“The Friend” wins award in San Francisco
14.01.2009
Micha Lewinsky’s film “The Friend” was honoured with the Maurice Kanbar Award for Best First Feature, amounting to 5,000 dollars, at the 14th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco (January 15-21, 2009). The festival, which is organised by the Goethe-Institut in San Francisco, presents approximately 30 new German-speaking feature films from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Micha Lewinsky is currently touring California with Emilie Welti, the film’s leading actress, for the Oscar promotion tour.
Last week Micha Lewinsky presented his film to audiences in crowded cinemas at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. He will be representing Switzerland at this year’s Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film. After having presented “The Friend” at the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles, Lewinsky and Welti will continue their promotion tour in California, with the next stop being the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival in San Francisco.
The award is sponsored by the American entrepreneur, cinema owner and patron of the arts, Maurice Kanbar, and is presented annually to the Best First Feature from Germany, Austria or Switzerland exhibiting “unique artistic sensibility or vision “ and “deserving to be seen by a wide audience”. In 2004 this award was presented to the Swiss-German co-production “When the Right One Comes Along” by Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand.
Zurich, January 14, 2009
The award is sponsored by the American entrepreneur, cinema owner and patron of the arts, Maurice Kanbar, and is presented annually to the Best First Feature from Germany, Austria or Switzerland exhibiting “unique artistic sensibility or vision “ and “deserving to be seen by a wide audience”. In 2004 this award was presented to the Swiss-German co-production “When the Right One Comes Along” by Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand.
Zurich, January 14, 2009