Berlin, 23.03.2021 | The international film-print-multimedia competition “The Golden City Gate” was held for 21st time during ITB Berlin this year. The special circumstances of this year’s competition are reflected in the regular award ceremony as well as in the presentation of the coveted Diamond Award. The film competition, which has been organized since 2000, was continued completely digitally due to the ongoing difficult corona conditions. The award ceremony takes place every year in March during the ITB Berlin, the largest international trade fair for the tourism industry.
The Competition 2021
In this year´s competition, 122 participating entries from 24 countries were reviewed by an international 42-member jury and judged in 15 different categories. This year, the new category “Stay Safe” was included in the competition, in which above all the cinematic implementation of hygiene measures in the tourism context should get a platform. The cinematographic aspects of the competition were extensively appreciated by the jury, but the focus remains on: creativity, storytelling, emotion and the general informational value of the submissions. A large number of high quality films were submitted again this year, which is why the jury’s scoring was often very close. For this reason, the chairman of the jury commission, communication designer Professor Helfried Hagenberg, decided to award several first, second or third prizes in some categories. In this context, the president of the competition, Wolfgang Jo Huschert, points out the importance of the competition for the commissioning tourism companies and their agencies.
Added value for the tourism industry
The competition is primarily a platform for tourism managers and filmmakers to learn about the latest tourism production status of cinematic works worldwide. The competition shows what to pay attention to in order to stand out from the masses of Internet videos on social media. In this context, Andreas Lambeck, Managing Director of Sonnenklar TV, Europe’s largest tourism channel for the tourism industry with a daily reach of over 2 million viewers, emphasizes: “For our marketing in offering the world’s tourism regions and the tourism industry’s travel products, we are happy to receive good and meaningful film submissions to achieve a maximum of enthusiasm for the destinations among our customers. Therefore, we are happy to cooperate with the int. film-print multimedia competition “The Golden City Gate “- in Berlin and thus increase the reach of the films participating in the competition.”
This year´s film features
Every year, the competition reflects the trends and goals of the tourism industry. Whereas in the early 2000s the focus was still on the greatest possible reach and marketing of the destinations. In the 2010s a trend toward greater customer loyalty and short trips began to emerge, which is reflected again this year by very different creative approaches in the competition. This year, for example, there is a clear trend towards individual tourism, the sophisticated “finding oneself” with a partner, family and close friends. There are signs of more conscious travel, for which the regions of the world are preparing with appropriate offers. All this is often excellently implemented in this year’s film contributions. However, the stories behind the films are – as nearly always – unique and worth seeing. Overall, many stories are told, there are fast sequences of images, calm camera movements and settings, with and without drones, funny and historical films, musical tidbits, hiking and cycling films.
The Diamond Award
Due to many extraordinary films, it was especially difficult to determine the winner of this year´s Diamond Award. After counting the points twice, no clear winner could be determined. Therefore, the chairmen of the Diamond Award´s jury decided that this year there will be two winners who will receive the Diamond Award:
1) The International Diamond Award goes to the Australian entry: „Seek different”
2) The National Diamond Award goes to the German entry: „#DiscoverGermanyFromHome”
The competition is organized by Huschert Film+Medien GmbH in Cologne. The official patronage has been taken over by the Bundesverband der deutschen Film- und AV-Produzenten e.V., which is also a member of SPIO Wiesbaden/Berlin. Since mid-2020, “The Golden City Gate” competition has been cooperating with Europe’s largest tourism travel channel “Sonnenklar TV”.
