PHAROS Production Award 2024

The PHAROS Production Award for graduation film projects at HFF Munich was presented for the fourth time. This year it went to two HFF graduation projects with special image design concepts: CAMOUFLAGE by Mirko Hans and ERINNERUNGEN EINES WALDES by Jacob Kohl. In addition, the jury awarded an honorable mention to the project FREEZING by Lea Dähne.

The award-winning projects are generously supported in their realization with a total value of 150. 000 € through the loan of film equipment from LUDWIG Kameraverleih and post-production services from us, PHAROS - The Post Group!

This year, the jury consisting of Franz Kraus (HFF Head of Cinematography and former ARRI Board Member), Jens Oberwetter (Claussen Putz Filmproduktion), Angela Reedwisch (PHAROS), Christian Rein (HFF Camera Professor) and Jürgen Schopper (VFX Professor, HFF Vice President) chose two HFF graduation film projects, which are supported in equal parts by the loan of technical film equipment from LUDWIG Kameraverleih (equivalent value of € 25,000 each) and with post-production services from PHAROS - The Post Group (equivalent value of € 50,000 each):

CAMOUFLAGE
Cinematography: Mirko Hans, Director: Mykyta Gibalenko, Production: Kalekone Film (HFF alumnae Lea Neu and Katharina Kolleczek)
Synopsis: Ukraine, 2020: Vitaly and his sister Eugenia form an inseparable unit based on a deep bond and mutual trust.But apart from his sister, Vitaliy has hardly any social contacts and feels increasingly alienated and isolated in his home country.
He migrates to Germany to find his “new self” there and becomes increasingly estranged from Eugenia. When Russia's war of aggression begins on February 24, 2022, she and her mother flee to Vitaly in Munich. Living in the same room and needing family cohesion more than ever, the siblings and their mother find themselves isolated from each other. It is clear to all of them that they must get to know each other anew, even if this means confrontation for everyone.

MEMORIES OF A FOREST
Cinematography: Jacob Kohl, Director: Katharina Rabl, Screenplay: Katharina Rabl & Karla Cristóbal, Production: Christina Schmid and Natalie Seraphim together with mischief Films and Leykauf Film
Synopsis: Frieda (30) is faced with a choice: a career at university or taking responsibility for the indebted family farm.
Torn between tradition and emancipation, she has to make a decision.Will she follow the path of her female ancestors or find her own way?
ERINNERUNGEN EINES WALDES received an honorable mention for its first submission to the PHAROS Production Award for HFF graduation films last year; the project has since been consistently developed further and could be resubmitted.

FREEZING
Cinematography: Lea Dähne, Director: Catharina Lott, VFX: Hannes Werner, Production: Apollonia Film GmbH and Narrative Way GmbH
Synopsis: After a sexual assault, Toni (17) feels wrong and vulnerable - as if she no longer has a home in her own body. When she meets Anna, her hopes of freeing herself from her past flare up. Just like a tiger that has escaped from the local zoo and is now roaming free, Toni encounters it not only in her dreams.

ABOUT THE AWARD:

HFF graduation projects from the two HFF directing departments Cinema and Television Film and Documentary Film & Television Journalism can be submitted for the PHAROS Production Award. The focus is on the image design concept. Accordingly, the camera and VFX students, who realize the films as diploma projects together with their directing, screenwriting and production students*, are largely responsible for the submission.
The award (initially launched in the past two years as the ARRI Production Award, then renamed the Franz Kraus Production Award) was initially a three-year cooperation (which has since been extended) between PHAROS, LUDWIG Kameraverleih, which belongs to the same group of companies, and HFF Munich on the initiative of Prof. Franz Kraus (HFF head of the Cinematography department and former ARRI board member) and Prof. Tom Fährmann (HFF Chair of Image Design, retiring in July 2022).
The annual PHAROS Production Award includes funding in the form of services for the selected final film project: LUDWIG Kameraverleih provides technical filming equipment for the shoot, and PHAROS - The Post Group also provides support for the subsequent post-production.