The film producer Lena Vurma and her Berlin-based film production company dragonfly films GmbH receive the VGF's highest endowed German award for up-and-coming producers, the 60,000 Euro VGF Award, for the production of "Adventures of a Mathematician", a German feature film that was financed internationally. The prize was awarded during the International Hofer Filmtage in the Bürgergesellschaft Hof.
The Verwertungsgesellschaft für Nutzungsrechte an Filmwerken mbH (VGF) has been awarding the prize since 1994, and young producers based in Germany can submit their first, second or third feature film. The prize money is not earmarked and is intended to strengthen the equity capital of the young production companies and creative people.
Based on the autobiography of the same name, "Adventures of a Mathematician" tells the touching story of Stan Ulam (Philippe Tlokinski), a Jewish-Polish mathematician who fled to the USA in the 1930s. He takes a job in Los Alamos and plays a decisive role in the construction of the first atomic bombs to save his family in Europe.
The jury's statement
"The development of the first atomic bomb. From the perspective of a mathematician of Polish origin. The film 'Adventures of a Mathematician', which producer Lena Vurma and her Berlin-based production company dragonfly films created, tells no less a story. It was a huge undertaking: three co-producing countries, the coordination of several European funding systems and, last but not least, a shoot in Europe to portray the America of the time. An astonishing production achievement, which suggests that Lena Vurma will put her plan into action: to become a European producer. She has already proven this with her film. We congratulate her and are looking forward to the productions that will follow.
As the lead producer, Lena Vurma produced her first major international cinema production this year, "Adventures of a Mathematician" (directed by T. Klein). The historical film is a German-Polish-British co-production, which celebrated its world premiere at the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January 2020 and will be released in 2021 in Germany, France and the USA, among others.
Lena Vurma is a graduate of the DFFB (Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin). As a film producer she won the Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Prize with her animated film "The Little Red Paper Ship" and her first feature-length film "Lost Place" (directed by T. Klein) earned her a nomination for the First Steps No Fear Award 2014. In 2019 Lena Vurma was on the jury for the Science Film Award at the Zurich Film Festival and has been a Program Delegate Germany since this year. Internationally, Lena Vurma appeared for the first time in October 2017 at the world premiere of the Indo-British-German co-production "IN THE SHADOWS" (directed by D. Jain) at the Busan Film Festival.
