by Andreas Kleinert Dear Thomas won the German Film Awards with nine wins including best film, director and actor Albrecht Schuch.
The awards, known as the Lolas, were presented at a gala ceremony attended by 1,700 guests at Berlin’s Palais am Funkturm on Friday (June 24).
Dear Thomasa black-and-white historical biopic by East German author and filmmaker Thomas Brasch, nabbed the Golden Lola for Best Picture and won other awards for Best Director, Screenplay, Actor, Production Design, Costume Design , supporting actress, cinematography and editing.
The film premiered at Filmfest München in July 2021 and won the Grand Prize at the Black Nights Film Festival in Tallinn. Produced by Michael Souvignier and Till Derenbach’s Zeitsprung Pictures, sales are handled by The Match Factory.
Andreas Dresen’s Berlinale 2022 competition title Rabiye Kurnaz Vs. George W. Bush won runner-up Silver Lola for Best Picture and awards for lead actress Meltem Kaptan and supporting actor Alexander Scheer. Kaptan has already won Best Actress at the Berlinale for her portrayal of a mother campaigning for the release of her son from Guantanamo.
The Bronze Lola for Best Film went to Austrian Sebastian Meise great freedom, having already won the Jury Prize for Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2021. The film, about a man imprisoned several times for his homosexuality, also won the Lola for best makeup. He received 10 nominations at the Austrian Film Awards, which take place on Thursday June 30.
The Lola for best documentary went to Antonia Kilian The other side of the river and Tobias Wiemann The path triumphed in the best children’s film category, while that of Gregor Schnitzler School of Magical Animals received the Lolas for Best Visual Effects and Most Commercially Successful German Film Released in 2021 with 1.7 million admissions.
The awards ceremony also saw the honorary Lola for services to German cinema awarded to veteran cinematographer Jürgen Jürges whose long career has worked with filmmakers Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Uli Edel, Michael Haneke and Ilya Krzhanovsky, among others.
The Bernd Eichinger Prize, which recognizes excellence in film production, was awarded to the Berlin company Komplizen Film, whose production by Pablo Larraín spencer was nominated for Best Picture and Best Cinematography.
Komplizen Film is the German co-producer of Marie Kreutzer’s costume drama Bodicewhich opened Filmfest München on Thursday June 23 after premiering at Un Certain Regard in Cannes last month.
