Another edition of the German gathering dedicated to up-and-coming filmmakers from the German-speaking world has taken place in Saarbrücken. For the 44^th time, the Max Ophüls Prize film festival presented a vast programme of feature-length, medium-length and short films from both the documentary and the fiction genres. In total, 127 titles were shown from 23-29 January. The opening film was the intriguing romantic drama Skin Deep [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Alex Schaad
scheda film], the first feature-length work by German director Alex Schaad, which had its premiere last year at the Venice Film Festival.

Besides a number of complementary sections that offer an overview of last year's film output, the festival mainly revolves around several competitions. One is dedicated to feature-length documentaries and one to feature-length fictional titles. For the latter, a jury of five professionals was asked to weigh up the entries. It was composed of German director and camerawoman Bella Halben, German filmmaker and scriptwriter Henk Handloegten, Austrian producer Viktoria Salcher, German actress Emilia Schüle and Swiss director Lorenz Merz, who won the Award for Best Director and the Film Critics’ Prize at the Max Opühls Prize last year with Soul of a Beast [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lorenz Merz
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The winner of the Award for Best Feature Film this year was Alaska [+leggi anche:
intervista: Max Gleschinski
scheda film] by German director Max Gleschinski. The prize is endowed with €36,000. The drama is set in the north-east of Germany, a region for nature lovers, boasting great expanses of fields and lakes. At the centre of the film are two women who try in different ways to grapple with the ghosts of their past. Nature is able to bring some relief, but other than this, they try to find support in their new, but uncomplicated, budding friendship.

The Award for Best Director went to another up-and-coming German filmmaker – namely, to Lukas Nathrath for One Last Evening [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lukas Nathrath
scheda film]. With a very small budget of a few thousand euros, the auteur has created a dense social drama about a group of divers. The award is endowed with a total of €11,000: half of that sum goes to the director and the other half takes the form of distribution support.

Austrian filmmaker Clara Stern was one of the big winners at this edition. Her first feature, Breaking the Ice [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], reaped three trophies: the Award for Best Screenplay, which comes with prize money of €13,000; the Award for Best Social Interest Film, endowed with €5,000; and, finally, the Young Jury Award, worth €2,500. Stern tells the story of a friendship as well as a particular brother-sister relationship. The setting is an unusual one: the heart of a female ice-hockey team.

Another Austrian feature won more than one award: Eismayer [+leggi anche:
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intervista: David Wagner
scheda film] by David Wagner took home the Audience Award for Best Fiction Film, worth €5,000, and the Critics’ Award. The movie paints the portrait of an Austrian military officer who has a homosexual relationship with one of his cadets and ends up marrying him.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Best Feature Film
Alaska [+leggi anche:
intervista: Max Gleschinski
scheda film] – Max Gleschinski (Germany)

Best Social Interest Film
Breaking the Ice [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Clara Stern (Austria)

Fritz-Raff Award for Best Screenplay
Breaking the Ice – Clara Stern

The Saarland Minister-President's Award for Best Director
One Last Evening [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lukas Nathrath
scheda film] – Lukas Nathrath (Germany)

Best Documentary
Good Life Deal - Samira Ghahremani (Austria)

Best Actor
Augustin Groz - Wer wir einmal sein wollten (Austria)

Best Actress
Alina Stiegler - Sprich mit mir (Germany)

Audience Award for Best Fiction Feature Film
Eismayer [+leggi anche:
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intervista: David Wagner
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Audience Award for Best Documentary
My Old Man [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] – Steven Vit (Switzerland)

Audience Award for Best Short Film
Das andere Ende der Straße - Kálmán Nagy (Austria/Hungary)

Audience Award for Best Medium-length Film
Istina (Truth) - Tamara Denić (Serbia/Germany)

Best Medium-length Film
Wherever Paradise Is - Roman Wegera (Germany)

Best Short Film
Das andere Ende der Straße - Kálmán Nagy

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
Franky Five Star [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Birgit Möller
scheda film] - Birgit Möller (Germany)

Young Jury Award
Breaking the Ice – Clara Stern

Best Music in a Documentary
Marcus Thomas - Independence (Germany)

Critics' Award for Best Feature
Eismayer – David Wagner

Critics' Award for Best Documentary
Independence – Felix Meyer-Christian