Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and of the Golden Globe, and laureate of the Cannes Film Festival – the director, screenwriter and producer Fatih Akin will receive the Golden Camera award for outstanding contribution to world cinema at the 32nd International Film Festival IFF Art Film in Košice (19 – 25 June 2026). The festival will at the same time screen his latest film Amrum as well as In the Fade, featuring the award-winning Diane Kruger.
The Golden Camera is presented by IFF Art Film to domestic and international film professionals for an outstanding contribution to cinema. Its previous laureates include directors Sergei Loznitsa, Miloslav Luther and Béla Tarr as well as cinematographer Martin Štrba.
“Fatih Akin is a director who is able to speak about painful subjects – identity, loss, violence – while preserving humanity and humour. His films appeal to festival juries and to ordinary audiences alike, and it is precisely this bridge between auteur and audience-friendly cinema that we have long valued at Art Film. We are delighted to present his latest film Amrum alongside the acclaimed In the Fade, and to give our audiences the opportunity to meet him in person,” said the festival’s artistic director Martin Palúch.
Fatih Akin was born on 25 August 1973 in Hamburg into a family of Turkish immigrants. He studied film directing and visual communication at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. His feature debut Short Sharp Shock (Kurz und schmerzlos, 1998) already drew attention – it won the Bronze Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.
The real breakthrough came in 2004 with Head-On (Gegen die Wand), an intense drama about two German Turks who enter into a marriage of convenience. The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival – the festival’s top prize – and subsequently also the Best Film award at the European Film Awards. With it, Akin established himself as one of the most distinctive directorial voices in European cinema.
Three years later he confirmed his position with The Edge of Heaven (Auf der anderen Seite, 2007), which won the Best Screenplay award at the Cannes Film Festival. An intimate, multi-stranded drama about the intertwined fates of Turkish and German characters was also honoured with the first-ever LUX Prize of the European Parliament for European cinema.
Akin’s body of work is marked by genre breadth. The comedy Soul Kitchen (2009), set in a chaotic restaurant in Hamburg’s Wilhelmsburg neighbourhood, won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. The historical drama The Cut (2014), about the Armenian genocide, competed for the Golden Lion in Venice. And the crime biopic Rheingold(2022), about the rise of the Kurdish-Iranian rapper Xatar, became his most commercially successful film.
The film In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts, 2017) brought Akin further major recognition. The drama about a woman who loses her husband and son in a neo-Nazi bombing won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and at Cannes Diane Kruger took the Best Actress award for the leading role.
Amrum – coming of age in the shadow of the falling Third Reich
At the festival in Košice, audiences will have the chance to see Akin’s latest film Amrum (2025), which had its world premiere in the Cannes Première section at the 78th Cannes Film Festival. The film is inspired by the childhood memories of German director and screenwriter Hark Bohm, Akin’s longtime friend and mentor. The story takes place on the eponymous North German island in the spring of 1945 and follows the coming of age of the boy Nanning in the final days of the Second World War. The cast includes Jasper Billerbeck, Laura Tonke, Diane Kruger and Matthias Schweighöfer.
In the Fade – Diane Kruger as a mother in search of justice
Another film presented at the 32nd IFF Art Film is the drama In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts, 2017). Katja lives a contented family life with her husband Nuri and son Rocco – until a bomb attack aimed at her family changes everything. Alone and broken by grief, she is determined to do whatever it takes to find justice. In a world full of prejudice and hatred, that is anything but easy. The lead role is played by Diane Kruger, who won the Best Actress award at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of Katja. The film subsequently won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and Germany selected it as its candidate for the 90th Academy Awards.
Fun facts
Fatih Akin is one of the few European directors whose films have been honoured at all three of the world’s most important film festivals – in Berlin (Golden Bear), Cannes (Best Screenplay) and Venice (Special Jury Prize). In 2003 he founded his own production company Corazón International. Today he lives with his family in Hamburg, the city of his birth, whose multicultural atmosphere has repeatedly shaped his cinematic stories.
The 32nd IFF Art Film will take place from 19 to 25 June 2026 in Košice. More information about the festival is available at iffartfilm.com. Cinepasses can be purchased at aff.cinepass.sk.
The 32nd IFF ART FILM is made possible thanks to the support of:
Main organizer: ART FILM FEST s.r.o.
Co-organizers: Mesto Košice, K13 – Košické kultúrne centrá, Visit Košice, ART FILM FEST, n.o.
With the financial support of: Audiovizuálny fond
The project was co-financed by the Košice Self-governing Region from the Terra Incognita program
Main partners: CODES Brand House, H2O FUND SICAV
Automotive partner: AUTO-VALAS
Official hotel: Hotel Yasmin
Main media partners: TV JOJ, Pravda, Eurotelevízia
Sponsors: U. S. Steel Košice, ANTIK Telecom, Kino Úsmev, LOKO TRANS Media, CORE Labs, Technická univerzita v Košiciach
Technological partners: NOV, ZEBRA, Deutsche Telekom Systems Solutions Slovakia, DELTA OnLine, ARICOMA, Datacomp
Official suppliers: DKC Veritas, PLOOM, DOMOS SLOVAKIA, Reštaurácia Contessa, Natura, Kinley, Julius Meinl, Aupark Shopping Center Košice
Media partners: JOJ play, JOJ 24, Film Europe Media Company, Rádio KOŠICE, Aktuality.sk, Forbes, Startitup.sk, Korzár, Slovenka, SITA, TASR, Mediaboard, AHOJ TV, See & Go, Česko-Slovenská filmová databáze – ČSFD, Filmsk.sk, BigMedia, Kino Sterio, Košice City Guide, Košice V Skratke, MOJAkultura.sk, diva.sk, koktejl.sk, zenskyweb.sk
Partners: JOJ Cinema, Jojko, Slovenský filmový ústav, DDDental, CK TUI ReiseCenter Slovensko, Taper, ECO Technologies, Letisko Košice, Rent2Eat, CPK Transport, iWish.sk, Kvety Garomi, Hair Factory Košice, LOCAL NOMAD, MIHYRING
Gastronomic partners: Pub u Kohúta, OhniskO Fire Dining & Brew Bar, MAIKO SUSHI, Kaviareň Slávia, El Nacional, Tabačka Kulturfabrik, Casa Trade – Casablanca cafe, Macarons Košice
