Here we have the "Deutscher Filmpreis 2021", which of course stands for German Film Award and this is the ceremony that took place last night. It ran for a massive three hours (without commercial breaks) and the broadcast on television was delayed, which is never a good solution in my opinion, but then again this event had really far more crucial problems. I will get to those in a minute. There really wasn't a lot of good. It can be said that the 75th edition is not far away anymore, so a fairly special anniversary upcoming, and I hope that until then, they really manage to get things on the right track again, but this one here was so low that I genuinely doubt it. However, I am not surprised at all because this aired on ZDF and they have not exactly been known for unbiased news, reporting and television for a long, long time now. The host was relatively young German actor Daniel Donskoy, who has had quite a breakthrough lately, also in productions that made waves internationally. Well, I would say that he was not the worst thing about the night, but he still made me cringe with his music numbers most of all because they felt neither talented nor inspired, but also when he was talking here and there, actually even more. This refers to his "powerful" speech on genderism that was absolutely for the sake of it and not meaningful at all and also also about the Böhmermann reference when he was going a little bit for satire and the outcome was just as bad, but hey what do you expect when you indirectly list Böhmermann as somebody to look up to with the utter lack of quality he has been delivering for years now, almost decades. Maybe it was also just intended in a way for people to actually remember Böhmermann still exists on ZDF as there are really not many people watching his show from what I have read. With Donskoy, we had a female voice hosting the show, one that went by the name of Kino (cinema) and represented cinema as a whole. Another cringeworthy addition. I guess they wanted to make the show more female this way to avoid criticisms from the very beginning. Even I as a movie lover must say that I thought the Kino song that opened the show (by Donskoy) was difficult to stomach. What a mess.
Now let's look at the event itself: I would say it was a good thing that focus was mostly on the awards really and that is never bad, but that's all the good there is. Even there, the Sawatzki segment was bad. On several occasions, we got political references and ways in which the makers of this show clearly wanted to change (or keep) our minds in terms of political messages. I mentioned the genderism elaboration already. There's a lot more. Donskoy kept it optional with the vaccination talk very early on that it's a show for everybody, but female German filmmaker Doris Dörrie was more explicit indirectly pushing a compulsory vaccination agenda and that was when my happiness to see her vanished quickly. I am not sure why I was happy in the first place. I like "Erleuchtung garantiert", but that film is really old already and almost all her recent stuff sucked a lot. In addition to political agendas we had Ulrich Matthes, head of the German Film Academy, praise Monika Grütters, the German politician in charge of film more than any other, and that was cringeworthy to watch with how Grütters really messed up in the pandemic situation. Unbelievable how Matthes praised her actions there pretending it was the exact opposite and how great she did. Good she's gone soon, even if I have doubts that whoever follows will be any better. Then the audience is not any better. Be it Veronica Ferres or Bettina Zimmermann who are really not talented actors (maybe they eventually also find a word like actoresses, oh wait America is not joining in on this nonsense) or Michael Müller (still the Berlin mayor, but not for long anymore, even if the next one will be even worse) with his shortcomings or somebody like Sawsan Chebli (absolutely disgusted with her clearly radical anti-German positions) watching the show on location. And also these people getting shown on the screen is absolutely awful. Just take the brief AfD bullying (I did not vote for them) linked to a bigger German city on one occasion too, but hey no way they could accept the people's vote if it's not what they want it to be. Absolutely disgusting again. Like basically the rest of the evening.
And before I move on to the awards, the biggest downside of them all was probably Claus Kleber, a famous German news anchor. First of all, why is he even there? News and film, there is no connection, even if he partially presented documentary. But when he started in a "humble" manner elaborate on his own past decades ago, it was impossible to watch. Then he goes on talking about evil Erdogan. Of course nothing about his huge support from certain people here in Germany. And then he presents the apparent anti-Erdogan, who is not even capable of presenting the documentary category in German. Enough said. This documentary category by the way went also to a film that brought a certain political agenda, which may apply in this very case, but has nothing to do with the big picture (no pun intended). Pity the dog movie did not win. People kept rambling about this wonderful teacher later on as well and about the winner for supporting actress. Seems as if Germany has moved on there to also awarding people with black skin the way the Oscars have been doing for a while now. Minichmayr and Becker losing was clearly a political decision as well. I think it's sad. The moment we put ethnicity in the first place (and there is no denying they did as this win was referenced repeatedly as the night went on because this was the very first category of the evening) and not craft, all may be lost. So yeah, highly political event unfortunately. On a smaller occasion, the winners for Best Sound were two men and when one of them held a lengthy speech, nothing happened and when the other wanted to say a few words, the music played immediately and I doubt this would have happened the other way around because of ethnicity once again. I mean they really had all the time in the world.
