Deutscher Filmpreis

German Film Awards

German Film Awards logo
Awarded for Best in film
Country Germany
Presented by Deutsche Filmakademie
First awarded 1951
Official website www.deutscher-filmpreis.de

The Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Awards, also rarely called Lola Awards) is the highest German movie award. From 1951 to 2004 it was awarded by a commission, but since 2005 the award has been given by the Deutsche Filmakademie. It is the most highly endowed German cultural award, with a cash prize of three million euros.

The Deutsche Filmpreis is the most important element of the German government's policy of supporting the film industry. The Federal Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs has been responsible for the administration of the prize since 1999. The awards ceremony is traditionally held in Berlin.

Statue design

Since 1999 the award has been a statuette of a woman known as the Lola, a reference to Marlene Dietrich's role in Der blaue Engel and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Lola.

Mechthild Schmidt, Partner of HouseWorks digital media, New York about her 1999 design: ”I wanted to symbolize motion. Film IS movement. I wanted the statue to express confidence without being stern, strength without being static. It was important to me to give the “Deutschen Filmpreis” its own identity, not trying to borrow what other awards already successfully symbolize. While the Oscar is the strong, firm standing fighter and winner, I wanted the Filmprize statue to symbolize the dynamics of movement, the muse, the inspiration necessary to make a work of art, to become a winner. The movement is carried through to the asymmetrical conical base. Stylistically, I was looking for a timeless modern design as well as a historical reference to the first golden era of German film, the Art Deco in the 1920s."

Borrowing from the American model, the awards have been made by an academy, the Deutsche Filmakademie, since 2005. The academy replaces a much-criticised jury which was constituted according to the principle of political proportionality, and on which politicians and clergymen also sat.

Categories

In 2005 the Deutsche Filmpreis was awarded in the following categories.

Changes from 2005

See also

External links