The Ecumenical Jury in Mannheim 2021 awarded its €2,500 prize to the French-Belgian co-production "Ma nuit" (My Night) by Antoinette Boulat. Michelangelo Frammartino from Italy won the International Newcomer Award for Best Director for his film "Il buco" (The Hole).
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Mannheim-Heidelberg Film Festival, which was founded in 1952 as the "Kultur- und Dokumentarfilmwoche" (Cultural and Documentary Film Week), the festival team under festival director Sascha Keilholz and programme director Frédéric Jaeger has put together a high-profile programme. The core of the festival is the competition section "On the Rise" with first to third works by international directors. The section "Pushing the Boundaries" is also dedicated to innovative works. The retrospective under the motto "Breaks and Turning Points", which presents restored works from the history of the festival, is also dedicated to the impulses of renewal from the perspective of film history.
The anniversary programme shows outstanding films of the year in its centrepiece "Film Experience 2021" and, under the title "Festival Spotlight", film recommendations from other, like-minded festivals, celebrates directors Andrea Arnold and Guillaume Nicloux with a "Grand IFFMH Award" and offers a forum for the "birthplace of cinema" (festival catalogue), short film, in the "Shorts" section.