As for other competitive awards, things could have been better and worse. I am honestly glad that Dominik Graf did not triumph the way many predicted. I have not seen Fabian (short title) yet, but I have seen a lot of other stuff from Graf and I find him highly overrated and there is no reason why he should be considered filmmaking elite here in Germany. And for Maria Schrader I am genuinely happy. I don't care that she is a woman at all because that would be actual genderism, but I am impressed by her recent Emmy win and especially the Stefan Zweig movie she did not too long ago was impressive, so she deserves all the accolades she gets. And definitely also a better winner for director than the teacher documentary I talked about earlier. Schrader currently works with recent Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan and others on a new movie in Hollywood. I am a bit worried because it's about #metoo, but I still hope she gives it the right approach. The two male actor wins I liked as well. Masucci is pretty good in everything he is in and sure made Fassbinder work. Merten seemed really humble and likable now knowing if there is money attached to the award. Schrader's film had international aspects to it for sure, especially the male lead, but the one rather international film that really triumphed in the smaller categories here was Tides (really like Nora Arnezeder, so good for her), one of the big winners of the night. Maybe the second biggest even after "Ich bin dein Mensch". Close call between that one and Fabian. Also nice to see Schachnovelle won something at least. I will watch this one two hours from now.
With Nightlife getting the award for biggest commerical success, there is nothing to say. When you see M'Barek, Rojinski (and Lau) in a film, you can be sure, you are not in for quality, but Schweighöfer level basically. Shameful that a category like this gets to be part of the night and not something like Best Song, which is still a travesty. Or maybe a good thing that musicians stay away from the overwhelming amount of terrible German films. Unthinkable in Hollywood. If the winner in this category had at least been an Eberhofer film or something. But nope. The director was of course Simon Verhoeven and that makes for a nice connection to his mother Senta Berger. She is in her 80s now and received the honorary award of the night. No matter next to which really famous actors she appeared 50 years ago, I strongly go against the idea that she is a gifted actress or an icon. I have seen quite a bit of what she has done in the last 20 years and it was truly shameful, playing the exact same character in every movie. It's all about the actress, never about range or talent with her. The one thing I can agree on is that she looks pretty good now for her age (maybe 10 years younger even) and also was a stunner back in the day. Wait, am I allowed to say so? After all, she is one who does not want to be reduced to her physicality. The talk about how she dealt with humiliation from males was also very mainstream with more forced #metoo references. Also she said, she will keep her speech really short and nope she did not. What made me a bit more sad was Klaus Maria Brandauer introducing her and how he kept rambling so randomly and was a part of this charade. I appreciate him as an actor. Okay, that is it now. Really the negative was so dominant that I must give this show a truly low rating here. Pretty sad because the Oscars have risen in quality this year in a very surprising manner, but this is one here really is the polar opposite. All about agenda. Highly not recommended. Even if you like awards shows, stay far, far away from this mess. Oh and the most recent German Oscar submission also came really short this time compared to Systemsprenger last year.
Now let's look at the event itself: I would say it was a good thing that focus was mostly on the awards really and that is never bad, but that's all the good there is. Even there, the Sawatzki segment was bad. On several occasions, we got political references and ways in which the makers of this show clearly wanted to change (or keep) our minds in terms of political messages. I mentioned the genderism elaboration already. There's a lot more. Donskoy kept it optional with the vaccination talk very early on that it's a show for everybody, but female German filmmaker Doris Dörrie was more explicit indirectly pushing a compulsory vaccination agenda and that was when my happiness to see her vanished quickly. I am not sure why I was happy in the first place. I like "Erleuchtung garantiert", but that film is really old already and almost all her recent stuff sucked a lot. In addition to political agendas we had Ulrich Matthes, head of the German Film Academy, praise Monika Grütters, the German politician in charge of film more than any other, and that was cringeworthy to watch with how Grütters really messed up in the pandemic situation. Unbelievable how Matthes praised her actions there pretending it was the exact opposite and how great she did. Good she's gone soon, even if I have doubts that whoever follows will be any better. Then the audience is not any better. Be it Veronica Ferres or Bettina Zimmermann who are really not talented actors (maybe they eventually also find a word like actoresses, oh wait America is not joining in on this nonsense) or Michael Müller (still the Berlin mayor, but not for long anymore, even if the next one will be even worse) with his shortcomings or somebody like Sawsan Chebli (absolutely disgusted with her clearly radical anti-German positions) watching the show on location. And also these people getting shown on the screen is absolutely awful. Just take the brief AfD bullying (I did not vote for them) linked to a bigger German city on one occasion too, but hey no way they could accept the people's vote if it's not what they want it to be. Absolutely disgusting again. Like basically the rest of the evening.
