Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth called for an open discussion of abuses in the industry at the presentation of the German Film Prize. “We are also here to clearly identify problems: relationships of dependency, abuse of power, physical assaults, sexualized violence on the set,” said the Greens politician on Friday evening in Berlin.
Anyone who openly criticizes these abuses, “whoever demands that they be stopped and is ostracized as a polluter” – can count on her support.
It needs an honest and open discussion. It must be possible to talk about what is going wrong and what can be improved, about what structures need to be changed so that a film set is a place where films are made in a good, creative and constructive working atmosphere. “We cannot and do not want to tolerate a climate of fear,” said Roth. What stands in the way, they can change together.
“We’re going to do our part,” Roth said. They would reform film funding. And then it’s also about working conditions and framework conditions improving and a code of conduct (code of conduct) is binding and not Sunday talk.
The German Film Prize is one of the most important awards in the industry. The nominations and awards are endowed with a total of around three million euros for new projects. The anti-war film “Nothing New in the West” entered the race with the most nominations. At the start of the evening, the film had already won four awards.
He was awarded for sound design, camera and make-up. In addition, Albrecht Schuch received the award for the best acting performance in a supporting role.
Around 1600 guests were invited to the award ceremony in the theater on Potsdamer Platz. The actresses Iris Berben, Senta Berger and Andrea Sawatzki as well as the director Volker Schlöndorff, who was to receive this year’s honorary award, appeared on the red carpet. The evening was moderated by Jasmin Shakeri.
The awarding of the film prize comes at a time when working conditions on the set are being discussed. After a “Spiegel” report about alleged harassment and a “climate of fear” during the shooting of the film “Manta Manta – Zwoter Teil” by director Til Schweiger, the production company Constantin announced that it would investigate possible incidents on the set.
Schweiger’s lawyer had told the “Spiegel” about the allegations that some of the “facts” were “not known” to her client; another assumes “alleged facts that did not exist”. It was also said there that “rumors circulating” for years were “wrongly presented as actual”. Schweiger did not respond to a request from the German Press Agency. (dpa)
