Archive notice: This article was originally published on May 7, 2010. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The screenplay “Lars Lemming” by author Heiko Martens has won the German Animation Screenplay Award at the 17th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film. At the award ceremony in the Landesmuseum Württemberg, Heiko Martens accepted the prize of EUR 5,000 donated by Universum Film GmbH. Screenwriter and jury member Oliver Huzly praised the screenplay’s outstanding quality.
The screenplay “Lars Lemming” is about little Lars, who sets out on a dangerous journey with his lemming tribe. In the end, it is up to Lars and his friends to save the lemmings from the legendary plunge over the cliff.
Jury member Oliver Huzly, who won the German Animation Screenplay Award for “Animals United” together with Reinhard Klooss at last year’s 16th International Festival of Animated Film, said: “My sympathy belongs to the characters in this story, and the wild mixture of genres, which peels away like the layers of an onion as the story progresses, is highly entertaining while casually raising relevant questions, never losing sight of the thought with which it all began: that it is sometimes appropriate to question things and not simply run blindly into the abyss, and that it is certainly worthwhile to fight against all resistance that wants to suggest: be quiet, run and jump!”
Alongside “Lars Lemming”, the screenplays nominated this year were “Meet at the Ark at Eight” by Ulrich Hub, “Moon Man” by Stephan Schesch and Ralph Martin, and “Pigeons, Bread and Mafia” by Lukas Pilz.
The jury consisted of Dr Christian Lüffe, head of Film, Television and Radio at the Goethe-Institut Munich; screenwriter Eckart Fingberg (including “Jasper and the Lemonade Plot”); screenwriter Oliver Huzly (including “Animals United”); and Ulrich Wegenast, Artistic Managing Director of Film- und Medienfestival gGmbH Stuttgart.
The German Animation Screenplay Award was presented for the fourth time. With the award, the festival aims to promote German-language animated films with outstanding potential and special ambition. Last year’s winner, “Animals United” by Oliver Huzly and Reinhard Klooss, will be released in cinemas in the autumn of this year. It was already presented with a trailer at this year’s award ceremony.
