The award was created in 1951 by the
Federal Ministry of the Interior and was first given out during the
Berlin Film Festival. A practice that was kept for the upcoming decades. Since 1999 it is commissioned by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. In the first years the awards had numerous trophies that were handed out for different categories. Aside from the main categories for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay most others from the inaugural edition have been short lived such as
Film that promote democratic values due to the constant change of the awards constitution in the early years. As a rule stated that awards would only be awarded for outstanding achievements, not every category had a winner each year. Over time, the award in the shape of a film tape became the most common trophy, either in gold or silver. The Golden Bowl became the highest honour for Best Picture, however due to not being handed out for more than 17 years, the award was abolished in 1996. Due to the confusing mechanism as well as changing categories, the award lost its relevance. With only a press conference and no televised broadcast, it did not attract the public's interest in
West Germany. Since the reunification of Germany in 1990, constants efforts have been made to underline the award's significance as a national correlation to similar awards honours such as the
Academy Awards or the
Césars. In 1995 for the first time, winners were announced during a glamorous telecast in
Friedrichstadt-Palast, one of the most prestigious venues of former
East-Berlin. In the following years, other locations were chosen that were symbolic for the once divided city such as the
Berlin Tempelhof Airport or the
Brandenburg Gate. Since 1999, the various category winners are awarded a statuette, the LOLA. The name refers to
Marlene Dietrich's role in
Der blaue Engel,
Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film
Lola and
Tom Tykwer's very successful movie
Lola rennt. Mechthild Schmidt, Partner of HouseWorks digital media, New York about her 1999 design: "I wanted to symbolize motion. Film IS movement. I wanted the statue to express confidence without being stern, strength without being static. It was important to me to give the "Deutschen Filmpreis" its own identity, not trying to borrow what other awards already successfully symbolize. While the Oscar is the strong, firm standing fighter and winner, I wanted the Filmprize statue to symbolize the dynamics of movement, the muse, the inspiration necessary to make a work of art, to become a winner. The movement is carried through to the asymmetrical conical base. Stylistically, I was looking for a timeless modern design as well as a historical reference to the first golden era of German film, the Art Deco in the 1920s." From 1999 to 2002 the show was televised by a private broadcaster
ProSieben. Since 2003 it has rotated each year between the two major German public broadcasters
ARD and
ZDF. Before the founding of the German Film Academy (Deutsche Filmakademie) in 2005 a single prize was awarded for the technical categories of
cinematography,
film editing,
production design,
art direction and
musical score in the category "Outstanding Singular Achievement". == Selection process ==