Prize-winners
CIVIS Media Prize 2025
CIVIS – Europe’s Media Prize for Migration, Integration and Cultural Diversity and – linked to this – social cohesion in Europe 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.
The award ceremony of the CIVIS Media Prize 2025 took place on Monday, 26 May 2025 in Berlin as an additional event in the context of re:publica 25. The CIVIS Award Ceremony can be seen in the ARD Media Library from 28 May 2025. ARD / Das Erste will broadcast it on Thursday, 29 May 2025, at 00:05 am. The award ceremony was hosted by journalist and presenter Mona Ameziane.
YOUNG C. AWARD
Souls unshackled
Documentary film
Little Dream Pictures | Filmfest Hamburg
Author | Director: Roxana Samadi
Production: Frank Geiger, Ali Samadi Ahadi, Mohammad Farokhmanesh, Armin Hofmann
On September 16, 2022, Jina Mahsa Amini was arrested by the Iranian morality police. Three days later, she died in custody. Her death triggered a wave of outrage, both in Iran and internationally. The film traces the protest through exiled Iranians who fled their homeland in the 1970s and second-generation German-Iranians.
“The author provides a very personal view of the inner turmoil of the Iranian community in the diaspora, with private footage of high documentary quality. There is the hope of returning home as well as the helpless frustration of those who can only follow events in their own or their parents’ homeland from afar. At the same time, the film conveys impressions of solidarity work abroad.”
CIVIS VIDEO AWARD
ARD Story: Abandoned in the desert – Europe’s deadly refugee policy
Documentary
BR | ARD Mediathek
Authors | Director: Philipp Grüll, Erik Häußler
Editors: Astrid Harms-Limmer, Elisabeth Lehmann, Klaas van Dijken, Ben Bolz
Production: Astrid Harms-Limmer,
Co-production: Elisabeth Lehmann, Klaas van Dijken, Ben Bolz
An international pool of reporters documents the systematic arrest and abduction of refugees and migrants from sub-Saharan Africa by North African security forces, some of which are co-financed by the EU. The film shows that European governments are well aware of this. Nevertheless, they continue to support the training and deployment of security forces in Tunisia and other countries. The devastating consequences of this policy remain largely hidden from the public.
“With the help of rigorous research, the film uncovers the ruthless practices within the framework of European migration policy and gives their victims a voice. They are not presented as numbers or cases, but portrayed as human beings in poignant images and impressive sound bites. At the same time, possible solutions are discussed.”
TOP AWARD + CIVIS VIDEO AWARD
Uncivilized: From 9/11 to the Ukraine war. Episode 1: Hanau
Fiction series
Cocktailfilms | ZDF
Author | Director: Bilâl Bahadır
Creator: Çağdaş Eren Yüksel
Editor: Melvina Kotios (ZDF)
Production: Çağdaş Eren Yüksel, Luis Engels
The series examines how public discourse – about the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, the attacks on the editorial offices of Charlie Hebdo and in Hanau, the night of riots in Stuttgart, the attack on Ukraine – affects the lives of migrants. Based on real cases, the subtle forms of everyday racism are traced, in which the rhetoric and thrust of the related social debates are reflected. In this episode, the racist attack in Hanau forms the background to the events.
“In a touching and authentic way, it illustrates how the echo of a drastic historical event reverberates into the lives of the affected community – ‘Hanau’ marks a rift, there is a before and an after. The tense worry of doing something wrong, the fear that something will happen, is omnipresent. This is captured precisely and authentically, especially in the language and gestures of the boys.”
TOP AWARD + CIVIS VIDEO AWARD
Souleymane’s Story
Feature Film
Pyramide Films | Cannes Film Festival
Authors: Boris Lojkine, Delphine Agut
Director: Boris Lojkine
Producer: Bruno Nahon
Souleymane, who comes from Guinea, is waiting in Paris for the outcome of his asylum procedure. He earns his living as a bicycle courier for a food delivery service. In doing so, he encounters the arrogance and resentment of wealthy customers, but also dependencies in the migrant community. In the evenings, he rehearses another person’s refugee story to improve his prospects at the asylum interview.
“A story of perseverance and not giving up despite all adversity, with great lay actors and a breathtaking script. It conveys the fate of the protagonist in a Kafkaesque situation with almost existentialist urgency. The film is fast-paced and exciting and is full of twists and turns steering clear of any clichés.”
CIVIS VIDEO AWARD
Young people with a history of migration support their parents – a natural act or forced by excessive demands?
