VFF Documentary Production Talent Award 2026

The nominees for the VFF Documentary Production Talent Award 2026 have been selected.

DRIVING EUROPE wins VFF Documentary Production Talent Award 2026

The first VFF Documentary Production Talent Award goes to the producers of the film DRIVING EUROPE Lennart Heidtmann, Felix Länge, and Artur Althen (directed by Felix Länge).

The jury’s statement reads:

“A successful documentary film is a barometer of its time. It illustrates developments (and setbacks) in society and takes us behind the façade of actuality, by elevating social and political events from the anonymous news stream and giving them a human face.
For this, it must be backed up by production structures that lay the ground for this work, that establish the technical and organisational conditions needed and provide cover for the creative team.

In the DRIVING EUROPE project, this symbiosis appears to have been particularly successful and you can well imagine what the production contributed to the project in terms of organisational, material and possibly even moral support during more than eight weeks of filming at a motorway service station in southern Hesse as well as during the research that followed. In deciding on this production, Lennart Heidtmann, Felix Länge and Artur Althen have demonstrated what documentary work so desperately needs: a firm grasp of the relevance of a topic, an ability to act fast, and perseverance, even when a swift end to a project appears out of reach. 

It was precisely these abilities that were required in 2023 during the second Europe-wide strike by Georgian and Azerbaijani long-distance lorry drivers whose wages had been withheld for months by their Polish employers and whose protest suddenly shined a harsh spotlight on the early-capitalist deficiencies in the European logistics industry. Ruthless competition and price dumping reduce lorry drivers, particularly those from eastern European and Asia, to working in conditions akin to modern-day slave labour in the full knowledge of reputable German companies and retail chains. By directing the documentary’s gaze beyond the scene of the protest onto the family background of one of those involved and, above all, onto the responsibility of the German clients is one of the merits of a production that is a worthy addition to the once strong but now seldom encountered subgenre of “films from the world of work” and, not least for this, it is well deserving of the VFF-Nachwuchs-Produktionspreis."

Jury: Cosima Forchheimer (Producer),Thomas Frickel (Author, Director and Producer), Leon Harms (Producer)

A new award for emerging documentary producers in Germany

This unique award recognises the role of production in the creation of current documentary feature films.

The award is donated by the VFF Verwertungsgesellschaft der Film- und Fernsehproduzenten mbH and is endowed with prize money of 3.000 euros. The award goes to the producer of the film. The award ceremony will take place within the festival programme of DOK.fest München, together with the VFF Documentary Production Award.

Shortlist 2026

DRIVING EUROPE
DE, 2025, Felix Länge, 86 Min.
Produktion: Lennart Heidtmann, Felix Länge, Artur Althen

FINDING CONNECTION
DE, 2026, Florian Karner, 84 Min.
Produktion: Martin Schwimmer, Dominik Utz, Maite Bengsch

HAUS 4
DE, 2026, Philipp Schaeffer, 70 Min.
Produktion: Franziska Unger, Paul Hartmann

NICHTS BLEIBT UND NICHTS VERSCHWINDET
DE, 2026, Paul Sonntag, 79 Min.
Produktion: Oscar Meyer-Ricks, Judith Frahm, Paul Sonntag

WHERE THE WAVES TOOK HER
DE, 2025, Jana Stallein, 83 Min.
Produktion: Charlotte Peters

Award donor