This year the
Bernhard Wicki Memorial Fund was able to gain the support of the umbrella
organization of the German film industry, Spitzenorganisation der Deutschen
Filmwirtschaft (SPIO), and the Bavarian State Chancellery. The Bernhard
Wicki Film Prize – The Bridge – German Cinema Award for Peace will receive
financial support from the Bavarian state government in the form of a grant.
These developments demonstrate the growing importance of the award.
Bavaria's Prime Minister, the Bernhard Wicki Memorial Fund and the SPIO will
be inviting guests to attend this year's ceremony at the Cuvilliés Theater,
one of the most magnificent Rococo theatres in the world, and the subsequent
screening of the award-winning film.
The redevelopment of
the Bernhard Wicki Film Prize will enhance its prestige within the film
industry, not only in Europe and the US, but all over the world. The prize
would fall short of its aim if an awareness of its significance were to
remain limited to film buffs; it will only achieve what it has set out to do
once this awareness is firmly anchored in the minds of a broad segment of
the world's population. Thus the keynote speech on peace will be the focus
of attention, and is bound to be a further highlight of the ceremony along
with the presentation of the award itself.
We hope to feature a
speaker – an outstanding personality from the world of film – for the
ceremony in 2009 who is as compelling and as firmly committed to peace,
freedom and enlightenment as those who have graciously accepted our request
in the past. We look forward to presenting this speaker with the honorary
award of the Bernhard Wicki Film Prize – The Bridge – German Cinema Award
for Peace and working with him or her to build bridges, through the global
medium of film, towards a more humane world for all.
