2023-05-10 16:18:58
The German Film Academy will present its most important awards on Friday. Edward Berger’s anti-war film “Nothing New in the West” entered the race with the most nominations. This time, the choice of film is causing debate.
With the German Film Prize, one of the most important awards in the industry will be presented on May 12th. After its success in Hollywood, the anti-war film “Nothing New in the West” goes into the race with the most nominations. The film has already won four Oscars – now the literary adaptation about the First World War has been nominated twelve times at the German Film Awards.
If you ask director Edward Berger (52) how important it is after the Oscars nomination is still in Germany at all, he replies: “I’m really happy about that.” His film competes with five other productions for the Goldene Lola, i.e. the award for the best feature film.
These include the drama “Das Lehrerzimmer” about an escalating conflict in a school, the thriller “Holy Spider” about a woman murderer in Iran, “Sonne und Beton” based on a novel by Felix Lobrecht, the gangster story “Rheingold” by Fatih Akin and the Literary adaptation “When will it finally be like it never was” based on a book by Joachim Meyerhoff.
Director Volker Schlöndorff (84/”The Tin Drum”) is to be awarded the honorary prize for outstanding services to German film. ZDF broadcasts the award ceremony live from Potsdamer Platz at 7 p.m. in the media library, later it is shown on television with a time delay from 11:30 p.m. Actress Jasmin Shakeri (“Simply something nice”) will moderate the evening.
Cinema Association criticizes the Academy
Similar to the USA, the members of the film academy in Germany also vote on the winners. The prizes and nominations are endowed with a total of around three million euros in public funds. Only – who is nominated at all? And in which procedure is the decision made? One of the cinema associations accused the film academy of lack of direction.
The AG Kino – Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater represents arthouse cinemas in Germany. The association criticized the fact that “Nothing New in the West”, a film from the streaming provider Netflix, has been nominated several times, while Christian Petzold’s new film “Red Sky” has not.
The drama “Red Sky” did not end up in the preselection, but won the grand jury prize at this year’s Berlinale. Petzold had criticized the selection process in “BZ” – the film academy distributes funds for cultural film funding, “ie money from all of us”, as a private association.
Film Academy wants to reconsider the selection process
Actress Alexandra Maria Lara (44) heads the film academy with director Florian Gallenberger (51). “We both agree that it is a special and very strong film,” Lara told dpa. “In fact, I find it problematic to base this discussion on an example.” Regardless of the individual case, the two advocate rethinking the previous selection process.
According to Gallenberger, an extraordinary general meeting was held at which a majority voted in favor of a new election process without preselection. The procedure is now being worked out and submitted to the House of Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens), because that is where the last word lies.
There are currently several stages. First, a smaller commission makes a pre-selection, from which the official nominations are then determined. If a film does not make it into the preselection, the team can register it later using the so-called wild card. After the nominations have been announced, all Academy members can finally vote on the winners.
Debate about the working atmosphere after the “Spiegel” article
The awarding of the film prize also comes at a time when working conditions on the set are being discussed. “As the German Film Academy, we are committed to fair working conditions and against abuse of power in the production of films,” said a statement on the Academy’s website. “We reject abusive behavior in any form. It is important that grievances are uncovered and named, but at the same time we regret that an entire industry has been discredited by the recent incidents.”
After a “Spiegel” report about alleged harassment and a “climate of fear” during the shooting of the film “Manta Manta – Zwoter Teil” by director Til Schweiger, the production company Constantin announced that it would investigate possible incidents on the set.
Schweiger’s lawyer had informed the “Spiegel” about the allegations that some of the “facts” were “not known” to her client; another assumes “alleged facts that did not exist”. It was also said there that “rumors circulating” for years were “wrongly presented as actual”. Schweiger did not respond to a request from the German Press Agency.
Constantin boss Martin Moszkowicz told the “FAZ” that an independent law firm had been commissioned to “analyze the errors and problems in this production”. Constantin Film also has a “moral code” for the framework conditions for filming. “But it is important that this applies across the industry. It seems to me that we must openly and jointly address the issue of abuse of power in the cultural sector,” said Moszkowicz. (dpa)
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