‘September 5’ takes top honours at German Film Awards

Swiss film director Tim Fehlbaum. Keystone-SDA

Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum's real-life thriller September 5, based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, has been awarded the Golden Lola - the German equivalent of an Oscar for best movie - at the German Film Awards.

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September 5 won a total of nine awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Leonie Benesch. The film’s screenplay, direction and editing also won awards. Fehlbaum’s film was up for ten nominations.

It tells the events of the Olympic bombing on 5 September 5, 1972 from the point of view of an American television crew that should have been covering the competitions.

Instead, the journalists became live reporters of a hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by a Palestinian terrorist commando. September 5 is a gripping drama, meticulously and unemotionally told. At this year’s Oscars, the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, but came away empty-handed.

The Silver Lola was won by Mohammad Rasoulof’s political thriller Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaum (The Seeds of the Holy Fig Tree) about the protests in Iran following the death of young Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Andreas Dresen’s drama In Liebe, Eure Hilde won the bronze Lola.

Liv Lisa Fries best actress

Misagh Zare was voted best actor for The Seeds of the Sacred Fig Tree. Sam Riley, who had been nominated twice in this category (Cranko and Islands), went home empty-handed.

Alexander Scheer, despite a double nomination for Best Supporting Actor (Köln 75 and In Liebe, Eure Hilde), also missed out. Godehard Giese took the prize for Sad Jokes. Liv Lisa Fries received an award for best female lead. In In Liebe, Eure Hilde she plays the Nazi resistance fighter Hilde Coppi (1909-1943).

The German Film Awards is among the most important in the industry. A total of 1,700 guests were invited to the ceremony at the Theater am Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, including the new minister of state for culture, Wolfram Weimer.

Translated from French by DeepL/sb

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