Austrian director Ulrich Seidl will no longer be the recipient of the prestigious Douglas Sirk award at the 30th anniversary edition of the upcoming Filmfest Hamburg, although his film Sparta, which is drawing controversy following allegations about working conditions for its child actors during its shoot, will still be shown during the festival.
It will screen as part of the Kaleidoskop section, as a diptych with Rimini, Seidl’s first film of 2022, that debuted at the Berlinale in February.
The move comes following a report in German news magazine Der Spiegel that alleged child actors in Sparta were insufficiently protected on set; in particular that the filmmaker did not tell the youngsters or their guardians of the film’s themes before they were exposed to nudity, alcoholism and violence.
Seidl has denied the claims and his lawyers have said no children were filmed naked or exposed to potential harm.
Filmfest Hamburg director Albert Wiederspiel and head of programming Kathrin Kohlstedde explained the accusations levelled against Seidl by Der Spiegel magazine had come after the festival’s programme brochure had already gone to press.
“We included the film in the programme because of its outstanding quality,” they said in a statement. “It is a very sensitive film about a particularly difficult and taboo subject. The accusations against Ulrich Seidl are directed against the conditions during the shooting and explicitly not against his film.”
On their decision not to present the Douglas Sirk Award to Seidl this year, Wiederspiel and Kohlstedde said “the current allegations against the production would overshadow an award ceremony.”
The award would have been presented at the German premiere of Sparta on October 5.
The Douglas Sirk Award has been presented at the festival since 1995 to personalities who have rendered outstanding services to film culture and the film industry. Past recipients have included Clint Eastwood, Tilda Swinton, Wim Wenders, and Jodie Foster.
Sparta has been pulled from the Toronto International Film Festival but is still playing in the main competition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival where it is due to screen on September 18.
No comments yet