07/05/2007

The prison drama Four Minutes [+see also:
trailer
film profile] won the top honour at the German Film Prize awards on Friday, taking home the €500,000 Lola for Best Picture.

Chris Klaus’ film (interview) beat the awards favourite, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer [+see also:
trailer
film profile], with both films nominated in eight categories.

However, Four Minutes only scooped up one other prize, Best Actress for Monica Bleibtreu, whose turn as an elderly piano teacher who befriends a young prison convict won over the majority of the German Film Academy’s 800 voting members.

Tom Tykwer's Perfume was a big winner, excelling in the technical categories where it swept up for Best Cinematography (Frank Griebe), Best Editing (Alexander Brenner), and Best Costume Design (Pierre-Yves Gayraud), among others.

But the surprise winner of the night was low-budget comedy Grave Decisions [+see also:
trailer
film profile], taking home a total of four Lolas, including Best Director for Marcus H. Rosenmueller and the Silver Lola for Best Film.

Other winners include Josef Bierbichler, who was named Best Actor for Winter Journey [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Life Actually [+see also:
trailer
film profile] star Hannah Herzsprung took the Best Supporting Actress, Devid Striesow won the Best Supporting Actor prize for his role in Stefan Ruzowitzky's The Counterfeiter [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and veteran actor Armin Mueller-Stahl was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Lola.

The complete list of winners is as follows:

Best Film - Lola In Gold:
Four Minutes by Chris Kraus

Best Film – Lola in Silver:
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Tom Tykwer and Grave Decisions by Marcus H . Rosenmueller

Best Children's Film:
Hands Off Mississippi by Detlev Buck

Best Documentary Director:
Workingman's Death by Michael Glawogger

Best Actress:
Monica Bleibtreu (Four Minutes)

Best Actor:
Josef Bierbichler (Winter Journey)

Best Supporting Actress:
Hannah Herzsprung (Life Actually)

Best Supporting Actor:
Devid Striesow (The Counterfeiter)

Lifetime Achievement: Armin Mueller-Stahl

Best Director:
Marcus H . Rosenmueller (Grave Decisions)

Best Screenplay:
Christian Lerch, Marcus H. Rosenmueller (Grave Decisions)

Best Cinematography:
Frank Griebe (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Best Editing:
Alexander Brenner (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Best Production Design:
Uli Hanisch (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Best Costume Design:
Pierre-Yves Gayraud (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)

Best Score:
Gerd Baumann (Grave Decisions)

Best Sound Design:
Stefan Busch, Dirk Jacob, Michael Kranz, Frank Kruse, Matthias Lempert, Hanse Warns, Roland Winke (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)