Reinhold Schünzel Award

The Reinhold Schünzel Award is an honorary prize awarded for long-time achievements in the field of restoration, preservation or dissemination and popularisation of the German film heritage.

Reinhold Schünzel was an actor and director, born in Hamburg. After returning from exile in Hollywood he died in Munich in 1954.

The laureate of the Reinhold Schünzel Award 2019 was presented during the opening ceremony of cinefest on Saturday, 16 November 2019. The laudation was hold by Michael Töteberg.

— Jury 2019:

Michal Bregant, Director of the National Film Archive in Prague
Heike Klapdor, Film Historian, Reinhold Schünzel-laureate 2016
Jay Weissberg, Artistic director of Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, Pordenone

The Reinhold Schünzel Award 2019 goes to

Giovanni Spagnoletti

Filmhistorian, Rome


Giovanni Spagnoletti, Michael Töteberg
(© María Rosé Rosales Robles)

An excerpt of the jury's statement:
Should all the books with Giovanni Spagnoletti’s name on the cover, as either author or editor, be stacked in a tower, the sheer size would itself be humbling. His extraordinarily wide-ranging output encompasses the films of Robert Bresson and Stanley Kwan, the national cinemas of South Korea, Argentina, Russia and Israel (to name only a few), and of course multiple topics regarding Italian cinema. Yet his frequent return to German film clearly signals a lifelong dedication to this country’s cinema, from the silent era to the present. One can trace this interest to his studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin as well as Rome’s La Sapienza University, and his important volumes on Fassbinder, Wenders, Kluge as well as specific thematic focuses testify to a truly impressive breadth and depth of knowledge, with wide-ranging fluency in 20th century culture. It would be wrong however to limit his impact to books and articles, as the programs he curated at the Pesaro Film Festival, of which he was director from 2000 to 2014, as well as at other festivals and film events, have significantly shaped how an informed international public views German cinema. Giovanni was honoured several months ago with a Festschrift, "Un passo avanti", which makes it more than fitting that we are presenting Giovanni in the same year with the Reinhold Schünzel Award, for devotion to German film heritage.


Previous laureates:

2018: Jan-Christopher Horak (more)

2017: Lenny Borger (more)

2016: Heike Klapdor (more)

2015: Vera Gyürey (more)

2014: Horst Claus (more)

2013: Wolfram Schütte (more)

2012: Bernard Eisenschitz (more)

2011: Barton Byg (more)

2010: Heide Schlüpmann (more)

2009: Volker Baer (more)

2008: Vladimir Opela (more)

2007: Gero Gandert (more)

2006: Vittorio Martinelli (more)

2005: Wolfgang Klaue (more)

2004: Ingrid Scheib-Rothbart (more)