The film festival Max Ophüls Preis, dedicated to German-speaking young cinema, celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2019. The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury was won by the film "The Melancholy Girl" by Susanne Heinrich. The director, daughter of a Protestant pastor, said at the award ceremony that she really wanted to emancipate herself from her origins. "But maybe it's up to my preacher genes that I'm now pursuing feminist critique of capitalism." Her film was also awarded Best Feature Film by the Festival Jury.
Other prizes went to "Cronofobia" by Francesco Rizzi (Switzerland 2018, Best Director), "Joy" by Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria 2018, Prize for the Socially Relevant Film), "Nevrland" by Gregor Schmidinger (Austria 2019, Prize of the Youth Jury) and "Hi, AI" by Isa Willinger (Germany 2019, Best Documentary).
Presenting 62 films in four competition sections (features, films of middle length, documentaries, and short films) the festival screened more than 150 films altogether. Actress Iris Berben received an Honorary Award. The opening film was "Das Ende der Wahrheit" (Final Truth), directed by Philipp Leinemann.
Link: Festival-Website