The main competition line-ups of the 39^th Max Ophüls Prizefestival at Saarbrücken include three Austrian world premiers:  

• COPS by Istvan,
• SORCERER by Sebastian Brauneis and
• Stefan Bohun’s documentary ARE YOU SLEEPING, BROTHER JAKOB?

Amazing take-off for Istvan's feature debut COPS: after its world premiere at the festival Max Ophüls Prize and immediate follow-up at the FIPA Biarritz, COPS garners  Audience Award, Best Young Actor Award for a secondary role and the award for the socially relevant film at Saarbrücken and, to top it all,  the main prize FIPA d'OR at Biarritz .

Lack of experience leads a young recruit in an elite police unit to provoke an escalation which proves fatal. A failure – or an act of heroism? Some of his colleagues see it one way, some the other. In his directorial debut COPS Istvan reveals the complexity of a police system which does not permit any weakness, and he explores the narrow dividing line between seeking out confrontation and passing it by.

What a crop for COPS by Stefan Lukacs within two festival weekends: Best Screenplay at the Skopje Cinedays Festival of European film, Univerciné Jury Prize + Audience Award at the Nantes Univerciné Allemand Festival, Best Young Actress Award to Anna Suk at the Braunschweig Film Festival.