A Silver Bear goes to Hamburg

The prize awarded by the readers' jury of theBerliner Morgenpost went to "Systemsprenger" this year.

Maria Köpf, CEO of Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein: "Bearish times for the Hanseatic city! The Alfred Bauer Prize brings a Silver Bear to Hamburg this year: Congratulations to the whole 'Systemsprenger' film team - first and foremost Directors Nora Fingscheidt, the stunning leading actress Helena Zengel, kineo Filmproduktion and the Hamburg production companies Weydemann Bros and Oma Inge Film. Our congratulations also go to filmmaker Annekatrin Hendel: her documentary 'Beauty and Transience', funded by Filmwerkstatt Kiel, has won the Heiner Carow Prize 2019!"

More about the films: With her debut filmSystem sprinkler the Hamburg-based Director and Script Writer Nora Fingscheidt has made it straight into the competition at the Berlinale. With over 35 days of filming, the majority of the shoot took place in Hamburg in early 2018. The film is about Benni, a tender girl with boisterous energy. Benni is what is known as a "system dropout", a child who falls through the cracks of German child and youth services. Wherever the nine-year-old is taken in, she is thrown out again after a short time. The drama is a production of kineo Filmproduktion and Weydemann Bros. GmbH in co-production with Oma Inge Film and ZDF/ Das kleine Fernsehspiel.

InBeauty and transience (it works!), funded by Filmwerkstatt Kiel, filmmaker Annekatrin Hendel follows Berlin icon Sven Marquardt and two of his companions from the East Berlin punk era. Marquardt is best known as the bouncer at Berlin's Berghain techno club. The film was shown at the Berlinale in the "Panorama" section.

More about the prices:TheSilver Bear (Alfred Bauer Prize) has been awarded at the Berlinale since 1987. It is named after the first director of the festival, Alfred Bauer. The prize is awarded to a feature film in the competition programme that opens up new perspectives on the art of film.

With theHeiner Carow Prize the DEFA Foundation honours the film director Heiner Carow. The prize is awarded to a German feature, documentary or essay film from the Panorama section. The prize is endowed with 5,000 euros. A three-member jury, which changes annually, decides on the award.

Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig Holstein was represented at the 2019 Berlinale with 21 funded projects, including "Systemsprenger" and Fatih Akin'sThe Golden Glove (bombero int./Warner Bros., Hamburg) screened in the competition.