Hungarian filmmaker Dénes Nagy receives the eighth Baumi Script Development Award from the jury and guest juror Andreas Dresen for his treatment "The Vacation”
The eighth year of the Baumi Script Development Award sees the €20,000 award being presented to the Hungarian filmmaker Dénes Nagy for his treatment "The Vacation".
"Dénes Nagy portrays his endearing characters with authenticity and humour. His approach involves extensive research which we are happy to support with the Baumi Award," says this year’s guest juror Andreas Dresen.
Jury statement:
Dénes Nagy follows a special approach by involving his amateur actors in the script’s development. This means that the screenplay is then adapted to the real characters. What we like about "The Vacation" is the humour which also results from misunderstandings. The characters in the film are travelling abroad for the first time; they only speak Hungarian, but they are forced to cover up their insecurity as best they can and still have fun. But when we laugh, we are doing this without passing any judgement. We are on the same level as the characters; we go along with them and don’t know any more than they do. We are pleased to present the award to this exceptional script development by the film artist Dénes Nagy.
About the film:
Feci, a man in his mid-40s from the Hungarian sticks, goes on a group vacation with his wife for the first time in his life to the Côte d’Azur. He is incredibly shocked when it turns out that he has to go into quarantine once he arrives in his hotel room. This forces him to embark on an inner journey of discovery and leads him to acknowledge his own freedoms and limitations.
About the award winner:
Dénes Nagy studied at the University of Theatre and Film Arts Budapest in until 2009. During his studies he spent one semester as a guest student at the DFFB in Berlin and took part in Berlinale Talents in 2012. He has made many short films – both documentaries and fiction films – which have been screened and awarded at many major national and international festivals, including at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. In 2021, his feature film debut "Natural Light" had its premiere in the Berlinale’s main competition, and Dénes Nagy received the Silver Bear for Best Director.
About the award:
The Baumi Script Development Award was presented in February 2016 for the first time in memory of the film producer and distributor Karl “Baumi” Baumgartner. The prize is endowed with €20,000 in prize-money and was established by the donors Martina and Sandra Baumgartner, Pandora Film, the company 'Baumi' had co-founded, and the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Screenwriters can apply for the award with an English-language treatment. A jury consisting of the founders and one annually changing international guest juror selects a story idea from the submissions.
The winner of the first Baumi Award was the Egyptian Omar El Zohairy (guest juror Fatih Akin), whose award-winning project "Feathers of a Father" premiered at Cannes' Semaine de la Critique in 2021. The Syrian director Soudade Kaadan (guest juror Martina Gedeck) received two prizes at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival for her award-winning project „Nezou“, including the Audience Award for the best film in the Orizzonti sidebar,
This was followed by the Polish filmmaker Kuba Czekaj (guest juror Aki Kaurismäki), the German author Martin Rehbock (guest juror Bent Hamer), the South African Amy Jephta (guest juror Małgorzata Szumowska), and the Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat (guest juror Maren Ade). Last year saw the Baumi Award being presented by the guest juror Ildikó Enyedi in equal parts to the Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili and the German-Kosovar director Visar Morina
The Award’s founders would like to express their special thanks to Katja Clos for the graphics and logo, Friederike Zeit for designing and making the prize sculpture, and to Fritz Erler for programming the website.