Grimme Prize 2008 for Swiss film “The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez”

19.03.2008

The documentary film “The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez” by Swiss director Heidi Specogna (production: PS Film, Zurich, TagTraum, Cologne, ZDF, arte) will be honoured with the esteemed Adolf Grimme Prize for “Screenplay and Direction” in the category of “Information and Culture”. Heidi Specogna will be present at the awards ceremony in Marl on April 4, 2008.
The Adolf Grimme Prize will be awarded for the 44th time to films for television which “are commendable and exemplary for programming “. The prizes are regarded as the German “Oscars for Television”. As announced in Düsseldorf on March 19, a total of twelve Grimme Prizes will be awarded in the competition categories of Fiction, Information & Culture and Entertainment. Also nominated for an award in the “Fiction” section the film “Rose” by Swiss director Alain Gsponer.



“The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez” (Swiss Film Prize 2007) tells the moving story of Antonio Gutierrez. The young man, who had grown up as a street kid in the slums of Guatemala, was among the 300,000 soldiers deployed by the U.S. Army in the Iraq War in March 2003 – and the first fallen soldier, an American hero. Gutierrez had enlisted in the U.S. Army because of the promise of obtaining American citizenship.



The Swiss documentary film “War Photographer” by Christian Frei was awarded the Grimme Prize in 2003 the last time a Swiss film production received.



Zurich, March 19, 2008
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