Award Ceremony Master of Cinema

Thursday, 10 November 2011
8 pm
Mannheim Stadthaus
With laudatory speech & award ceremony. Afterwards: Screening of the film "Whisky mit Wodka"
10.30 pm public press conference with Andreas Dresen.

For the entry fee of 1952 (founding year of the festival): 1,80 DM = 1,- Euro

German Director Andreas Dresen will be awarded with the Master of Cinema Award of the upcoming 60th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg 2011. The award ceremony will be held on 10 November 2011 in Mannheim. In its 60th year, the Festival will thus honour an internationally renowned filmmaker who was recently awarded at the Cannes film festival and who took an early step on his career ladder in Mannheim: in 1990, Dresen showed one of his first short films „Zug in die Ferne“ in Competition at the then so called International Film Week Mannheim (and got awarded with three prizes).

„Andreas Dresen is a filmmaker who is genuinely interested in reality and documents real life in his films“, says festival director Dr. Michael Koetz. „Dresen listens in to everyday life which could already be seen when his film „Zug in die Ferne“, a bitter comment on the fall of the GDR, drew attention on him in Mannheim. With this prize, we celebrate an artist with a certain artistic and humanistic view, with an unmistakable style that is unique at least in Germany.“

The award ceremony in Mannheim will be accompanied by a screening of Dresen’s film „Whisky mit Wodka“ from 2009. The festival will also show the films „Zug in die Ferne“ (1990) and „“Stilles Land“ (1992) in the sidebar „A Journey in Time“. His latest film „Halt auf freier Strecke“ will be theatrically released in November 2011.

WHISKY MIT WODKA by Andreas Dresen, Germany, 104 Min.

Cast: Henry Hübchen, Corinna Harfouch, Sylvester Groth

A director casts a backup actor for his leading role because he is worried about the effects of his main star's alcoholism. This double staffing leads to jealousy and power struggles but also provides for fiery dialogues and reveals a lot about the people involved. At the same time, this film is an ode to filmmaking; as is typical for Dresen, shot with great affection for the characters. 

Further screening times for "Whisky mit Wodka":

In Mannheim
Thu 10 Nov. 8 pm Kino im Stadthaus I
Sun 20 Nov. 11 pm Kino Atlantis

In Heidelberg
Sat 12 Nov. 6 pm Kino im Schlossgarten I
Tue 15 Nov. 2 pm Kino im Schlossgarten I
Wed 16 Nov. 4 pm Kino im Schlossgarten I

With the Master of Cinema Award, the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg honours directors who as authors have promoted the art of cinema both uncompromisingly and with artistic innovation, cinema artists who have created an author cinema with its own „signature“. This award is given to auteurs who create works that stand out from mainstream cinema like marvels of poetic "enchantment of reality" (Dr. Michael Kötz), auteur films that have the right to allow as much character as possible, free from all clichés. In previous years, the award was given to: Atom Egoyan, Aleksandr Sokurov, Raoul Ruiz, Wim Wenders, Edgar Reitz, Theo Angelopoulos, Otar Iosseliani and Zhang Yimou.