Film Prize for New German-Arab Productions

Emotional moments on a big screen: Two German-Arab film teams from Egypt, Lebanon and Germany received this year's Best Pitch Award of the 2021 Film Prize for International Cooperation of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. After a series of online trainings to develop their projects and prepare their pitches, the winning teams laid the foundation to turn their ideas into action.

Robert Bosch Stiftung | March 2021
A member of the Film Prize Jury reveals the winner of the Best Pitch Award in the category documentary.
Peter Himsel, Berlinale 2021

Vincenzo Bugno (right), member of the Film Prize Jury, reveals the winner of the Best Pitch Award in the category documentary.

Eight German-Arab film teams with young filmmakers from Egypt, Germany, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon were nominated for the 2021 Film Prize Edition. Their powerful projects reflect on a wide range of social and political topics in Arab societies, offering a fresh perspective through personal stories. Each nominated film team received a Development Prize of €10,000. After their pitches, the international Film Prize Jury announced the two winning teams during an online award ceremony. With the Best Pitch Award, the teams won an additional €10,000 for their film projects.

And the winners are...

“The Missing Planet” is a creative documentary, set in the future on a distant planet. As the planet’s inhabitants experience a wave of memory loss, the film reconstructs the people, places, and events that have disappeared. The film is a journey through the surreal landscapes and fragmented memories of another world that mirrors our own. The jury was impressed by the “clever and thoughtful pitch for a project of great artistic versatility, unusual in every respect. A courageous film - each of the participants has personal experience with the subject of the film.”

The German-Lebanese short fiction film “Nobody Wants the Night” is set in contemporary Beirut, where pregnant Layal, accompanied by her best friend, flees a clandestine abortion clinic and is left with few options to consider. The jury stated that the film is “about a basic right every woman relates to. It does not only possess her body and soul or shapes her memory, but is constantly associated with fear, shame and denial.“ They also praised the team “for its full control of its tools to create the tension needed.“

The Film Prize: A Look Back

With the 2021 Film Prize edition, the Film Prize program comes to an end. Watch the video to learn more about the program and its development as well as the filmmakers and their experience.