Barbara front runner at the Lolas

by Bénédicte Prot

26/03/2012 - Barbara [trailer, film focus] by Christian Petzold, a great favourite at the last Berlinale where it won a Silver Bear for Best Director, is the front runner for this year’s Lolas, the German Film Academy awards, according to an announcement by the academy last Friday afternoon. The film, in which a woman from East Germany plans to flee to West Germany while continuing with passion and integrity to work as a doctor, is to compete in eight of the competition’s categories, of which some of the most important such as Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor.

Following closely behind with seven nominations each are the very moving Stopped on Track [trailer] by Andreas Dresen (winner of Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year, read the review) and Anonymous [trailer], Roland Emmerich’s film about Shakespeare’s identity (read the review). Both these films are also in competition for Best Film, but Stopped on Track has also been nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Actor, while Anonymous shines in more technical categories, such as Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.

Post-apocalyptic thriller Hell [trailer] by Tim Fehlbaum has also been nominated for several awards in the technical categories, as well as for a Lola for Best Film. Dreiviertelmond [trailer] by Christian Zübert will also be aspiring for the greatest award at the ceremony, along with Combat Girls [trailer], David Wnendt’s film about two young neo-nazis, also nominated for Best Screenplay and Best Actress.

The Lolas award ceremony will be held on April 27 in the evening at the Friedrichstadt-Palast in Berlin.

COMPLETE LIST OF 2012 LOLA AWARD NOMINEES

Best Film
Anonymous by Roland Emmerich
Barbara by Christian Petzold
Dreiviertelmond by Christian Zübert
Stopped on Track by Andreas Dresen
Hell by Tim Fehlbaum
Combat Girls by David Wnendt

Best Documentary
Charlotte Rampling – The Look [trailer] by Angelina Maccarone
Gerhard Richter Painting by Corinna Belz
The Big Eden by Peter Dörfler

Best Film for Children
Tom Sawyer [trailer] by Hermine Huntgeburth
Winter’s Daughter by Johannes Schmid

Best Screenplay
Andreas Dresen and Cooky Ziesche for Stopped on Track
Christian Petzold for Barbara
David Wnendt for Combat Girls

Best Director
Andreas Dresen for Stopped on Track
Christian Petzold for Barbara
Hans Weingartner for Hut in the Woods

Best Actress
Sandra Hüller in Above Us Only Sky [trailer]
Steffi Kühnert in Stopped On Track
Alina Levshin in Combat Girls

Best Actor
Milan Peschel in Stopped on Track
Peter Schneider in Hut in the Woods
Ronald Zehrfeld in Barbara

Best Supporting Actress
Christina Drechsler in Cracks in the Shell [trailer]
Fritzi Haberlandt in Summer Window [trailer]
Dagmar Manzel in Cracks in the Shell

Best Supporting Actor
Hermann Beyer in Way Home
Otto Mellies in Stopped on Track
Bernhard Schütz in Das System – Alles verstehen heisst alles verzeihen

Best Cinematopraphy
Anna J. Foerster for Anonymous
Hans Fromm for Barbara
Daniel Gottschalk for The Fourth State [trailer]
Peter Przybylski for Summer Window

Best Editing
Peter R. Adam for Anonymous
Bettina Böhler for Barbara
Jörg Hauschild for Stopped on Track

Best Production Design
Uli Hanisch forHotel Lux [trailer]
Sebastian Krawinkel for Anonymous
Heike Lange for Hell

Best Costume Design
Lisy Christl for Anonymous
Anette Guther for Barbara
Leonie Leuenberger for Hell
Ute Paffendorf for Hotel Lux

Best Make-Up
Christina Baier for Hell
Kitty Kratschke, Katharina Nädelin, and Georg Korpás for Hotel Lux
Björn Rehbein and Heike Merker for Anonymous

Best Soundtrack
Oli Biehler for The Albanian [trailer]
Lorenz Dangel for Hell
Timo Hietala for Summer Window

Best Sound
Hubert Bartholomae and Manfred Banach for Anonymous
Hubert Bartholomae and Hugo Poletti for Hell
Andreas Mücke-Niesytka and Dominik Schleier and Martin Steyer for Barbara

(Translated from French)