North German Film Prize stays in Lübeck

The 2009 and 2010 North German Film Prizes will be presented in Lübeck. This year the mutual award by the state governments of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein will be presented on 7^th November at the 51^st Nordic Film Days Lübeck. It is awarded in four categories and is endowed with altogether 75,000 euros, amounting to 25,000 euros more than in the previous year.

"It brings us closer to our aim of binding the North German Film Prize to our city,” says Senator Annette Borns. "I would like to thank all those who made this decision politically possible.” The fusion of the state film funding institutions of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein in the year 2007 had sparked debates as to whether North German Film Prize was to be awarded at alternating locations. “It became clear that the combination of the North German Film Prize and Nordic Film Days Lübeck is a very successful one,” says Senator Annette Borns. "The unique atmosphere of the city and its festival and the film cultural highlight signified by the North German Film Prize have fertilized one another.”

Bernd Saxe, Mayor of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck, welcomes the decision to carry on presenting the North German Film Prize in Lübeck, and views it as an acknowledgement of Lübeck’s position as one of the leading cultural locations in Northern Germany: "I am very pleased at the North German Film Prize staying in Lübeck, because it confirms Lübeck’s status as the most important film city in Schleswig-Holstein,” says Bernd Saxe. "And we will keep working at making Lübeck an ever more attractive meeting point for the German and North European film industry.”

The North German Film Prize was awarded for the first time in 2007, within the framework of Nordic Film Days Lübeck. The previous prize-winners include Fatih Akin ("The Edge of Heaven"), Detlev Buck (Special Merit) and Leander Haußmann ("Robert Zimmermann Is Tangled Up in Love"). This year the North German Film Prize categories “Best Feature Film”, “Best Documentary Film” and “Best Script” have been augmented by the category “Best Feature Film (TV)”.