Swiss film 'Electric Fields' wins German language festival prize

The Swiss film "Electric Fields" written and directed by Lisa Gertsch won the 45th Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival in Saarbrücken on Saturday evening.

A black-and-white film, it received three awards, namely the main prize of €36,000 for the best feature film, the Fritz Raff Screenplay Award and the Film Critics' Award.

In a "tragic-comic, yearning atmosphere", according to the feature film jury, the film tells a "surprising and magically playful story of love and transience, of longing and loneliness, of the emergence and passing of connections, of transcendence, nature and death."

The jury of critics congratulated the Swiss director (born in 1992) and her team on an "astonishingly mature debut work."

The festival is the most important for young German-language filmmakers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Eighteen awards worth €118,500 ($128,600) were presented, including 14 jury prizes and four audience prizes.

The 2024 German film "Jenseits der blauen Grenze" ("Beyond the blue border" in English) by director and writer Sarah Neumann, based on a novel by Dorit Linke, was also a multiple winner at this year's MOP. The film tells the story of competitive swimmer Hanna, who tries to flee across the Baltic Sea to the West in 1989.

It was honoured with the Audience Award for Feature Film and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. Actor Willi Geitmann also received one of the two prizes for best young actor - alongside Joshua Bader in the Austrian film "Söder" directed by Raoul Bruck.

Two awards also went to "Land der Berge" directed and written by Olga Kosanović. It was named best medium-length film by the jury and also received the audience award in this category.

Best short film was Austrian film "Die Räuberinnen" by director and writer Isa Schieche.

"Arthur & Diana" directed and written by Sara Summa was honoured with the Saarland State Premier's Film Award for Best Director.

The prize for the socially relevant film went to the German film "Good News" by Hannes Schilling, which the jury described as an "oppressive film" about a journalist who wants to finally make his international breakthrough with a report on a rebel group in Thailand.

Best documentary film was the German film "Echoes from Borderland" by director and writer Lara Milena Brose. It tells the story of 15-year-old Nahid, one of many refugees who end up in the non-EU state of Bosnia-Herzegovina in 2021 after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.

Festival director Svenja Böttger drew a positive conclusion on Saturday evening: "We can look back on a week full of emotions, inspiring discussions and exciting and touching stories in the cinema," she said.

We thank "the film teams from the bottom of our hearts for their trust and for allowing us to show their works here, which have generated so much enthusiasm."

A total of 58 films entered the competition in the four categories of feature film, documentary, medium-length film and short film.

The festival week featured 131 films, shown in 226 screenings.