2013

Mohamad Rasoulof, iranian director

2011

Michael Ballhaus, director of photography

“The environment is more important today than ever before because man is making our planet uninhabitable. The cancer of our time is the power of money. I am happy to be the patron of this festival.”

2009

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, iranian director and writer

‘I don’t know how we can talk about poetry and poetic cinema in the world when man, the creator of poetry, is not allowed to have bread, freedom or even poetry in my country.
Today, the future of world peace is closely linked to the future of democracy in Iran and the future of Iranian democracy is linked to art, media and cinema all over the world. That is why I come to your Human Rights Film Festival, so that together we can find a way for peace and democracy.”

2007

Ken Loach, director

“War and state terror by the world’s most powerful nations are a fundamental sign of our times. And so those rights are ignored that we thought were forever banished in international law and the Geneva Convention. It is hard to imagine that such illegal wars force us anew to revolt against torture, detention without trial and mass killings. Never has your festival been more timely.”

2005

Michael Verhoeven, director and actor

“Film is a powerful tool to fight for the simplest and yet seemingly unattainable human rights. The NIHRFF is set for the long haul, for looking beyond borders, but also for the obvious. This festival does not want to be an event of like-minded people, it has to reach out, it has to make breaches and win new friends, new comrades-in-arms for the perspective of human rights.”

2003

Katja Riemann, actress

“It is necessary to look at the world around us from a different perspective, from a different angle. The medium of film helps us to get an idea of the conditions under which people live in other countries. We can learn a lot from the stories that films tell us. They can remind us in everyday life not to look away, but to look at the world with open eyes.”

2001

Barbara Lochbihlern, Secretary General of amnesty international 1999-2009

“The medium of film can also deny, but it can also tell us about previously unknown fates, give us new insights. This film festival therefore makes an important contribution to human rights. By awarding the Nuremberg Human Rights Film Prize, committed filmmakers are encouraged to continue telling stories, and we are all admonished not to look away.”

1999

Ulrich Gregor
Founder of the Internationalen Forum, Berlinale, 1971-2001

“The International Human Rights Film Festival in Nuremberg is a sign of hope for all those who expect the medium of film to have an enlightening function and who do not want to give up the understanding of film as an instrument of knowledge. They correspond to a moral imperative, but also to a real need to use the film medium for information and testimony, for remembrance, for broadening horizons, for sharpening the view. They have the chance to make it clear through their programme selection that a content critical of the times can certainly be reconciled with a convincing and modern cinematic form, and that such films, which combine the current theme with the adequate form and at the same time use the aesthetic possibilities of the medium, are the best, most important and most beautiful that there can be in our cinematic landscape at all.”