Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum’s English-language dramatic thriller September 5, set in a US newsroom during the 1972 hostage crisis at the Munich Olympics, leads the contenders for this year’s German Film Awards, also known as the Lolas, with 10 nominations including for best film, director and screenplay.
Produced by German outfit BerghausWöbke Filmproduktion with Constantin Film, September 5 premiered at Venice 2024 and has been distributed by Paramount Pictures in key international territories.
Andreas Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love garnered seven nominations, closely followed by Iranian-born director Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, with six nominations. The latter was produced by Rasoulof’s German-based Run Way Pictures longside France’s Parallel45.
Rounding out the six best feature film nominees are Jan Ole Gerster’s English-language debut Islands and Ido Fluk’s Köln 75, which both had their world premieres at the Berlinale last month, and Chiara Fleischhacker’s graduation film Vena which premiered at Filmfest Hamburg last October.
Claudia Roth, the outgoing state minister for culture and media, announced the nominations during ZDF’s breakfast TV programme.
In a change from previous years, this year’s nominees in the best film, documentary and children’s film categories will not receive cash premiums from Roth’s ministry, the BKM, nor will any cash prizes be handed out to winners on the night.
Instead, what was some €3m in total prize money will now to be used to boost the budget of the BKM’s new cultural film funding programme as part of the wide-ranging reforms to the national film funding infrastructure.
The Lolas are voted on by the 2,400 members of the German Film Academy. The winners will be presented on May 9 at a ceremony in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz.
Veteran casting director An Dorte Braker, whose credits include Run Lola Run, The Baader Meinhof Complex, Downfall, and Hell, will be the recipient of this year’s honorary Lola for her services to German cinema.
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