15th Günter Rohrbach Filmpreis 2025
In the competition for the 15th Günter Rohrbach Filmpreis 2025, director Christian Klandt and screenwriter Benedikt Gollhardt were awarded the Mayor’s Prize for their film “Dying for Beginners.”
November 7, 2025
The grand opening of the German Film Festival in Ludwigshafen am Rhein featured “Petra Goes Swimming”.
The premiere of Petra Goes Swimming took place on 20 August as the opening film of the festival.
The film has been nominated for both the Film Art Award and the Rheingold Audience Award.
Synopsis
Petra (Ulrike Kriener) is a passionate entrepreneur. When she has to give up her job after 20 years and retire, the resulting emptiness hits her out of the blue and with full force. Her husband (Rolf Lassgård), on the other hand, hopes that she will finally take the adventure holiday she promised him, which she has successfully avoided until now. As she is not a big fan of surprises herself, she hires her former assistant to organise the trip.
Cast
Ulrike Kriener, Rolf Lassgard, Philipp Moog, Lara Mandoki, Tatjana Nekrasov
Crew
directed by: Rainer Kaufmann
written by: Uli Brée
DOP: Martin Farkas
Producers: Christian Popp
Service-Producer: Mia Film
The ‘Fernseh-Biber’ went to the ZDF Monday film ‘Sterben für Beginner’ (Edin Hasanović, Max Hubacher, Svenja Jung and Peter Kurth) in the category “Best Television Movie”, directed by Christian Klandt
A story about ex-music manager Eric, who is recruited as an undertaker and shortly afterwards learns that his best friend Alex has an irreparable brain tumour.
Producer award for Christian Popp (Producers at work Film) at the 30th Filmfest Hamburg
from left to right:
Alexander Thies, Jana Schiedek, Christian Popp, Albert Wiederspiel
Christian Popp wins this year’s Hamburg Producer Award for German Television Productions with the ARD Degeto event production “The Miracle of Cape Town” starring Sonja Gerhardt and Alexander Scheer.
Inspired by true events, Franziska Buch directed the historical drama about the world’s first heart transplant on a human being, based on the screenplay by Christoph Silber. Das Erste and ARD Mediathek will broadcast the film at the end of the year.
The jury justifies the award as follows: “In our eyes, the production company Producers at Work has succeeded in combining a world-historical event with the theme of women’s struggle for professional recognition in an exciting and entertaining way. The race for the first heart transplant, which is told on film for the first time in The Miracle of Cape Town, also provides an opportunity to remember apartheid through a true black key figure.”
TV Film, 105 min, South Africa, Czech Republic, Das Erste 2022
Premiere “30th Hamburg Film Fest”, official selection “Televisionen//FF2022”
Screening 4th of October 2022
from left to right:
Christoph Silber, Patrick Noel Simon, Arnd Klawitter, Clara Wolfram, Christian Popp
In 1967, the world’s first human heart transplant was performed in South Africa. An operation that not only revolutionized the medical world. Inspired by this true incident, Sonja Gerhardt plays Lisa Scheel, a budding Frankfurt doctor who works hard to become one of the first women to succeed in male-dominated surgery. Nevertheless, Prof. Kohlfeld (Fritz Karl) prefers her to a male applicant. Deeply hurt, Lisa pursues her plan and travels to Cape Town to join Kohlfeld’s rival, Dr. Barnard (Alexander Scheer), who is also feverishly working on the first heart transplant. After an uphill battle, Lisa joins Barnard’s surgical team, where she experiences firsthand the injustice of apartheid. Together with Hamilton Naki (Loyiso MacDonald), who can only participate in the operation in secret due to his dark skin color, Lisa plays a major role in making the first heart transplant a breakthrough in medicine.
Cast
Sonja Gerhardt, Alexander Scheer, Fritz Karl, Loyiso MacDonald, Clara Wolfram, Thimo Meitner, Arnd Klawitter u.a.
Crew
Directed by: Franziska Buch
Written by: Christoph Silber
DOP: Bella Halben
Music: Martina Eisenreich
Producer: Christian Popp, Tobias Stille