event.
The academy referred to a scholarship program it had set up for Ukrainian filmmakers. The celebration almost got an absolution from (in this case real) Wladimir Klitschko, who encouraged celebrations via mobile phone video and announced the documentary film category with the words that its directors were “soldiers of truth”; it was the one formulation that evening that most directly brought the reality of war into the palace.
For three hours, the gala balanced between celebration and crisis
This was followed by a live broadcast to Kyiv to two young documentary filmmakers, one of whom was still at the front yesterday with her camera. Claudia Roth, the new Minister of State for Culture, reported on her trip to Odessa, where she also visited the idle film studios; As a film promoter, she has had a new nickname since Friday evening, “Miss Moneypenny”. Incidentally, the children’s film “Peterchens Mondfahrt” was the last German film in Ukrainian cinemas before they had to close.
For three hours, the gala balanced between celebration and crisis. Or more precisely: between celebrations and crises – plural. There is also the crisis of going out culture after the pandemic. As the most successful German film, “Magic Animals” had 1.7 million admissions, followed by “Beautiful” with 1.4; in the past they wouldn’t even have come close to the top films with such audience numbers.
“The cinema has become a fragile place,” said Janine Jackowski, whose company “Komplizen-Film” was awarded the Bernd Eichinger Special Prize, rightly so, because for ten years hardly any production house has been so courageous with its films, from ” Toni Erdmann” to “AEIOU” to “Corsage”. It was also a night of self-encouragement for the industry, which recognizes it will take a fight to get viewers off the streaming couch.
Ulrich Tukur had the best performance
The evening was staged by the director Ed Herzog, who has written one of the most successful series in German cinema history, with the now seven Eberharter thrillers. As is well known, these are somewhat coarser knitted parts, but the film award evening maneuvered its way through the difficult times with great tact.
Ulrich Tukur, who sang Minne-Serenade to the supporting actresses nominees with his accordion, had the most beautiful performance. The presenter Katrin Bauerfeind, who introduced herself as “Barbara Schöneberger light”, led through the evening with a pleasant portion of chutzpah, which incidentally was completely gendered. There was no mercy, there were no jokes about that on stage, but there were a lot about the thoroughly vegetarian appetizers that were served.
Some of the acceptance speeches lured against the sting of public consensus. Andreas Kleinert, the big winner of the evening with his Thomas Brasch biography, began with the statement that, in the spirit of Brasch, he should now start with a speech critical of capitalism. He saved that in order to criticize the fact that armaments companies were being made the profiteers of the Ukraine crisis – certainly also in the spirit of Brasch: “In a free society, pacifists must also be allowed to be pacifists.”