Filmfest Hamburg: Douglas Sirk Award goes to Fatih Akin

This year Filmfest Hamburg (Sept. 25-Oct. 4) will honor Hamburg-based film director Fatih Akin with the Douglas Sirk Award.

“By presenting the Douglas Sirk Award to Fatih Akin, we would like to recognize his work both as a director and as a producer. His films, which are strongly rooted in Hamburg, have put the city on the world map of cinema. He has set an example for a whole generation of filmmakers – both in Turkey and in Germany. His films were a starting point of a whole movement of German filmmakers of Turkish origin”, says festival director Albert Wiederspiel about the reasons for this choice.

The award will be presented at the occasion of the German premiere of Akin’s new film “The Cut”.

“The Cut” completes Akin’s “Love, Death and the Devil” trilogy which began extremely successfully in 2004 with “Gegen die Wand” (“Head-On”) and was continued with “Auf der anderen Seite” (“The Edge of Heaven”) in 2007. The drama “The Cut” which features Tahar Rahim (“A Prophet”) in its starring role, explores the dark side of what humans are capable of.

The film is a coproduction between Germany, France, Italy, Russia, Poland, Canada and Turkey) which received funding from Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein among others. The film is scheduled for release in Germany on 16/10/14 (Pandora Film Verleih).

The prestigious Douglas Sirk Award is presented annually since 1995 to a personality who has made outstanding achievements within film culture and film industry (previous awardwinners: Tilda Swinton 2013, Kim Ki-duk 2012, Andreas Dresen and Peter Rommel 2011).

Fatih Akin is one of the most successful film directors in Germany. Gangster films, family sagas, love stories or road movies – Akin’s films defy any boundaries set between genres and stand for young, unconventional cinema.

Fatih Akin was born in Hamburg in 1973, son of Turkish immigrants. On completing high school, he studied Visual Communications at the Hamburger Hochschule für bildende Künste (HfbK). His debut as a film director was in 1998 with “Kurz und schmerzlos” (“Short Sharp Shock”). For his fourth film, “Head-On”, Fatih Akin was awarded the Golden Bear at the Berlinale, the German Film Award and the European Film Award. In 2005, he was a member of the jury at Cannes International Film Festival, where he also celebrated the world premiere of his film “Auf der anderen Seite” (“The Edge of Heaven”) in 2007. The film received the Best Screenplay Award.

Fatih Akin works as a director and producer in Hamburg.