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Prize-winners

Awarded Programmes 2020

CIVIS – Europe’s Media Prize for Migration, Integration and Cultural Diversity honours programme achievements in radio, television and the Internet which promote peaceful coexistence in the European immigration society.

The CIVIS Cinema Prize as an audience award is added.

TOP AWARD + YOUNG C. AWARD

Masel Tov Cocktail

Short film
Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg | SWR/ARTE
Writer & director: Arkadij Khaet
Co-screenwriter: Merle Teresa Kirchhoff
Co-director: Mickey Paatzsch
Examiner: Thomas Lauterbach
Editors: Brigitte Dithard (SWR),
Laurence Rilly (ARTE)

Dimitrij Liebermann is Jewish and hits Tobi after he verbally abuses him and makes fun of the Holocaust. Dimitri isn’t necessarily sorry, but has to apologise to Tobi. On his way to his schoolmate’s, Dimitrji meets a number of Germans and is repeatedly confronted with his German-Jewish identity.

“Masel Tov Cocktail is an astonishingly successful production: fast-paced, without being fleeting; serious yet full of humour; both thought-provoking and entertaining. This film skillfully uses clichés, exposes stereotypes and is truly provocative. A great film.”

CIVIS VIDEO AWARD

Information
Arte Re: Walachian beggars – deprived individuals or organised gangs?

Documentary
Bayerischer Rundfunk | ARTE
Writer & director: Anna Tillack
Editor: Johanna Walter

The young Narcisa travels from Munich, where she is a beggar, to her village in Romania, whose Romany-minority residents are discriminated against, extremely poor and socially marginalised. Almost all the young people go overseas to beg to support their families, while the old look after the children. They receive virtually no help from the government.

“This documentary is a touching, completely unsentimental portrayal of the inequality on our continent. It takes a critical look at prejudice against beggars, vividly showing how the failure of a European country’s government is turning its citizens into beggars.”

CIVIS VIDEO AWARD

Entertainment
Classe unique (New comers)

Drama
France Télévisions | France 3
Writers: Christel Gonnard, Pauline Rocafull
Director: Gabriel Aghion
Producers: Audrey Legray, Nicolas de Saint Meleuc, Thomas Anargyros (Storia Television)
Co-producers: Sylvie Pialat (Les Films du Worso),
Anne Holmès (France Télévisions)

Jacques, the Mayor of Saint-Laurent, decides to offset the ageing population of his village somewhat and respond to a friend’s request, by welcoming a number of refugee families. Some of the locals are on his side; others are extremely hostile towards the asylum-seekers – initially at least. Then Jacques discovers that a young couple from Afghanistan are not actually permitted to remain in France and makes a momentous decision.

“This feature film profoundly yet amusingly portrays people who risk a lot to stand by those in need, while surpassing themselves in the process. A comedy based on tragedy. A story of courage bordering on recklessness – and beyond.”

CIVIS AUDIO AWARD

Short Programme
Rendez-vous: Zittau – in the middle of Europe but not at the centre of the EU

Documentary
Swiss Radio and Television
Writer: Peter Voegeli
Producer/editor: Ivana Pribakovic

The Saxon city of Zittau borders the Czech Republic and Poland, benefitting like few other regions in Germany from the EU, its money and its open borders. But Zittau is a stronghold of the Eurosceptic AfD that is distancing itself from the rest of the world. Many residents suggest that the European Union favours the Czech Republic and Poland.

“This programme is a successful example of how to impartially approach an issue, while enthusiastically addressing it. The writer allows the audience an unexpected insight into Europe, using the example of a small city on Germany’s eastern border.”

CIVIS AUDIO AWARD

Long Programmes
Radio feature: The murder of Soumayla Sacko

Feature
ORF
Writer: Franziska Sophie Dorau
Editor: Elisabeth Stratka

The farmer, Soumayla Sacko, was forced to leave Mali in 2015, because climate change had ruined his farm. In Calabria (Italy), he was employed as an agricultural worker and campaigned for the rights of those agricultural workers whom Italy’s then Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, ridiculed as “new slaves” – and who have long been an integral part of the Italian economy. Soumayla Sacko was shot dead on 2 June 2018.

“An extremely carefully researched, highly informative yet never preaching, utterly compelling story of slavery in the middle of Europe. Empathically yet calmly told, littered with unusually open, disturbing quotes and perfectly produced with technical precision.”

Honorable mention

JaafarTalk: Are refugees and migrants integrated in Germany?

TV Talk programme
Deutsche Welle
Jaafar Abdul Karim

The journalist, Jaafar Abdul Karim, pits Malak Awad and Georg Pazderski against one another. She is a social activist and Muslim, he is the Chairman of the AfD in the state parliament of Berlin (Abgeordnetenhaus Berlin). This line-up and the title of the programme: “Are refugees and migrants integrated in Germany?” reveal the presenter’s aim: to address the central aspects of an issue that has been the subject of particularly controversial discussion in politics and society for several years.

“The presenter uses a highly professional journalistic approach to question his guests as persistently as necessary and as engagingly as possible. He therefore manages to initiate a genuine, fact-finding debate that is both informative and entertaining.”

CIVIS CINEMA AWARD

Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl

Drama (Kinostart: 26.12.2019)
Regie: Caroline Link
Drehbuch: Caroline Link, Anna Brüggemann
Buchvorlage: Judith Kerr
Darsteller:innen: Riva Krymalowski, Oliver Masucci, Carla Juri u.a.
Produktion: Sommerhaus Filmproduktion
Ko-Produktion: Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany, Next Film Filmproduktion, La Siala Entertainment, Hugofilm Productions
Produzent:innen: Jochen Laube, Fabian Maubach, Clementina Hegewisch
Ko-Produzent:innen: Willi Geike, Steffi Ackermann, Ditti Bürgin-Brook, Christof Neracher
Filmverleih: Warner Bros.

The small village of Weikendorf in Lower Austria is thrown into turmoil in summer 2019 when a Palestinian family of eleven decides to buy a house. The mayor refuses to approve the purchase, and a citizens’ initiative to prevent them from coming gains traction. But the inhabitants of Weikendorf reject being labelled as racists in the media. The family father writes to senior figures in Austrian politics, but to no avail. A protracted legal dispute ensues.