Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinski’s experimental period drama tracing the lives of four young women from four different epochs in rural East Germany, swept the German Film Awards, the Lolas, winning 10 Lolas including best film and best director for Schilinski.
Schilinski’s sophomore feature, which premiered in Cannes last year, winning the jury prize, was the frontrunner going into the 2026 Lolas and it won in every category where it was on the nomination sheet. İlker Çatak‘s Berlin Film Festival winner Yellow Letters, which had nine nominations to Sound of Falling‘s 11, was nearly shut out, picking up just the runner-up Silver Lola for best film and the prize for best score for composer Marvin Miller.
Simon Verhoeven’s comedy Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke, picked up two acting trophies: Best Actress for 85-year-old Senta Berger, a grande dame of German cinema (and Simon Verhoeven’s mother), who accepted her first-ever Lola in Berlin Friday night, and Michael Wittenborn, another beloved veteran performer, who played her on-screen husband.
Best acting honors went to August Diehl for The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov, in which he plays the infamous Nazi doctor on the run in South America after the Second World War.
