The German film academy has issued new criteria for the German film awards that will make it easier for international productions with significant local creative input to qualify for the country’s top film honors, called the Lolas.
Under the new regulations, any film can qualify for the national awards if at least 25 percent of its financing, along with sufficient creative input, comes from Germany. The academy has also broadened the group of creatives it considers significant, giving equal weight to a movie’s director and its screenwriter, and allowing the contribution of actors or behind-the-scenes talent to be counted in determining whether a film qualifies as “German” for the sake of the awards.
A film with at least 50 percent German financing can qualify for the Lolas if its director or screenwriter and at least one of its leading producers are German nationals or based in Germany. The film also meets the Lola criteria if it has at least one leading producer and at least three significant heads of department who are German nationals or based in Germany, or if one producer, two heads of department, and one of the acting leads are.
Films with between 25 percent and 50 percent German financing can also qualify if the majority of the dialog is in German and there is more significant local creative input — meaning a leading producer, director or screenwriter, and at least 3 heads of department, or two heads of department and a lead actor, are German nationals or based in Germany.
In a statement, the academy said the aim of the reform is “to strengthen the positions of filmmakers while ensuring greater flexibility in film financing. [And to] encourage the participation of creative professionals who live and work in Germany or who hold German citizenship.”
The changes come after this year’s awards in which Mohammad Rasoulof’s Oscar-nominated Iranian drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig, was a multiple nominee and won two Lolas: Best actor for Missagh Zareh and the runner-up Silver Lola for best film. The film qualified for Germany’s national film awards because it received significant financing out of Germany, via Hamburg-based lead producer Run Way Pictures, and because Rasoulof is a German resident, having escaped Iran for Berlin, where he has refugee status.