Huawei’s ‘Gnu Gnu’ Enchants German Advertising Film Prize Jury

On Friday night, the Kampnagel theatre in Hamburg again became host to the sound of: "And the winner is ..."

The Deutsche Werbefilmakademie (German Advertising Film School) awarded the coveted ‘Hatto’ in 12 categories. The Media Prize, in which a select jury of specialist journalists chose their favorite film, was also awarded for the second time this year.

The big winner of the night was ‘Ein Monstermäßiger Film’ (featuring the adorable 'gnu gnu' creature), produced by tempomedia (post-production by Mikros MPC) for client Huawei, picking up the prize in the Best Commercial and Best Director category. 

The Media Prize also went to ‘Ein Monstermäßiger Film. Representing the media jury - consisting of Annette Dombrowski (filmecho/filmwoche), Bärbel Unckrich (HORIZONT), Daniela Strasser (WuV), Thomas Lückerath (DWDL), Scott Roxborough (The Hollywood Reporter), Vanessa Rummelhagen (New Business) and Hans von Bock (Deutsche Welle) - Bärbel Unckrich from HORIZONT presented the award to Justin Mundhenke of tempomedia.

For the second time, this special prize was awarded. According to Myriam Zschage (project manager of the German Advertising Film Academy), it promotes the interdisciplinary

exchange and discussion that occurs within the trade press.

Iconoclast's ‘Never Stop Improving’ (post production: NHB, agency: antoni garage) entered the race with two nominations and also won twice: in Best Sound Design and Best Editing. 

The winners didn’t reflect the nominations this year. Thus, ‘Sweat It Out’ for Hornbach received no Hatto, although the film was nominated three times.

Under the theme "Grand Hotel" almost 700 guests attended the ceremony.

The promotion of young talent was, as before, the central theme of the German Advertising Film Awards. 2018 award winning director Thilo Gundelach showed during the award ceremony his branded short ‘Levi’s Yourself’ to the public for the first time.

The Best Newcomer Commercial this year was the spot ‘Benim Evim Sensin’ by Ben Miethke of the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. The winner can look forward to a total of €28,500: €15,000 from Universal Music for music use, €10,000 from Eight for post-production and €3,500 from adstream.

"The Advertising Film Prize is very popular. Again this year we had almost 800 submissions. The quality of the films was noticeably high - especially by the younger generation. The grand jury did not have an easy job there,” said Tony Petersen, board member of the German Advertising Film Academy, on this year's selection process.

At the aftershow party, the winners and guests celebrated with the exuberant beats of Mad & Denyo until the early hours of the morning.

Further information can be found at www.deutscher-werbefilmpreis.de.

Here is the full list of winners:

“Ein Monstermäßiger Film”

Production: tempomedia

Client: Huawei

Agency: /

Award accepted: Justin Mundhenke (tempomedia)

“Ein Monstermäßiger Film”

Production: tempomedia

Client: Huawei

Agency: /

“Ein Monstermäßiger Film”

Nominated: Alex Feil

Production: tempomedia

Client: Huawei

Agency: /

"Never Stop Improving"

Nominated: Wenke Kleine-Benne

Production: Iconoclast

Client: Mercedes-Benz

Agency: antoni garage

"Life Phases"

Nominated: DamienDamien

Production: Saltwater

Client: Audi

Agency: Kolle Rebbe

"Listen to your inner voice"

Nominee: Bader El Hindi

Production: Bubbles Film

Client: Immowelt

Agentur : Noga

"Stronger than Time"

Nominated: Daniel Jahnel, Timo von Wittken, Florian Zachau

Production: Sehsucht

Client: Mercedes-Benz

Agency: antoni garage

"Voll Auf E"

Nominees: Daniel Jahnel, Hans-Christoph Schultheiss

Production: Sehsucht

Client: EnBW

Agency: /

"Never Stop Improving"

Nominated: Simon Colin

Production: Iconoclast

Client: Mercedes-Benz

agency: antoni garage

"In the Long Run"

Nominee: Linus Sandgren

Production: Iconoclast

Client: Mercedes-Benz

Agency: antoni garage

"Catapult Air"

Nominees: Casper-Jan Hogerzeil, Oliver Zacharias-Toelle, Klaus Huber

Production: PUK Film

Client: Sylt Marketing

Agency: Philipp & Keuntje

"Benim Evim Sensin"

Nominee: Ben Miethke

Production: Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg / Captcha