Actress Leonie Benesch has won the German Film Award for Best Actress. The 32-year-old was honored in Berlin for her role in the drama “The Teacher’s Room”. In it she plays a teacher who wants to solve a series of thefts and therefore decides to secretly let a camera run in the staff room. The film itself also won a Golden Lola.
The Lola for best actor went to Felix Kammerer for his performance in the Netflix film “Nothing New in the West”. Director Edward Berger’s anti-war film started with the most nominations and has already won eight awards, including four Oscars.
According to the Film Academy, “Nothing New in the West” was the first production by a streaming provider to be nominated for the German Film Prize. The drama is based on a novel by Erich Maria Remarque (1898-1970) and received twelve nominations, more than any other production this year.
Director Volker Schlöndorff (“The Tin Drum”) has been honored for outstanding services to German film. The German Film Academy awarded the 84-year-old the honorary award. Hollywood star John Malkovich paid tribute to his work in a video speech, and other filmmakers such as Nina Hoss and Katharina Thalbach also congratulated him.
Many would have thought when looking at the price list: “Oh, that again?” Schlöndorff joked in his acceptance speech for the honorary award. “And I even thought: ‘Don’t I already have it?'” He thanked the film academy and its members. A number of guests in the hall stood up and applauded him. It’s never too late to receive the honorary prize, because nothing is finished and one thinks that a lot is still possible, said Schlöndorff. With tears in his eyes, he thanked his former partner, the director Margarethe von Trotta, among others, and called on people to go to the cinema.
Schlöndorff is known for his literary adaptations. He was born in Wiesbaden in 1939. He made his directorial debut with “Der Junge Törless”. Later he filmed the Heinrich Böll story “The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum” together with von Trotta. The international breakthrough followed with the film adaptation of Günter Grass’ novel of the same name “The Tin Drum”. The film won the Palme d’Or in Cannes and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.