‘Wovon sollen wir träumen’ (‘What shall we dream of’) won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Max Ophuels Prize 2026. Milena Aboyan's and Constantin Hatz’s film also won the Audience Award. The festival jury awarded its feature film prize to ‘Gropiusstadt Supernova’ by Ben Volt (Germany 2026), and the Prize of the Prime Minister of the Saarland for Best Director to Magdalena Chmieleska for ‘Teresa's Body’ (Austria 2026). The Film Critics' Award for Best Feature Film went to ‘Wolves’ by Jonas Ulrich (Switzerland 2026). In the documentary film competition, ‘Die noch unbekannten Tage’ (The Days That Are Still Unknown) by Jola Wieczorek (Austria 2026) won the Festival Jury Prize, ‘Eine Krankheit wie ein Gedicht’ (A Disease Like a Poem) (Germany 2026) won the Audience Award, and ‘Terre rouge - Topographie du poète’ by Fränz Hausemer (Luxembourg 2026) won the Film Critics' Award.
On 19 January, the 47th Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival opened with the German-Swiss film ‘Sie glauben an Engel, Herr Drowak?’ (Do You Believe in Angels, Mr Drowak?) by Nicolas Steiner. The director's feature film debut is about a student (Luna Wedler) who works as a writing therapist and a lonely, misanthropic alcoholic (Karl Markovics) who turns out to be a literary talent.
The Max Ophüls Prize Film Festival is dedicated to young German-language filmmakers. The 2026 programme comprised 146 films, which were shown in four competitions (feature film, documentary film, medium-length film and short film) as well as several side series. As a tribute to Saarbrücken-born director Wolfgang Staudte (1906-1984), his 1964 film ‘Herrenpartie’ was shown. Marcel Ophüls, who died last year, was honoured with several screenings of his restored four-and-a-half-hour documentary ‘The Memory of Justice’ from 1975, which deals with the Nuremberg Trials and the issues raised in them.
The Ecumenical Jury awards its €2,500 prize to a film from the feature film competition, which in 2026 comprised 11 entries.