Hamburg (dpa/lno) – The director and film producer Werner Grassmann is dead. The founder of the Hamburg Abaton cinema died on August 14 at the age of 96, as his family announced on Tuesday in Hamburg. Together with a long-time friend, Grassmann founded the Abaton cinema in 1970, one of the oldest arthouse cinemas in Germany. According to the cinema’s website, the idea came from a group of Hamburg filmmakers who founded a film coop in the shadow of the 1968 revolution.
The Abaton cinema in the Grindelviertel has already received several awards for its artistic programme. Directors and actors are often guests who present their films personally. Among others, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Fatih Akin, Wim Wenders, Michel Piccoli, Richard Attenborough, Werner Herzog, Clint Eastwood, Caroline Link and Volker Schlöndorff visited. A few years ago, his son Felix Grassmann took over the management of the cinema.
As a film producer, Grassmann has received a number of federal film awards, including a gold film award in 1993. His production “The Voice of the Hedgehog” by Jochen Kuhn was the German entry at the Venice Film Festival in 1994. His production “Football like never before” by the experimental filmmaker Hellmuth Costard was released on DVD by Kinowelt. For his commitment to the film, Grassmann received the “Biermann-Ratjen Medal” from the Hamburg Senate in 2006.
Hamburg’s culture senator Carsten Brosda (SPD) said: “Without Werner Grassmann, there would be no Abaton and the idea of the art house cinema as a place for good and relevant films.” His passion and belief in the power of cinema revived the art form of film. The managing director of MOIN Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Helge Albers, emphasized: “His heart beat for the cinema film – and we cannot thank him enough for his achievements in this regard.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230822-99-919355/3
2023-08-22 15:42:04
#Director #Werner #Grassmann #died #age
