The animated film »Fake News« (director/screenplay/camera/editing/production/animation: David Seul, animation: Cem Karayakas, Kishore Srinivasan, Elisa Drache) won the FIRST STEPS award for young talents in the Short Steps category yesterday, which comes with a prize of €5,000. It was created as a final project in the MA 3D Animation for Film & Games, a master's programme offered by ifs Internationale Filmschule Köln and the Cologne Game Lab at TH Köln. The nomination alone came with prize money of €1,000. Filmmaker David Seul accepted the award yesterday evening in Berlin at the FIRST STEPS Young Talent Award ceremony at the Stage Theater des Westens from laudator and jury member Farah Bouamar.

In »Fake News«, a plant lives peacefully on a balcony above a street until one day its owner begins reading fake news online about how to care for plants. Severe mistreatment forces the plant to take extreme measures: assuming that a computer is the source of all evil, the plant tries to kill it.

The jury said: ‘This film impresses with its timing, style and inventiveness. With a balcony plant that becomes a tragicomic heroine, FAKE NEWS deals with a highly topical issue in a clever and touching way. With its lovingly crafted animation and narrative bite, the film proves that you can say everything in just a few minutes.’

Filmmaker David Seul: ‘Unbelievable! Yesterday we actually won the “First Steps” Award. With this film, we tried to add a humorous touch to a serious topic, and I am very happy about the success, as I learned yesterday! My heart goes out to the great crew and the support from IFS and CGL.’

Two other graduation films – from the BA Film programme at ifs – were nominated: 
»Mein Name Akim« (director/screenplay: Aleksandr Kim, producer: Alina Naomi Theis, creative producer: Annalena Liesner, camera: Jonas Thibaut, editing & sound design: Sophia Timšin) received three nominations in the categories Medium-Length Feature Film and Big Audience Award, as well as lead actress Yun Huang for the Götz George Young Talent Award. 
»The Sons of Ilir« (director/screenplay: Robert Deçani, producer: Caterina Ruzzante, cinematography: Alessandra Albano, editing: Jannik Urlaub, production design: Lion Littwin) received a nomination in the Short Film category. Both films were supported by the Young Talent Foundation Berlin.

The FIRST STEPS Young Talent Award is the most important award for graduation films from film schools in German-speaking countries. With a total of 132,000 euros, FIRST STEPS is the most highly endowed young talent award and is presented annually in ten award categories. This year, 187 submissions were accepted.

FIRST STEPS was launched in 1999 as a private initiative of the film industry by producers Bernd Eichinger and Nico Hofmann. It is organised by the German Film Academy in partnership with ARD, Constantin Film, Netflix, Prime Video, Seven.One Entertainment Group, Studio Hamburg, UFA and Warner Bros. to promote young film talent in a sustainable and effective manner.

Images and further press material can be found here: www.filmschule.de