German Film Awards (Lolas) 2006: Stasi Spying

German Film Awards 2006: Stasi drama The Lives of Others is the big winner; Ulrich Mühe, Sandra Hüller top acting categories

The Lives of Others, an ever timely political drama about a government eavesdropping on its citizens, won seven Lola Awards at a ceremony held on May 12 at the Palais am Funkturm in Berlin.

Besides the Golden Award for Best Film (worth €500,000, or approximately US$640,000), The Lives of Others won awards for Best Director (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck), Best Actor (Ulrich Mühe), Best Supporting Actor (Ulrich Tukur), Best Screenplay (von Donnersmarck), Best Cinematography (Hagen Bogdanski), and Best Production Design (Silke Buhr).

The Lives of Others is set in East Germany, where the feared Stasi and its tens of thousands of informants kept tabs on that country’s citizens. Thus far, the film has been seen by more than 800,000 German filmgoers.

Requiem, the tale of a woman who believes she’s been possessed by the devil, won four Lolas, including those for Best Actress Sandra Hüller (who also won the Best Actress Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival) and Best Supporting Actress Imogen Kogge.

Additionally, as one of the two runners-up in the Best Film category, Requiem shared the Silver Prize for Best Film with Hans-Christian Schmid’s Tough Enough, a box office disappointment that received mixed reviews from German critics. Set in the economically depressed Berlin suburb of Neukölln, Tough Enough revolves around the difficult life of a teenager reaching maturity without either parental or social assistance. The film also won Lolas for Editing (Dirk Grau) and Music (Bert Wrede).

The controversial suicide-bomber film Paradise Now, nominated for two Lolas, and Summer in Berlin, nominated for six, failed to win any awards.

German Film Awards (Lola Awards) 2006: Winners & nominations

Best Film (Film Prize in Gold)
Komm näher – Oliver Simon
* The Lives of Others / Das Leben der Anderen – Quirin Berg & Max Wiedemann
Paradise Now – Gerhard Meixner & Roman Paul
Requiem – Hans-Christian Schmid
Summer in Berlin / Sommer vorm Balkon – Peter Rommel & Stefan Arndt
Tough Enough / Knallhart – Claus Boje

Best Film Runners-Up (tie) (Film Prize in Silver)
* Requiem – Hans-Christian Schmid
* Tough Enough – Claus Boje

Best Director
Andreas Dresen – Summer in Berlin
Hans-Christian Schmid – Requiem
* Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck – The Lives of Others

Best Actor
Moritz Bleibtreu – The Elementary Particles / Elementarteilchen
* Ulrich Mühe – The Lives of Others
Milan Peschel – Netto

Best Actress
Inka Friedrich – Summer in Berlin
* Sandra Hüller – Requiem
Jasmin Tabatabai – Unveiled / Fremde Haut
Nadja Uhl – Summer in Berlin

Best Supporting Actor
Burghart Klaußner – Requiem
Andreas Schmidt – Summer in Berlin
* Ulrich Tukur – The Lives of Others

Best Supporting Actress
Meret Becker – Komm näher
Martina Gedeck – The Elementary Particles
* Imogen Kogge – Requiem

Best Screenplay
* The Lives of Others – Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Paradise Now – Hany Abu-Assad & Bero Beyer
Requiem – Bernd Lange
Summer in Berlin – Wolfgang Kohlhaase

Best Cinematography
* The Lives of Others – Hagen Bogdanski
Shadows of Time / Schatten der Zeit – Jürgen Jürges
Willenbrock – Michael Hammon

Best Film Editing
The Lives of Others – Patricia Rommel
Requiem – Bernd Schlegel & Hansjörg Weißbrich
* Tough Enough – Dirk Grau

Best Score
Don’t Come Knocking – T Bone Burnett
The Lives of Others – Stéphane Moucha & Gabriel Yared
* Tough Enough – Bert Wrede

Best Production Design
Don’t Come Knocking – Nathan Amondson
* The Lives of Others – Silke Buhr
Requiem – Christian M. Goldbeck

Best Costume Design
The Lives of Others – Gabriele Binder
* Requiem – Bettina Marx
Shadows of Time – Lisy Christl

Best Sound Recording
Barefoot / Barfuss – Stefan Busch & Michael Kranz
The Lives of Others – Hubertus Rath, Christoph von Schönburg & Arno Wilms
* Requiem – Lars Ginzel, Dirk Jacob, Marc Parisotto & Martin Steyer
Wholetrain – Christian Bischoff, Jörg Elsner & Marc Parisotto

Best Documentary
Into Great Silence / Die grosse Stille – Philip Gröning, Elda Guidinetti, Andres Pfäffli & Michael Weber
* Lost Children – Oliver Stoltz

Best Children’s or Youth Film
* The Cave of the Yellow Dog / Die Höhle des gelben Hundes – Stephan Schesch
Der Schatz der weißen Falken – Tom Spieß & Sönke Wortmann

Honorary Award
Erna Baumbauer

“German Film Awards (Lolas) 2006: Stasi Spying” notes

*last modified in March 2026.