Lisa Bierwirth's debut “Le Prince” was awarded the Hessian Film Prize for best feature film.

After a digital event in the previous year, the 32nd Hessian Film and Cinema Prize was awarded in a hybrid gala, around 350 guests were able to take part in the 2G event in the Offenbach Capitol.

The Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) has given the honorary award, which he chooses himself, to the Oscar winner and Wiesbaden-born Volker Schlöndorff.

“In addition to his outstanding artistic work, with the award of the honorary award, I also honor a great intellectual spirit in our country who is so passionate about the interests of film culture.

Volker Schlöndorff has a special bond with his native Hesse, which is also shown by the fact that his artistic legacy is located in the German Film Institute and Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

We in Hessen are extremely proud of that, ”said Bouffier.

Moderated by Bärbel Schäfer and Rainer Ewerrien, the show could also be experienced digitally, in which the undoped Hessian television awards for the best actors went to Britta Hammelstein for “Today, Kainer dies here” and to Jens Harzer for “rest!

This is where Lothar dies ”went.

Lisa Bierwirth received 20,000 euros in prize money for her film about an intercultural love between a Congolese immigrant and a Frankfurt art curator, which has just been released.

In addition to her, “Youth Topia” by Dennis Stormer and “Borga” by York-Fabian Raabe were nominated, who, like you, will each receive 4,000 euros in nomination money.

The best documentary film this year is “The Other Side of the River” by Antonia Kilian, a film about the struggle of women for their rights to a self-determined life in Syrian culture.

"Courage" by Aliaksei Paluyan and "Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse" by Maria Speth were also nominated.

Kilian also receives 20,000 euros in prize money, all three nominees each 4,000 euros in nomination money.

"We have one of the toughest years behind us"

Art Minister Angela Dorn (The Greens) awarded the newcomer prize, endowed with 7,500 euros, to the Belarusian director Aliaksei Paluyan, who lives in Kassel. His film “Courage” about the protests in Belarus, which was invited to the Berlinale 2021, was “one of the most courageous films that were shown there,” said Dorn. "We have one of the toughest years for the film industry behind us, but in the pandemic we also saw how important the stories and images that films convey to us are," said Dorn, who presented the honors.

The prize for the best short film, endowed with 4,000 euros, went to “Der Lokführer” by Zuniel Kim and Christian Wittmoser, and actress Anke Sevenich was also nominated for her debut film “Klabautermann”. From the jury's point of view, a script award could not be awarded or nominated this year, the envisaged EUR 10,000 prize and nomination money was awarded as a further development bonus to three projects and their authors: "Radioturm" by Julien Prevost and Frank Himmel, "Mixtape" by Tom Winter and "Valley of the Kings" by Tim Ellrich.

The “Kafka Conference” by Tobias Sauer from the Kunsthochschule Kassel received the university film prize with prize money of 7,000 euros, and “First Work, Then Play” by Brenda Lien and “Fuchskind” by Jan Capar were also nominated. The cinema prizes to commercial and municipal cinemas as well as cinema initiatives for outstanding cultural commitment were given to all cinemas that had already been awarded the prize in the three previous years, as cinemas could not start normal operations due to the pandemic. A total of 29,900 euros went to municipal cinemas and 120,400 euros to commercial arthouse cinemas.

All award winners can be found at hessischerfilmpreis.de.

Numerous Hessian cinemas will show award-winning films and nominees until mid-November, including the Caligari Wiesbaden "The Other Side Of The River" on October 23rd at 5:30 pm and "Le Prince", "Der Lokführer" and "Le Prince" at 8:00 pm will run on October 24th from 3pm in the Cinema Frankfurt, on October 24th at 8pm “Mr. Bachmann and his class” can be seen in the Filmforum Höchst, which will also be shown on November 5th at 8pm in the municipal cinema Weiterstadt.

“Borga” can also be seen in Weiterstadt on November 6th at 9 pm.