2024-05-04 12:43:06
In the run-up to the event, the harbingers had shouted: The film prize was boring, offered only weak competition and was just such a scam in which the three million in prize money that Claudia Roth offered for it went from one pocket to the other: Film Academy members voted for it It depends on which other Film Academy members won.
But then on Friday evening the weather at Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, where the gala took place at the Berlinale Palast, was so sunny and warm that no one wanted to be a frog anymore. 1,600 tuxedos and evening dresses paraded over the red carpet and jostled between vegan tapas and sweet mixed wine drinks in which rosemary was floating.
A septet of presenters who seemed slightly startled led through the evening, including actors Jürgen Vogel, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Gizem Emre and a few more – the impression was: the main thing was a migrant background. When the naturally diverse “Milli Vanilli” film “Girl You Know It’s True” kept winning, it was thought that against such conservative, bio-German competition as “Stella” with Paula Beer or the Robert Seethaler film adaptation “A Whole Life”. : Aha, maybe a sign should be made here.
Lars Eidinger intervenes
Source: dpa
Right at the beginning, the award for the best male lead was awarded in a quasi anti-climactic manner and Lars Eidinger came away empty-handed. In Matthias Glasner’s “Die”, the evening’s overwhelming favorite and nominated eight times, Eidinger plays a conductor incapable of love. Instead, Lola went to Simon Morzé in “The Fox,” a World War II drama based on a true story.
The surprise course continued. There were two films in particular that were not necessarily on the list: Timm Kröger’s “The Theory of Everything,” a stylish genre mix of expressionist noir and Alpine science fiction, and Ayşe Polat’s “Im dead Winkel,” a popular film Political thriller set in Turkey with supernatural elements. “Theory” won for best cinematography, best music, best production design and best visual effects. “In the Dead Angle” took home the important Lolas for best screenplay and best direction and ultimately received the Lola consolation bronze prize in the race for best film.
Another big winner of the evening is also dedicated to injustices beyond Germany’s borders: Steffi Niederzoll’s “Seven Winters in Tehran” tells of the fate of Reyhaneh Jabbari, a 19-year-old Iranian woman who stabbed her rapist in self-defense and was sentenced to death for it. There were the Lolas for best editing and best documentary. “Crazy, against Wim Wenders!” exclaimed producer Melanie Andernach, perplexed, and was referring to the film “Anselm” about the painter, who was also in the running, alongside a documentary about the activists in the Hambach Forest, whose young director died during filming had crashed. The fact that the moderator didn’t have three sentences left for Wenders’ film in the candidates’ introduction reinforced the impression of a bias towards political correctness and against supposed old white men.
Brilliant: Holocaust survivor Margot Friedländer (l.) and honorary award winner Hanna Schygulla
Source: dpa
But we live in political and alarmist times, which is what the icons Margot Friedländer and Hanna Schygulla put at the center of their speeches at the two highlights of the evening. The 102-year-old Holocaust survivor Friedländer said, in a voice whose slight tremble only reinforced the impression of determination, that when she came back to Germany 14 years ago, she “wouldn’t have dreamed of what is going on in public now : That’s how it started back then.” And added: “There are a lot of storytellers in this room. You have a responsibility to use the power of film to ensure this never happens again.”
The 80-year-old Schygulla, the greatest living star of German cinema, recently brilliant in Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things”, reported on their commitment to Afghan refugees in an always extremely funny impromptu speech (“Alexander Kluge, where is he? That was such a great guy!”), supported by a fluttering bundle of notes, and said: “I heard it on the radio that many young people vote for AfD. I’m deeply shocked.” She doesn’t know why that is, but she shouldn’t stop asking this question.
In the split screens showing the tense nominees, Matthias Glasner appeared increasingly petrified when “Im dead Winkel” won the screenplay and directing award and his star-studded, existentialist, tormented tragicomedy “Die” came away empty-handed. Ayşe Polat in the bright red dress proved time and time again that she was such a clear, worthy and likeable award winner, who also made a fantastic film that far too few people saw in the cinema Decisions were already okay.
“Love is possible!”
And “Die” was honored with awards for the best male supporting role (Hans-Uwe Bauer), the best film music (Lorenz Dangel) and the best female lead (Corinna Harfouch) as well as the main prize of the Golden Lola, so that too Glasner seemed reconciled. “I have to admit, it was a really exciting evening,” he said. And once again emphasized how close this film, which has strong autobiographical traits, is to him. For a long time he was unable to give or receive love himself. It was only in the last few years that his family had shown him: “Love is possible!”
A sentence that aptly describes the entire event. Sandra Hülser gave intelligent and heartwarming eulogies to three great colleagues. And İlker Çatak, director of the Oscar-nominated “Teachers’ Room,” also hit the right note with every word in his homage to his colleagues Polat, Glasner and Kröger. There can be no talk of a weak year, even if the Petzolds, Akins, Ades, Tykwers, Grafs and Schraders didn’t have a film in the running this time. Quite the opposite: the diversity depicted deserves to be recognized because it is simply excellent. What may have once been lip service has been redeemed. If Claudia Roth’s urgently needed reform of film funding goes through, German film has what it takes to finally achieve world status again.
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