Berlin (dpa) – “All Quiet on the Western Front”, the literary adaptation by director Edward Berger, has won nine German Film Prize awards. The anti-war film had already been awarded four Oscars in March 2023. The Golden Lola for best feature film went to the drama “The Teachers’ Lounge”, however. In it, director Ilker Çatak depicts a school conflict that spirals out of control. Starring Leonie Benesch, the film won five awards.
The director Volker Schlöndorff (“The Tin Drum”) was honoured for outstanding services to German cinema. The Hollywood star John Malkovich and other film professionals paid tribute to his work via a video link. The German Film Prize is one of the industry’s most important awards. At the awards ceremony, a current debate about working conditions was addressed a number of times. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth demanded an open conversation about all that is wrong in the industry. She called for problems to be named – such as dependencies, abuses of power and assaults. What is needed, she said, is an honest and open conversation. Adding that it must be possible to talk about what is going wrong and what could be improved.
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