Berlinale to Add Award in Honor of Director Heiner Carow

LONDON – The 2013 edition of the Berlin International Film Festival will add an award to be handed out by DEFA, the former East German state-owned film studio.

our editor recommends

TOP TEN: Berlinale Film Festival

Record Attendance for Berlin's European Film Market

The Berlin-based DEFA Foundation will award the newly-created Heiner Carow Prize during the festival.

The award, which comes with a cash prize of €5,000 ($6,400), will go to a German fictional, documentary or essay film from the festival's Panorama section with a three-member jury choosing the winning film.

The DEFA Foundation has set up the prize in memory of director Carow who made many films at the DEFA Studios in Babelsberg. His films include Sie nannten ihn Amigo (They Called Him Amigo, 1959), Die Russen kommen (The Russians Are Coming, 1968), Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The Legend of Paul and Paula, 1973), Ikarus (Icarus, 1976), Bis dass der Tod Euch scheidet (Until Death Do Us Part, 1979) and Coming Out (1989), among others.

In Feb. 1990, Carow won the festival's Silver Bear for Coming Out in the Berlinale Competition.

Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick said: "I see the prize as an important link between the past and the present. Heiner Carow was a director who made politically and aesthetically bold films, socially engaged and critical works that often drew large audiences. The prize has been named after a very worthy man. As a repeated guest of the Berlinale, Carow also knew how to make films that appealed to international audiences."

DEFA Foundation chairman Ralf Schenk added: "With the Heiner Carow Prize, the DEFA Foundation is fulfilling its mission to promote new German cinema and support young directors."

Founded in 1998, the DEFA Foundation manages and preserves DEFA film stock as part of Germany’s cultural heritage and makes it accessible to the public.

The 63rd Berlin International Film Festival runs February 7-17.