Graduation film DETLEV wins German Short Film Award 2025

Germany’s most important award for short films goes to Ludwigsburg!

 

Press release: Ludwigsburg, November 21, 2025

 

 

Last night, on November 20, 2025, the German Short Film Award was presented in Hamburg by Dr. Wolfram Weimer, Minister of State for Culture and the Media. In the category “Animated Film up to 30 minutes” DETLEV (Director & Producer: Ferdinand Ehrhardt, Producer: Saskia Stirn), a stop-motion short film produced by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (FABW), took home the prize. The German Short Film Award is the most prestigious national distinction for short films in Germany.

 

In DETLEV a man in his mid-forties, who is constantly freezing, drives to a lonely gas station every night to order a microwaved Toast Hawaii sandwich. Detlev indulges in this bizarre ritual because it is the only thing that gives him warmth. When a stranger observes him one night, his world begins to fall apart.

 

Director Ferdinand Ehrhardt is deeply grateful for the team experience he gained during the very complex production of the stop-motion film at Animationsinstitut of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg: “Working on DETLEV taught me that it’s good to reach out to the people around me, that trusting in the work of others pays off, and that collective work can create something far greater than I could’ve ever achieved on my own.”

 

Dr. Andreas Bareiss, Managing Director of FABW, highlights: “What a success! Congratulations to Ferdinand and the entire DETLEV team! The award is well deserved – and joins a long list of other well-deserved awards that FABW productions have already received this year.”

 

After the ceremony, Ferdinand Ehrhardt expresses his gratitude about the award: “This award is an amazing honour, it fills me with pride and gives me the courage to continue on my path of filmmaking. I would like to thank our huge team for pouring so much heart and soul into these thirteen minutes of film during the three years of its production. Furthermore I would like to thank the Animationsinstitut and all of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg – there is no other film school in Europe that would have made an animation project of this magnitude possible. Thank you for allowing us to do this, and thank you for allowing me to continue doing it!”

 

Dr. Jan Pinkava, Director of Animationsinstitut, adds: “At the Animationsinstitut, we’re super proud of DETLEV. Using the painstaking hand-crafted medium of stop-motion animation, Ferdi and the team have created a moving and funny story full of heart and real human feeling. A very German tale, rewarded by audiences all over the world, and now again at home. Congratulations!”

 

In addition to honoring DETLEV, the German Short Film Award recognized another FABW project: The film AT HOME I FEEL LIKE LEAVING (Director: Simon Maria Kubiena) took home the award for feature film (15 to 30 minutes). For further information, please refer to the FABW press release.

 

Since 1956, the Federal Government of Germany honours and promotes filmmakers with this award. The award is generously endowed with a sum of 275,000 € that is awarded annually across nominations and gold medals in several categories, as well as an additional 20,000 € for the best medium-length film.

 

 

Find more information about the German Short Film Award here.