At this year’s Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival, the ifs graduation film »Zeitpunkt X« by Simon Schneider (director/script), Dario Haramustek (script), Franziska Wieden (production), Martina Di Lorenzo (DoP), Tim Egner (editing/sound design), and Jessica Kaczmarek (production design) won the Audience Award in the short film category at yesterday’s awards ceremony.
The prize is worth 5,000 euros, sponsored by Energie SaarLorLux AG.
In this comedy, a large construction site is nearing completion. Site manager Thomas Zetzsche (Cornelius Schwalm) is proud of what he and his team have created. But suddenly, increasingly serious defects begin to appear. The fire safety system goes haywire, entire rooms seem to vanish without a trace, and Thomas soon realizes that he can no longer meet the scheduled opening date. He must ask himself what his own role is in this flawed system and what conclusions he will draw from it. The film was funded by the State Chancellery of Thuringia.
Director Simon Schneider: “Winning the Audience Award for Short Film at the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival means a great deal to me. It has always been my goal to make an entertaining film for a broad audience that also takes a critical look at the German construction scandals and the power-preserving structures behind them. I’d like to thank everyone who voted for us, the Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival, my entire team, my amazing cast, the ifs, the Thuringian State Chancellery, all the Startnext supporters, and everyone else who made this film possible. I now want to take the next step and focus on longer-form films, in the hope of reaching even more viewers with my stories soon. This award is giving me a huge boost of motivation and momentum right now.”
The Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival is one of the most prestigious platforms for emerging filmmakers from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This year, 49 films were screened in the four competition categories: feature film, documentary, medium-length film, and short film.
Also nominated in the feature film category this year was the ifs graduation film »BULLDOG« by André Szardenings (director/script/DoP) and Antonia-Marleen Klein (editing).