National Competition for Women Directors of Photography

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National Competition for Women Directors of Photography

The national competition for women directors of photography of the IFFF Dortmund | Cologne is unique across the world, even today. Nowhere else is attention focused so explicitly and in such concentration on the women behind the camera, where their working opportunities and the further development of their skills is followed over many years. The award has been presented since 2001, over 300 works by camerawomen have been submitted and viewed since then, graduation films from film school or educational institutions or films from the first two years after graduation. And still, as before, young cinematographers are amazed that their work is honoured by a competition – normally it is the directors who win awards for films.
It is good to see that camerawomen who had submitted their graduation films years ago have now gained a foothold in their profession, have made a name for themselves in the film industry and are now themselves members of the Jury for women directors of photography. This is also the case for the 7th presentation of the award: as well as the multiple award-winning camerawoman and jury president Sophie Maintigneux (Professor for Camera at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts), who has actively supported the award for many years, Anne Misselwitz (award-winner in 2009) and Jana Marsik (director of photography for Detlev Buck and Lars Büchel, among others) are also here as jury members.
In order to extend the network of women directors of photography onto an international level and to learn about specific issues, problems and finding solutions from and for women behind the camera in different cultural working contexts, the Dortmund | Cologne International Women’s Film Festival will organise an international symposium for the next competition in 2014. In the run-up to this, there will be opportunities for the cinematographers to give voice to their needs and questions with respect to the symposium.

he cinematographers and jury members Sophie Maintigneux, Jana Marsik and Anne Misselwitz have viewed the material, discussed it – and reached the decision:

The Award for the Best Woman Director of Photography for a Feature Film (endowed with 2,500 €) goes to Julia Daschner for the film Bergig (director: Julia Daschner).
The Award for the Best Woman Director of Photography for a Documentary Film (endowed with 2,500 €) goes to Eva Katharina Bühler for the film Der weiße Schatz (director: Eva Katharina Bühler).

Awardees
2022: Roxana Reiss Fence, Constanze Schmitt Mayor, Shepherd, Widow, Dragon
2020: Sabine Panossian Off Season, Doro Götz Lost in Face
2018: Paola Calvo Violently Happy, Marie Zahir Wie ich mich verlor
2016: Julia Hönemann Porn Punk Poetry, Katharina Diessner Arlette – Mut ist ein Muskel
2014: Christiane Schmidt The Forest is Like the Mountains, Bine Jankowski Rebecca
2012: Julia Daschner Bergig, Eva Katharina Bühler Der weiße Schatz und die Salzarbeiter von Caquena
2011: Eva Maschke Frauenzimmer, Hanne Klaas Ole
2009: Marlen Schlawin Badetag, Susanne Kurz 1,2,3, Anne Misselwitz Der Die Das
2007: Ute Freund Du hast gesagt, dass du mich liebst
2005: Bernadette Paassen In den Schubladen
2003: Janne Busse Klassenfahrt
2001: Jutta Pohlmann England

Jury

Sophie Maintigneux

Sophie Maintigneux has been active as a freelance cinematographer since 1984. She has worked with directors such as Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Klier, Jan Schütte and Helga Reidemeister, and she has been director of photography on more than seventy fiction films and documentaries and has received numerous awards, including the German Camera Award for the documentary Ladies and Gentlemen over 65 and for Die dünnen Mädchen. In 2017, she received the The WIFTS Cinematographer Award. Her most recent works are the feature film Mario (directed by Marcel Gisler) and the documentary film outside directed by Johanna Sunder-Plassmann and Tama Tobias-Macht). Since 2011, she is Professor of Cinematography at the Cologne Academy of Media Arts.

Jana Marsik

Jana Marsik, born in 1974 in Kiel, attended photography seminars in Prague and did some camera work experience in Boston. From 1997 to 2003, she studied camera at the Film and Television University »Konrad Wolf« in Potsdam. Since 2000, she has worked as a freelance camerawoman. Among other prizes she won the sponsorship prize of the German Camera Award in 2002 for her photography direction of the short films Schlorkbabies an der Raststätte by Petra Volpe and Long Shot by Klaus Charbonnier. As well as shorts, TV documentations and commercial clips, she worked on Detlev Buck’s award-winning children’s film Hände weg von Mississippi in 2007. She has worked with Leander Haußmann, Lars Büchel and Detlev Buck again. For Lippels Traum and Same Same but Different she won the Bavarian Film Award in 2009. Her second directing project, the documentary Roku Roka – Hand in Hand, was made in 2009. Jana Marsik’s current film, Dreiviertelmond, by Christian Zübert, was screened in German cinemas at the end of 2011.

Anne Misselwitz

Anne Misselwitz was born 1977 in Jena. She moved to Stockholm for a year when she was sixteen. This was followed by stays in Mexico and Guatemala. From 1998 to 2001, she studied in London at the College of Communication, Film & Video. After her graduation film Zwielicht, she returned to Berlin and studied camera from 2002 to 2007 at the Konrad Wolf Film & Television University in Potsdam. For her graduation piece Der Die Das, she won Women Directors of Photography Award in the documentary category in 2009. Her latest film Were Dengê Min (dir. Hüseyin Karabey) received its première at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2014.