And before I move on to the awards, the biggest downside of them all was probably Claus Kleber, a famous German news anchor. First of all, why is he even there? News and film, there is no connection, even if he partially presented documentary. But when he started in a "humble" manner elaborate on his own past decades ago, it was impossible to watch. Then he goes on talking about evil Erdogan. Of course nothing about his huge support from certain people here in Germany. And then he presents the apparent anti-Erdogan, who is not even capable of presenting the documentary category in German. Enough said. This documentary category by the way went also to a film that brought a certain political agenda, which may apply in this very case, but has nothing to do with the big picture (no pun intended). Pity the dog movie did not win. People kept rambling about this wonderful teacher later on as well and about the winner for supporting actress. Seems as if Germany has moved on there to also awarding people with black skin the way the Oscars have been doing for a while now. Minichmayr and Becker losing was clearly a political decision as well. I think it's sad. The moment we put ethnicity in the first place (and there is no denying they did as this win was referenced repeatedly as the night went on because this was the very first category of the evening) and not craft, all may be lost. So yeah, highly political event unfortunately. On a smaller occasion, the winners for Best Sound were two men and when one of them held a lengthy speech, nothing happened and when the other wanted to say a few words, the music played immediately and I doubt this would have happened the other way around because of ethnicity once again. I mean they really had all the time in the world.
As for other competitive awards, things could have been better and worse. I am honestly glad that Dominik Graf did not triumph the way many predicted. I have not seen Fabian (short title) yet, but I have seen a lot of other stuff from Graf and I find him highly overrated and there is no reason why he should be considered filmmaking elite here in Germany. And for Maria Schrader I am genuinely happy. I don't care that she is a woman at all because that would be actual genderism, but I am impressed by her recent Emmy win and especially the Stefan Zweig movie she did not too long ago was impressive, so she deserves all the accolades she gets. And definitely also a better winner for director than the teacher documentary I talked about earlier. Schrader currently works with recent Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan and others on a new movie in Hollywood. I am a bit worried because it's about #metoo, but I still hope she gives it the right approach. The two male actor wins I liked as well. Masucci is pretty good in everything he is in and sure made Fassbinder work. Merten seemed really humble and likable now knowing if there is money attached to the award. Schrader's film had international aspects to it for sure, especially the male lead, but the one rather international film that really triumphed in the smaller categories here was Tides (really like Nora Arnezeder, so good for her), one of the big winners of the night. Maybe the second biggest even after "Ich bin dein Mensch". Close call between that one and Fabian. Also nice to see Schachnovelle won something at least. I will watch this one two hours from now.
With Nightlife getting the award for biggest commerical success, there is nothing to say. When you see M'Barek, Rojinski (and Lau) in a film, you can be sure, you are not in for quality, but Schweighöfer level basically. Shameful that a category like this gets to be part of the night and not something like Best Song, which is still a travesty. Or maybe a good thing that musicians stay away from the overwhelming amount of terrible German films. Unthinkable in Hollywood. If the winner in this category had at least been an Eberhofer film or something. But nope. The director was of course Simon Verhoeven and that makes for a nice connection to his mother Senta Berger. She is in her 80s now and received the honorary award of the night. No matter next to which really famous actors she appeared 50 years ago, I strongly go against the idea that she is a gifted actress or an icon. I have seen quite a bit of what she has done in the last 20 years and it was truly shameful, playing the exact same character in every movie. It's all about the actress, never about range or talent with her. The one thing I can agree on is that she looks pretty good now for her age (maybe 10 years younger even) and also was a stunner back in the day. Wait, am I allowed to say so? After all, she is one who does not want to be reduced to her physicality. The talk about how she dealt with humiliation from males was also very mainstream with more forced #metoo references. Also she said, she will keep her speech really short and nope she did not. What made me a bit more sad was Klaus Maria Brandauer introducing her and how he kept rambling so randomly and was a part of this charade. I appreciate him as an actor. Okay, that is it now. Really the negative was so dominant that I must give this show a truly low rating here. Pretty sad because the Oscars have risen in quality this year in a very surprising manner, but this is one here really is the polar opposite. All about agenda. Highly not recommended. Even if you like awards shows, stay far, far away from this mess. Oh and the most recent German Oscar submission also came really short this time compared to Systemsprenger last year.