Triple suc­cess for the DFFB at the FIRST STEPS Awards 2025

Journal,

The DFFB cel­e­brat­ed a major suc­cess at the FIRST STEPS Awards 2025. Last night (6 Octo­ber 2025), three of our films received awards in the main cat­e­gories of fea­ture film, doc­u­men­tary film and act­ing. The film­mak­ers received a total of €45,000 in prize mon­ey.

The FIRST STEPS Awards are con­sid­ered the most pres­ti­gious awards for grad­u­a­tion films from film schools in Ger­man-speak­ing coun­tries and are an impor­tant sig­nal for the indus­try.

Best Fea­ture Film: THE GOOD SISTER

The fea­ture film THE GOOD SISTER (Direc­tor: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er, Screen­play: Sarah Miro Fis­ch­er & Agnes Maa­gard Petersen, Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Sel­ma von Pohlheim Gravesen, M: Ele­na Wei­he, P: Jan­na Fodor & Nina Sophie Bay­er-Seel) was award­ed the prize for fea­ture-length film, worth €20,000.

The grad­u­a­tion film is a co-pro­duc­tion with Arkanum Pic­tures and rbb and was sup­port­ed by, among oth­ers, the long-stand­ing part­ners of the Leucht­stoff ini­tia­tive from the Medi­en­board Berlin-Bran­den­burg and the Young Tal­ent Foun­da­tion Berlin.

‘Between close­ness and con­flict, a sto­ry unfolds that qui­et­ly but pow­er­ful­ly tells of loy­al­ty and jus­tice. THE GOOD SISTER cap­ti­vates with its nuanced explo­ration of com­plex fam­i­ly ties and a moral dilem­ma […] An impres­sive, intel­li­gent work with great dra­matur­gi­cal­ly pow­er,’ said the jury.

Best Doc­u­men­tary Film: MY BOYFRIEND EL FASCISTA

Matthias Lint­ner’s work impressed in the doc­u­men­tary film cat­e­go­ry and received a cash prize of €15,000 with the doc­u­men­tary film award. The film, pro­duced by Helios Sus­tain­able Films and Mariq­ui­tas Film, impres­sive­ly high­lights how a roman­tic rela­tion­ship is shak­en by polit­i­cal ten­sions.

The jury state­ment empha­sised the fol­low­ing in par­tic­u­lar:

“With great sen­si­tiv­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion, MY BOYFRIEND EL FASCISTA takes us on an intense jour­ney full of nuances and con­tra­dic­to­ry feel­ings. The inward-look­ing cam­era makes it strik­ing­ly clear how quick­ly dis­ap­point­ment, frus­tra­tion and ide­o­log­i­cal crit­i­cism can lead to rad­i­cal­ism […]. […] The result is an out­stand­ing, enter­tain­ing doc­u­men­tary that leaves room for nuances, fric­tion and irre­solv­able con­tra­dic­tions.”

Götz George Young Tal­ent Award: Lad­i­na von Frisching

The Götz George Young Tal­ent Award for act­ing, worth €10,000, went to Lad­i­na von Frisching for her out­stand­ing per­for­mance in IMPATIENCE OF THE HEART by direc­tor Lau­ro Cress. The film, a co-pro­duc­tion with rbb, tells the sto­ry of a young sol­dier’s fate­ful rela­tion­ship with a paral­ysed woman.

The jury was impressed by the young actress’s pres­ence:

“With impres­sive nat­u­ral­ness and restrained inten­si­ty, Lad­i­na von Frisching cre­ates a haunt­ing char­ac­ter who touch­es the view­er deeply. Her por­tray­al of Edith in IMPATIENCE OF THE HEART skil­ful­ly bal­ances sen­si­tiv­i­ty and deter­mi­na­tion and demon­strates Lad­i­na’s empa­thet­ic intu­ition for com­plex emo­tions. An extra­or­di­nary young actress whose tal­ent and pres­ence already stand out.”

Con­grat­u­la­tions to all the win­ners on this out­stand­ing achieve­ment!