Golden Sparrow 1979
The national festival " Goldener Spatz " for children's films of the GDR in cinema and television was opened for the first time from February 2 to 9, 1979, a film festival that was renamed the German Children's Film & Television Festival Goldener Spatz at the turn of 1990 .
description
The first edition of the event - with 40 children's films in competition - visited well over 100,000 children in the international "Year of the Child", which was a success and further events followed. Festival director and film scenarist Günter Mehnert welcomed around 375 invited guests, as well as 22 participants from countries such as the Soviet Union, Finland, Cuba, Austria but also from the Federal Republic of Germany. The event was opened with the DEFA strip Des Henkers Bruder by director Walter Beck .
As the venue for the so-called “Weeks of Children's Films”, which were organized by the city and district of Gera for several years and always took place during the winter holidays, the area around Gera was the ideal location for a new festival. In addition to film productions for a predominantly younger audience, the event was primarily intended to encourage educators and journalists to exchange experiences, so that it was declared a “work festival”. The organizers were the Ministry of Culture, the State Committee for Television at the Council of Ministers, the Association of Film and Television Workers in the GDR and the Gera District Council.
The graphic designer and illustrator Rolf Felix Müller created the " Golden Sparrow " as a symbol of the event, which also became the festival's prize winner. In addition to a specialist jury around President Heinz Hofmann , who awarded the award in three categories in addition to various honorary diplomas, there was also a jury of 9 to 14-year-old children with mentor Ingeborg Zimmerling , who also awarded honorary prizes and diplomas, as well as other state institutions .
Golden sparrow
- Feature film / TV play: Das Raubtier - Director: Walter Beck
- Documentary / TV journalism: Language of Steps - Director: Ernst Cantzler
- Animation: Jungle Tale - Director: Katja Georgi
Honorary prizes from the children's jury
- Feature film / TV play: A Snowman for Africa - Director: Rolf Losansky
- Documentary / TV journalism: SM - The Guest of Honor - Director: Günter Meyer
- Animation: Rübezahl and the glassmaker and Rübezahl and the wanderer - Director: Werner Krause
Honorary degrees
- Rotschlipse (director: Helmut Dziuba ), production: DEFA-Studio for feature films
- The shoe shiners of Rossio (Katins group), production: Television of the GDR
- Copihuito (Director: Günter Jordan ), Production: DEFA-Studio for Documentary Films
Literature and Sources
- filmspiegel , 1/1979, pp. 14-15; No. 2/1979, pp. 24-25; No. 6/1979, pp. 2, 23-26
- Information bulletin of the Association of Film and Television Workers of the GDR , 1/1979
- Prize winners on spatzwiki.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Günter Jordan on defa.de