German Documentary Film Music Award 2023:
The Nominees
![]()
An award for the score of reality (5,000 euros)
Every year, the German Documentary Film Music Award honours a composition that combines in an outstanding way with the documentary film narrative. It sees itself as a platform for the work of the composers and the value of music as a narrative level in documentary films.
The award is endowed with 5,000 euros. It goes to the team of filmmaker and composer. It is donated by the Versicherungskammer Kulturstiftung and supported by the Förder- und Hilfsfonds des Deutschen Komponistenverbandes DKV.
The Nominees
FAMILIENLOS
Switzerland 2023, Angela Spörri, 87 min.
Composition: Yukio Elien Lanz
The Cambodian Thun Chay was left behind by his mother in a refugee camp while fleeing from the Khmer Rouge. He came to Switzerland as an orphan and grew up in the Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen. Here he found a new home and started his own family. Today, 30 years later, he wants to come to terms with his fate and embarks on a journey through Cambodia with his mother to the places of his childhood.
FITNESS CALIFORNIA – WIE MAN DIE EXTRA MEILE GEHT
Germany 2022, Nadine Zacharias, 104 min.
Composition: Sebastian Scheipers für Frische Luft
An endlessly hot summer is approaching and utopia and nostalgia merge in the time-honoured Freiburg weight room "Fitness California". Three wrestling legends revive extraordinary stories of courage and passion and fight for social cohesion despite their own cracks in their lives.
PLASTIC FANTASTIC
Germany 2023, Isa Willinger, 100 min.
Composition: Damian Scholl
A race between two forces. A race against time. A film about various actors involved in the production of plastic on the one hand and its disposal on the other.
THIS IS OUR EVERYTHING
Germany 2023, Frederik Subei, 81 min.
Composition: Ulrich Kodjo Wendt
The Guajajara will not stand by and watch their land and that of the uncontacted Awá people being destroyed. They are starting a group of forest protectors who are determined to defend the Amazon rainforest – if necessary with their own lives.
Winning film:
THIS KIND OF HOPE
Switzerland/Germany 2023, Pawel Siczek, 83 min.
Composition: David Langhard
Diplomacy is a game for Andrei Sannikov – the game of his life. After disarming one of the world's most dangerous nuclear arsenals as a top diplomat, he is now fighting for the return of a lost democracy.
The film at the festival
The winning film THIS KIND OF HOPE will be screened at the 38th DOK.fest München from 3 to 21 May 2023:
3 to 14 May 2023 at the Munich venues
8 to 21 May 2023 @home
The German Documentary Film Music Award will be presented at a festive award ceremony with film screening on Sunday, 7 May 2023 at 8.00 pm at HFF Munich.