Social media format
SRF | YouTube
Author: Sofika Yogarasa
Production: Ilona Stämpfli, Vanessa Nikisch
Editor: Anita Richner
In Switzerland, one in eight children between the ages of 10 and 15 are “young carers” who look after relatives in need of support. Many have a history of migration. Their particular problems with a service that is taken for granted and yet can be overburdening are hardly noticed in the so-called majority society. They are the subject of the report by Sofika Yogarasa, who has had to cope with such demands herself.
“The reporter takes us, kindly and gently, on a journey in which she pursues her own questions. It proves impossible to draw a precise line between humanity practiced as a matter of course and excessive demands. The dilemma is presented in a multifaceted way and full of warmth for the protagonists.”
CIVIS AUDIO AWARD
Information in the morning – Syrian Kurds in Germany between hope and fear
Reportage
Deutschlandradio | Deutschlandfunk
Author: Katharina Thoms
Editor: Sebastian Ehl
The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has plunged exiled Kurds in Germany into a dilemma: unbridled joy on the one hand, great concern for the well-being of their relatives back home on the other. The documentary captures the conflicting emotions based on the story of two Kurdish migrants from Göppingen and Stuttgart.
“A high level of information is conveyed in a very lively and understandable way. Despite a short reaction time and a confusing news situation, an authentic and differentiated picture of the lives of two exiles emerges. The reportage does not succumb to the temptation to present supposedly simple solutions and shows real ambivalences without lecturing.”
CIVIS AUDIO AWARD
Hamburg’s baseball bat years – right-wing violence in the 1980s
Feature
Deutschlandradio | Deutschlandfunk
Author: Philipp Schnee
Director: Beatrix Ackers
Editor: Christiane Habermalz
The supposedly peaceful Hanseatic city of Hamburg experienced a wave of right-wing violence in the 1980s: eight murders, numerous arson attacks, assaults and serious bodily harm. This happened a decade before the frequent right-wing assaults in East Germany were labeled the “baseball bat years”. In the DLF feature, two protagonists talk not only about the violence they experienced, but also about the counter-movement of migrant and civil society groups.
“The extensive research makes it possible to reappraise a decade that has not been sufficiently illuminated. A community of people with a history of immigration, rightly suspicious of the police and authorities, became politically active and organized resistance. It is well constructed and grippingly told.”
CIVIS AUDIO AWARD
Half Katoffl
Burak Yilmaz (TUR/ KUR): Alman mode, Auschwitz encounter & youth center work
Podcast
Author | Editing | Production: Frank Joung
Co-production: Burak Yilmaz
Berlin journalist Frank Joung, whose parents are from Korea, talks to Burak Yilmaz, a Duisburg resident with Kurdish-Turkish roots who works as a freelance teacher and author. In the interview podcast featuring Germans from migrant families, Yilmaz talks about his experiences as a youth, about radicalization, generalization and trivialization, about terror export and “imported anti-Semitism”.
“The host manages to get very close to his guest, to find a common level of conversation and to link his own experiences to those of others. In this way, a piece of immigration history is told using a biography as an example. The in-depth conversation is rich in detail and fascinating throughout.”
CIVIS CINEMA AWARD
Alter weisser Mann
Regie: Simon Verhoeven
Drehbuch | Co-Produzent: Simon Verhoeven
Produzent:innen: Quirin Berg, Max Wiedemann, Kirstin Winkler
Produktion: Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion
Verleih: LEONINE Distribution GmbH
Heinz Hellmich soll befördert werden, dafür muss er allerdings beweisen, dass er modern genug dafür ist, hat er sich doch in der Vergangenheit einige Fehltritte erlaubt. Er gilt als „alter weißer Mann“. Sein Chef fordert ihn auf, sich von seiner besten, zeitgemäßen Seite zu zeigen und ihn und einige weitere Menschen zum Essen zu sich nach Hause einzuladen. Zunächst scheint es nicht dazu zu kommen, schließlich sitzen aber alle am Tisch – doch es entbrennt ein heftiger Streit.
Header: CIVIS
Nominierungen: Screenshots CIVIS
Podcasts
Mouhamed Dramé: © Mirko Schweikert/WDR
Wo bist Du?: © SWR/ Studio Jot
Springerstiefel: Foto: Moïse Youmba/ Design ACB Stories
Familiengeheimnisse: Foto: Nils Lukas/ Covergrafik: Konstantin Gramalla
Wild Wild Web: © Bayerische Rundfunk
Halbe Katoffl: © Halbe Katoffl
CINEMA
Riefenstahl: © Majestic / Christiane Feneberg
Alter weißer Mann: © 2024 LEONINE Studios / Wiedemann & Berg Film
September 5: The Day Terror Went: © Constantin Film
Die Saat des Heiligen Feigenbaums: © Alamode Film
Die Schattenjäger: © LeCercleNoir (pour Fidelio), Photo: Kris DeWitte
Das Licht: X Verleih