Baden-Württemberg's State Secretary for Culture Arne Braun and MFG CEO Carl Bergengruen awarded Johannes Naber, member of the German "Bundesverband Regie" with the Thomas Strittmatter Prize 2025 at the festive award ceremony which took place on the 19.02 at the Baden-Württemberg State Representation which is located within a 15 min walking distance from the Berlinale Film Palast. Film director Michael Chauvistré, on the board of "Bundesverband Regie" congratulated Naber after the award ceremony, which was moderated by no other than talented radio host Knut Elstermann. His "Berlinale talks" are unforgettable, he understands how to entertain his audience, and that night was no exception! Chiara Fleischhacker, who won the Thomas Strittmatter Prize in 2022, and most recently, just 3 days before on the 16.02 was awarded by the German Film Critics Association-Verband der deutschen Filmkritik for her debut film "Vena" was greeted by Knut Elstermann, while her producer Svenya Vanhoefer was part of one of the film project presented by Elstermann.

The screenwriter Johannes Naber is the winner of the 2025 Thomas Strittmatter Prize, donated by the MFG Film Fund and endowed with 20,000 euros, for his screenplay to the comedy entitled "Wachen" . The story is about Ferdinand, who is an unsuccesful author who lives from the state welfare. The employment agency is forcing him to start a new job as a night guard. Here he meets Ronny, an ex-soldier with a nationalistic worldview. We can imagine the clashes, one a free spirit and the other just the opposite. The jury praised the mix between tragedy and comedy and was impressed by the intelligent and entertaining dialogues of Naber's screenplay.

Johannes Naber, born in 1971 in Baden-Baden, has written and directed films that have received a great deal of attention and success at the box office. After graduating from the Film Academy Baden-Württemberg in Ludwigsburg (1993-99) his debut film "The Albanian", a satire about three managers was released in 2010. Then "Age of Cannibals" in 2014, followed by the adventure film "The Cold Heart" in 2016 and most recently the political thriller "Curveball - We Make the Truth" (2020). Both MFG-funded films "Time of the Cannibals" and "Curveball" won the German Awards  "Curveball"  won the Bronze Lola in the category “Best Feature Film” at the 2021 German Film Awards.

The three-person expert jury, consisting of the director and screenwriter Laila Stieler , the director and author Güzin Kar and the media researcher Anna Kokenge, honored all three nominated scripts with laudations. The jury president Laila Stieler commented the winning script "Wachen" saying: "Telling a story that is tragic and funny at the same time is a rare talent. The script that we have the pleasure of honoring here does exactly this. Comedy writers are rarely given trophies. I have the great pleasure to do it now. I am delighted."

The Thomas Strittmatter Prize was awarded by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg, Arne Braun , and MFG Managing Director Carl Bergengruen at a festive reception during the 75th Berlinale in the state representation of Baden-Württemberg. The actor Sebastian Blomberg , who has appeared in front of the camera for Johannes Naber several times, read two scenes from Naber's script and thereby provided a pleasant surprise for the award winner.

The other nominees for the Strittmatter Prize 2025, Jonas Thielcke and Jonas Bak, will each receive 2,500 euros for their screenplays “Mary-Jane and Kate against the climate killers” and “She makes and unmakes” respectively.

Alice Kanterian

Member of the "German Film Critics Association"