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Max-Brauer-Award

The Max Brauer Award, endowed with 20,000 euros, has been awarded to personalities and institutions of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg since 1993. It encourages actors who shape the cultural, scientific or intellectual life of Hamburg with their commitment. It is dedicated to the memory of Max Brauer, the last Lord Mayor of Altona before 1933 and First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg after 1946.

An independent board of trustees decides on the award. An application is not possible.

Max Brauer Award Winner 2022:

Augen Blicke Afrika e.V.

Since 2012, the initiative Augen Blicke Afrika e.V. has enriched Hamburg's cultural offerings by opening up new perspectives on Africa. With the African Film Festival in Hamburg, the association offers a differentiated and unbiased picture of life, culture and politics on a continent that many in this country see primarily as an economic, political or ecological problem. In this way, the association manages to counter this image with a diverse view and to arouse curiosity. Now, with the Max Brauer Award of the Alfred Toepfer Foundation F.V.S., the association is encouraged to continue its tireless voluntary work.

Through a sophisticated, interactive supporting program, the film festival succeeds in making complex topics such as economics, culture, politics and education accessible in an entertaining and vivid way. Thus, different thematic focuses are set each year, such as colonial heritage, everyday life in African societies or the production conditions of films. With a large number of invited directors from different countries, the festival provides a platform for discussion and exchange with the audience that is unique in Hamburg. This commitment, which the volunteer-organized association tirelessly promotes with passion and openness, enriches the cosmopolitan film city of Hamburg and deserves recognition and encouragement in its continuity.

Especially in the last years, which are characterized by pandemic, climate crisis, economic upheavals and recently also by a war of aggression in Europe, the diversity of African life, its culture and economic development, threatens to be completely lost from view. The award of the Max Brauer Prize is intended to support the basic concern of the association
Rationale of the prize curatorship

This year, the Max Brauer Award ceremony will be split into two parts, unlike in previous years. Thus, the honorary team of the association was officially presented with the Max Brauer Award on Saturday, October 8, as part of the closing ceremony of the Filmfest Hamburg. The award ceremony with a festive ceremony will take place on November 15, 2022 at 6:00 pm at the premises of Afrotopia. Participation is only possible with prior registration. The award will be presented at the ceremony by Jana Schiedek, State Councillor of the Department of Culture and Media.

This year's African Film Festival will take place from November 3-13, 2022 at the Studio-Kino Hamburg. An exciting selection of feature films, documentaries and short films from more than 20 African countries has been announced. The themes of most of the films reflect difficult life situations of the people, the uphill struggle to get out of a predicament that is often socially or economically caused. With top-class guests and connoisseurs of African film, the choice of themes, the way of making and the production conditions of African films will be examined.

The award winners of the past five years

Kontakt

Marina Meyer Assistentin des Vorstandsvorsitzenden Sonderaufgaben

+49 40 33 402 – 10meyer@toepfer-stiftung.de