Mourning for Ingmar Bergman

The Nordic Film Days Lübeck are mourning for Ingmar Bergman.

Ingmar Bergman was one of the greatest and most important film directors of the European film. When in 1956 the Lübeck filmclub started the festival, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck even presented three of his early works: "Prison / Fängelse" (1948), "Summer Interlude" / Sommarlek" (1950) and "Sawdust and Tinsel" / Gycklarnas afton" (1953) – at a time when the film maker, born in 1918, was at the beginning of his international career. Ever since has the work of the scriptwriter and film director, who also worked as a theatre director, accompanied the Nordic Film Days Lübeck - as none of the other film makers.

The festival dedicated Ingmar Bergman two great retrospectives in the past: In 1978 with a review of the partly unknown early work, consisting of 16 films altogether, which were produced between 1944 and 1953. A second time he was honoured with a retrospective of his great movie films from 1954 to the present in 1988.

Ingmar Bergman has been awarded all the great film prizes, including the OSCAR, which he received three times for the best foreign movie. In 1997 he was honoured by his colleagues as "the best film director of all times" , at the Cannes film festival, so far Bergman has remained the only one to have received such an honour.

Through his work Ingmar Bergman has influenced generations of film makers widely beyond his Scandinavian home and his films, some of them disputed, have fascinated and filled with enthusiasm millions of people all over the world.

On July 30^th 2007 Ingmar Bergman died at the age of 89. His films will last.

Linde Fröhlich / Dr. Hauke Lange-Fuchs
Artistic Directors