German actor and director Til Schweiger was moved and visibly delighted as he received the Golden Eye Award at The Zurich Film Festival for his filmmaking, “It’s great to be here in Zurich – at last. I am overjoyed and moved to receive the Golden Eye Award tonight. Many thanks again to the festival, this award means a lot to me!”

The Golden Eye Award was given to the multiple Bambi Award winner as he presented his new film “God You’re Such a Prick.” The humorous and emotional coming-of-age drama is about a 16-year-old whose life is shaken by a cancer diagnosis. After her parents forbid her to go on her graduation trip, she and her new boyfriend set off on an adventurous road trip to Paris, the parents close on their heels. Staring Til Schweiger and Heike Makatsch, the German star line-up is completed by the Swiss character actor Max Hubacher.

Festival Director Christian Jungen personally presented the Golden Eye Award to Til Schweiger, saying “Til Schweiger is an exceptional talent, a thoroughbred cinematographer who works continuously, passionately and hard and manages the most difficult thing of all: to captivate a large audience.”

Til Schweiger’s path to becoming one of the most influential and popular cult characters in German film began in 1991 in Lindenstrasse and with his first feature film Manta, Manta. He was honored with the Max Ophüls Award for Best Young Actor in 1993, followed in 1994 by the Bambi for his breakthrough performance Der bewegte Mann. Since then, Schweiger has impressed not only in Hollywood productions such as Inglourious Basterds (2009), but also as a director, screenwriter and producer of his incomparable (tragic) comedies Keinohrhasen, (Rabbit Without Ears) (2007) and Honig im Kopf (Head Full of Honey) (2014).

Previous winners of the Golden Eye Awards include Jake Gyllenhaal, Andrew Garfield, Kristen Stewart and Kiefer Sutherland.