44th Film Festival Max Ophuels Preis

"Franky Five Star" (Germany 2023) by Birgit Möller has won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Festival Max Ophuels Prize 2023. The Festival Prize for Best Feature Film goes to "Alaska" (Germany 2023) by Max Gleschinski. Other award winners are "Letzter Abend" (Germany 2022) by Lukas Nathrath (Best Director - Film Prize of the Prime Minister of the Saarland), "Breaking the Ice" (Austria 2022) by Clara Stern (Max Ophuels Prize for Socially Relevant Film, Fritz Raff Screenplay Prize and Youth Jury Prize) and "Eismayer" (Austria 2022) by David Wagner (Film Critics Prize and Audience Award Feature Film).

On 23 January, the Film Festival Max Ophuels Preis 2023 opened with "Aus meiner Haut", the feature film debut of Alex Schaad. The festival, which is dedicated to up-and-coming German-language filmmakers, presented a total of 56 works by young directors in four competition sections - feature film, documentary, medium-length film and short film. Other films are screened in sections such as "MOP Watchlist", which shows a selection of the best young German-language films from the past production year. As Ukraine special the festival screened "Heaven and Earth", a short film anthology of five works by Ukrainian directors. They tell stories of their compatriots living in Germany.

The Ecumenical Jury, appointed by INTERFILM and SIGNIS, chose their winner from the feature film competition. The prize is endowed with 2,500 €, jointly donated by the Catholic Adult Education Saarland - Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft e.V. - and the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft für Evangelische Erwachsenenbildung im Saarland e.V., represented by the Evangelische Akademie im Saarland.