The 42nd edi­tion of the Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val in Saar­brück­en end­ed yes­ter­day. The award cer­e­mo­ny on Sat­ur­day evening was a joy­ous one for both DFFB stu­dents and alum­ni:

DFFB stu­dent Sara Fazi­lat was award­ed the Max Ophüls Prize for Best Young Actress for her role in NICO (director/​screenwriter: Eline Gehring, cinematographer/​screenwriter: Fran­cy Fab­ritz, producer/​screenwriter: Sara Fazi­lat).

“Sara Fazi­lat is con­vinc­ing as Nico through her every breath, move­ment, thought, emo­tion. We always ful­ly believe in her char­ac­ter. When she expe­ri­ences an assault, she takes the audi­ence with her through her painful jour­ney. In her des­per­a­tion to armour her soul as a way to heal, her char­ac­ter touched us deeply. Sara Fazi­lat shares her character’s laugh­ter, hap­pi­ness, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, anger, and self-con­fi­dence  with ter­rif­ic ease,” said the jury state­ment. Con­grat­u­la­tions, dear Sara!

BORGA (direc­tor: York-Fabi­an Raabe, screen­writ­ers: York-Fabi­an Raabe and Toks Körn­er, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Tobias von dem Borne, pro­duc­er: Alexan­der Wadouh and Rox­ana Richters), in which many DFFB alum­ni par­tic­i­pat­ed, is the win­ner of the fes­ti­val with four awards! Not only did the project win Best Fea­ture Film Award, Ecu­meni­cal Jury Award, and the Audi­ence Fea­ture Film Award, asso­ciate pro­duc­er and actor Eugene Boateng was also award­ed the Max Ophüls Prize for the Most Social­ly Rel­e­vant Film for his per­for­mance.

What a fan­tas­tic fes­ti­val edi­tion! We warm­ly con­grat­u­late the win­ners and send them our best wish­es. Bra­vo!

The new year has just start­ed and the 42nd Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val is already about to begin! In this year’s edi­tion, the films of young film­mak­ers will be screened online from Jan­u­ary 17 to Jan­u­ary 24 in the fea­ture film, doc­u­men­tary, medi­um-length film, and short film com­pe­ti­tions, as well as oth­er pro­gram series, such as the MOP Short­list.

The MOP in Saar­brück­en is the most impor­tant fes­ti­val for young Ger­man-lan­guage film and has stood for the dis­cov­ery of young tal­ent from Aus­tria, Ger­many, and Switzer­land for over 40 years.

Among these tal­ents in this year’s pro­gram are the DFFB films I WANT TO RETURN RETURN RETURN (director/​screenwriter: Elsa Rosen­gren, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Giu­lia Schel­has, pro­duc­er: Mar­gari­ta Amine­va) , NICO (director/​screenwriter: Eline Gehring, cinematographer/​screenwriter: Fran­cy Fab­ritz, producer/​screenwriter: Sara Fazi­lat), which will run in com­pe­ti­tion, and LEIB (director/​screenwriter: Mar­i­jana Ver­hoef, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Ley­la Hoppe, pro­duc­er: Ele­na Zur­buch & Elis­a­beth Köller), which will be fea­tured in the MOP short­list.

With BORGA (direc­tor: York-Fabi­an Raabe, screen­writ­ers: York-Fabi­an Raabe and Toks Körn­er, cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Tobias von dem Borne, pro­duc­er: Alexan­der Wadouh and Rox­ana Richters), and DAS MASSAKER VON ANRÖCHTE (cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er: Jesse Mazuch) oth­er stu­dents and alum­ni of the DFFB are also rep­re­sent­ed in Saar­brück­en. We are also keep­ing our fin­gers crossed for DFFB stu­dent Sara Fazi­lat, who is nom­i­nat­ed for the Max Ophüls Best Young Actress Award.

We wish every­one good luck and a great fes­ti­val sea­son!

Pho­to Cred­it: Max Ophüls Preis Film Fes­ti­val