TEN ‘LOLAS’ FOR 'SOUND OF FALLING'
The 76th German Film Awards were presented during a gala ceremony on Friday evening, 29 May 2026, at the Palais am Funkturm / Messe Berlin. Seven graduates of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (FABW) are among the winners.
The standout winner of the evening, with ten awards, was the drama IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN (SOUND OF FALLING), whose screenplay was written at FABW. “LOLAS” went to FABW alumni in the categories Best Directing (Mascha Schilinski), Best Screenplay (Mascha Schilinski and Louise Peter*), Best Cinematography (Fabian Gamper), Best Production Design (Cosima Vellenzer/Production Design and Maike Kiefer/Set Decoration) and Best Sound Design (Claudio Demel, jointly with Billie Mind, Kai Tebbel, Sebastian Heyser and Jürgen Schulz).
Furthermore, IN DIE SONNE SCHAUEN, which had already won the Jury Prize at Cannes and was selected as Germany’s entry for the Oscar® race, won the gold “LOLA” for Best Feature Film as well as in the categories Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing, Best Costume Design and Best Make-up.
Michael Wortmann, a graduate of FABW´s Animationinstitut, was also delighted to receive a German Film Award in the category of Best Visual Effects. He received the trophy together with Frank Schlegel for the new film adaptation of Michael Ende’s novel MOMO.
Furthermore, Filmakademie graduates Bertin Molz for SIE GLAUBEN AN ENGEL, HERR DROWAK? in the Best Sound Design category, as well as Julian Vogel* (screenplay, directing, director of photography), Karoline Henkel*, Jasper Mielke and Arto Sebastian (production) for SOLDATEN DES LICHTS as Best Documentary Film, also had made it onto the list of nominees.
The German Film Award is the most prestigious national accolade in the film industry. The awards ceremony is organised by the German Film Academy in collaboration with the Federal Government Officer for Culture and the Media (BKM). The actor, musician and director Christian Friedel hosted the festive awards ceremony for the second time. A recording of the event is available in the ARD media library.
*Louise Peter, Karoline Henkel and Julian Vogel are scholarship holders of the foundation Baden-Wuerttemberg Stiftung and have participated in an international partner programme as part of their studies at FABW.
Picture: Mascha Schilinski and Louise Peter, (c) Eventpress Fluhr