Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 4, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
“Through the NDR Film Award, sophisticated films from the north of Europe receive attention and recognition. But the NDR also benefits: We have shown many of the winning films of past years on NDR television – and they have enriched our programme and adorned us! That is what is called a ‘win-win situation’,” says Herres. Since 1990, the NDR Film Award has been presented to works that “reflect society in an independent creative language and open up new perspectives both aesthetically and in terms of content”.
At the presentation of the North German Film Award, all three awards went to NDR productions and co-productions. This year, the award was presented for the first time by the new joint film funding organization Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (FFHSH). In the “Best Feature Film” category, the award went to the latest production by successful Hamburg director Fatih Akin, the cinema co-production “The Edge of Heaven” (producer award, prize money: 20,000 euros), made by NDR and corazón international. “The Silence of the Quandts” by NDR author Eric Friedler, a film that also received a great deal of public attention, was honored as “Best Documentary” (director award, prize money 15,000 euros).
Two other NDR productions share the award for best screenplay (author award, prize money 10,000 euros): In the television field, the honor went to “The Cat” (screenplay: Daniel Nocke based on the story by Georges Simenon; director: Kaspar Heidelbach), produced on behalf of NDR by Cologne Film GmbH & Co. KG. In the cinema film field, “Robert Zimmermann Wonders about Love” (screenplay: Gernot Gricksch; director: Leander Haußmann), a cinema comedy by Berlin’s Boje Buck Produktion and NDR, was honored.
Volker Herres: “Four awards in three categories – that is more than one could mathematically expect as an optimist. We are already a little proud, thank the jury and promise that the NDR feels encouraged to remain faithful to its motto in the future too and remain ‘the best in the North’.”
With the award for special merits, the FFHSH honored the North German director, author, actor and producer Detlev Buck.
The jury of the NDR Film Award justified its decision for the black comedy “The Art of Negative Thinking” by saying that “the film treats the subject of disability uncompromisingly, consistently and with radical wit. In doing so, it is never denigrating. When truthful characters expose themselves with feelings of guilt on the part of the disabled and non-disabled, it has a wonderfully liberating effect on the viewer. A magnificent directing achievement by debut filmmaker Bråd Breien, who was also responsible for the screenplay.”
In his “Feelbad Movie”, shot in 2006, the Norwegian Breien tells of 33-year-old Geirr, who has been paraplegic since a road accident. He sees the world in the darkest colors – the fact that he has not yet taken his own life is due solely to the self-sacrificing care of his wife Ingvild. But she too can no longer endure her husband’s foul moods. That is why she has invited a group of disabled people who react to their fate in an exemplary “positive” way. But no sooner have they gained entry to his detached house against Geirr’s fierce resistance than the head of the house aggressively works them over …
