At the 43rd Munich Film Festival (25 June–4 July 2026), a jury from the Interfilm Academy Munich awarded the 41st One-Future Prize. The prize was shared equally by the documentary “Was haben wir gelacht” (What a Laugh) by Eva Müller and Isabel Schneider (Germany 2026) and the comedy feature film “Liebelingsmenschen – The Extraordinary Friendship of Agnes & Amir” (Agnes & Amir) by Helena Hufnagel (Germany 2026), which also won the festival’s Audience Award.
The jury’s statement on “Was haben wir gelacht” reads: “The documentary takes us back to German entertainment television of the 1990s and early 2000s, posing the question: ‘What were people actually laughing at back then?’ and exposes the entrenched patterns that relegate women to the role of ‘second-class citizens’. The film invites us not to perpetuate this familiar behaviour, but to question it critically and examine our own ways of thinking. With its intelligent, humorous and profound exploration of memory, responsibility and social change, the film makes an important contribution to the necessary dialogue for the present and for the future. The film demonstrates that the future begins where we are prepared to behave more respectfully towards women – and perhaps to laugh differently in the process.”
On *Lieblingsmenschen – The Extraordinary Friendship of Agnes & Amir*, the jury writes: “This professionally crafted feature film, which moves audiences of all generations, encourages viewers – in the face of the complex social problems in Germany (and elsewhere) – not to give up, but to creatively confront the social challenges at hand and to overcome them with imagination.”
The jury members were Rev. Eckart Bruchner, Christine Weißbarth, Ileana Cosmovici and Galina Antoschewskaja.