21 Films in the Running for the GRANIT – HOF DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD

On Friday, 23 October 2026, the major awards ceremony will take place at the 60th Hof International Film Festival, where all prizes – with the exception of the City of Hof Film Award and the New German Cinema Promotion Award, both of which will be presented on Thursday – will be handed over to the winners. Among them is the GRANIT – HOF DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD.

Since 2015, the Hermann and Bertl Müller Foundation, based in Hof, has presented the award to the best feature-length documentary produced in Germany, Austria or Switzerland. Worth €7,500, the award recognises the diversity and quality of documentary filmmaking in the German-speaking world.

The design of the award is also closely connected to the region. Sculptor and lecturer Mohamed Naguib created the trophy. The award-winning artist from Egypt spent two months as a scholarship holder at the European Training Centre for Stonemasonry and Stone Carving in Wunsiedel. There, he explored granite in depth, the defining rock of the Fichtelgebirge mountain range. The trophy is produced in collaboration with the training centre.

With 21 films nominated this year, the selection for the Granit – Hof Documentary Film Award 2026 is particularly impressive:

• ACHT EIMER HÜHNERHERZEN »FILM« by Michael Terhorst (Germany)
• AMERICAN SHOWDOWN – EINE WAHRE GESCHICHTE by Andre Jagusch (Germany)
• BAJAU LAUT – DAS MEER IST UNSER ZUHAUSE by Joo Peter (Germany and Malaysia)
• CHRIS – EINFACH NUR LEBEN by Björn Schröder (Germany)
• DAS THEATER IM SUCHER – DIE FOTOGRAFIN RUTH WALZ by Thomas Ladenburger (Germany, Switzerland)
• DIE HEILUNG – EINE GESCHICHTE VON WEITERMACHEN by Marcus Richardt & Lillian Rosa (Germany)
• DIE MARISTENKINDER by Johannes Hör (Germany)
• ELEMENTS OF(F) BALANCE by Johannes Hör (Austria)
• GOODBYE POSTMAN by Niels Laupert (Germany)
• HIRSCHFELD – UNBEKANNTER BEKANNTER (Switzerland)
• KAN KARDEŞI – THOSE IN BETWEEN by Esra Laske (Germany)
• LILY BRETT – ERINNERN STATT HASSEN by Irene Höfer and Anke Sterneborg (Germany)
• MIT ÄSTEN BIS ZUM HIMMEL by Katharina Copony (Austria)
• MUSS DAS PFERD AUCH ARBEITEN? by Leonhard Pill (Austria)
• PART VON NATURE – DIE ZUKUNFT VON MENSCH UND NATUR by Lisa Eder (Germany)
• SICH LANGSAM NÄHERN – BEGLEITETES LEBENSENDE IN 7 KAPITELN by Maria Arlamovsky (Austria)
• THE SPACE WE CALL HOME by Eva Pieroth (Austria)
• TUN & LASSEN by Friedrich Rackwitz (Germany)
• WIE ERINNERN by Alisa Kolosova and Grigory Shklyar (Germany)
• WORST SUPERHERO by Benjamin Weber and Lavinia Florence Moroff (Germany)
• ZERUYA SHALEV – WRITING LOVE IN A TIME OF WAR by Sabine Lidl (Austria)

The winner will be selected by an independent jury comprising Doris Metz (director of Petra Kelly – Act Now!), Miriam Pucitta (director of Mutterland, which premiered at the Hof International Film Festival in 2023) and Faek Falak (producer and director of To My Sister, 2026).

The awards ceremony will take place on Friday, 23 October, from 6 p.m. at the festival headquarters in the BG – Bürgergesellschaft.