Marcus H. Rosenmueller's Bavariancomedy Grave Decisions and Chris Kraus' prison drama Four Minutes werethe big winners at the weekend's Bavarian Film Awards in Munich.
This year's top honour, the $260,000 (Euros200,000) Producers Award, went to Roxy Film, the producers of 2006'sbest film Grave Decisions, while feature debutant Rosenmueller - whosesecond feature Heavyweights (Schwere Jungs) opened in German cinemaslast Thursday - received the prize for debut direction.
Director Rosenmueller, Roxy Film'sAndreas Richter and sales agent Dirk Schuerhoff of Beta Film will betravelling to New York on January 29 for a special presentation ofGrave Decisions organised by German Films at the Tribeca Cinemaexclusively for US distributors.

Meanwhile, Chris Kraus' second featurefilm, which is also handled internationally by Beta Film, was theevening's other big success, picking up awards in three categories forMonica Bleibtreu (Actress), Hannah Herzsprung (Newcomer Actress), andChris Kraus (Screenplay).

In addition, the rights collection societyVGF's award for newcomer producers went to the film's producers Meikeand Alexandra Kordes.
Other films recognised included TomTykwer's internationally successful box-office hit Perfume -The StoryOf A Murderer (Direction, Production Design), Volker Schloendorff'sStrike (Actress, Cinematography), and Joseph Vilsmaier and DanaVavrova's The Last Train (Jury Special Prize).

This year's HonoraryAward recognised the career to date of the Oscar-nominatedactor-producer-director Michael Verhoeven (The Nasty Girl, The UnknownSoldier).
The complete list of prize-winners is as follows:
Producers Award - Roxy Film (Grave Decisions)
Best director - Tom Tykwer (Perfume)
Best actress - Monica Bleibtreu (Four Minutes); Katharina Thalbach (Strike)
Best actor - Juergen Vogel (Emma's Bliss/Emma's Glueck)
Best newcomer actress - Hannah Herzsprung (Four Minutes)
Debut Direction - Marcus H. Rosenmueller (Grave Decisions)
Screenplay - Chris Kraus (Four Minutes)
Documentary - Florian Borchmeyer andMatthias Hentschler (Havana - The New Art Of Making Ruins)
Youth Film - Gregor Schnitzler (The Cloud/Die Wolke)
Jury Special Prize - Joseph Vilsmaier and Dana Vavrova (The Last Train/Der Letze Zug)
Production Design - Uli Hanisch (Perfume)
Cinematography - Andreas Hoefer (Strike)
VGF Producer Award - Kordes & Kordes (Four Minutes)
Audience Award - Deutschland. Ein Sommermaerchen (Soenke Wortmann)
Honorary Award - Michael Verhoeven

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