Every year, by awarding the Berlinale Camera, the Berlinale pays tribute to personalities and institutions that have made a unique contribution to film and to whom the festival feels especially close. This way, the Berlinale expresses its gratitude to those who have become great friends and supporters of the festival. In 2012 the Studio Babelsberg, Haro Senft and Ray Dolby were awarded the Berlinale Camera.
Berlinale:
The Berlinale Camera
Carl L. Woebken, the President and Chief Executive Officer Studio Babelsberg AG and Christoph Fisser, the Vice President Studio Babelsberg AG, with the Berlinale Camera
In honour of Studio Babelsberg’s 100th anniversary, the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival has put together a review of the studio’s history: ten films, one from each decade, will be presented in the “Happy Birthday, Studio Babelsberg” special series. The Film Festival was also awarding Studio Babelsberg a Berlinale Camera.
Haro Senft with his Berlinale Camera
Haro Senft, born in Budweis (České Budějovice), is one of the founding fathers of New German Cinema. He was the initiator of DOC 59, a group based in Munich at the end of the 1950s; many of its members went on to sign the Oberhausen Manifesto in 1962. In the oppressive fusty atmosphere of the post-war years, these two groups were highly active cells of a new era in the Federal Republic of Germany. For his film Kahl, about the construction of the first German atomic power plant, Haro Senft earned an Oscar nomination in 1961. He also played a substantial role in the founding of the Board of Young German Film. His first full-length fictional film, Der sanfte Lauf, featured Bruno Ganz in his first major role. Senft was a founding member as well as the long-standing chairman of the Association of New German Feature Film Producers. In 1971 he resigned from all his positions related to film policy and devoted himself unlike anyone else to developing a culture of children’s films. With his films Ein Tag mit dem Wind (1978) and Jacob hinter der blauen Tür (1987) he set the standard for the genre. In the 1980s, he co-produced several features, including Doris Dörrie’s Im Innern des Wals (In the Belly of the Whale, 1984) and Tevfik Başer’s Lebwohl Fremde (1989). Since Haro Senft can no longer travel, Dieter Kosslick awarded him his Berlinale Camera at his residence in Munich prior to the Festival. On February 15, 2012, at Kino Arsenal, the Berlinale presented the film Ein Tag mit dem Wind in his honour. Before it began, a recording was screened of Haro Senft receiving his award.
Dieter Kosslick, Ray Dolby and Peter Cowie
Ray Dolby revolutionised sound in cinemas and contributed greatly to making films the amazing acoustic experience we know today. By installing multiple loudspeakers and applying multi-channel technology, Dolby surround sound introduced viewers to the feeling of being fully immersed in the moment. Ray Dolby’s first surround sound technology, Dolby Stereo introduced in 1975, was quickly adopted by movie theatres worldwide, as films like Star Wars (1977; directed by George Lucas) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977; directed by Steven Spielberg) were released in the new Dolby sound format. Dolby Digital surround sound followed, which also later became the standard for home cinema audio with the introduction of DVD. Ray Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965 based on a simple idea that came to him as a way of solving the issues around the hissing sound on audio tape. This was the birth of Dolby A-type noise reduction for the professional recording market, followed three years later by Dolby B-type noise reduction for consumer products. In the 1970s, Ray Dolby turned the company’s attention to cinema, transforming the entertainment experience for ever. In 1989 his work in the field was recognised with an Oscar for his contributions to the film industry; and in 2003, an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. Ray Dolby served as a member of Dolby’s Board of Directors from 1965 until his retirement from the Board in 2011, although he remains Director Emeritus, while his son David Dolby has been involved in the management of Dolby Laboratories for a number of years, and since 2011 has been a member of the Board of Directors.
The Berlinale Camera has been awarded since 1986. Until the year 2003, this award was donated by the Berlin jeweler David Goldberg. The following year, the studio Georg Hornemann Objects of Düsseldorf assumed patronage. For the 2008 Berlinale, the trophy has been re-designed by the goldsmith Hornemann: the new Berlinale Camera comprises 128 individual parts and resembles a real film camera. Many of the silver and titanium parts from the swivel head to the tripod are moveable.
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