With the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall being celebrated this month, Die Mauer (The Wall) was a timely theme for the competition.
Pupils could approach the topic from any angle, as long as it was 1-4 minutes long and in German.
St Hildas Collegiate year 12 pupil Ellena Zellhuber-McMillan teamed up with John McGlashan year 12 pupils Nick Tenci, Joel Labes, Hamish MacArthur, Ricky Boebel, Eddy Davis-Rae and Andrew Wilson to create a short film titled Das Leben der Mauern - The lives of Walls.
Nick said the film was a comedy which explored the oppression of walls throughout history.
"They've been peed on, they've been shot . . . you get the picture.
"The film has been getting a few giggles," he said.
The short film got more than just giggles.
It won the year 11-13 category of the competition, and beat entries from university students in the award for best overall film.
Nick said the team was surprised at the result.
"It was great. To beat university students - we weren't expecting that. We were quite surprised.
"It was the first time we had made a film. Not a bad effort really. Hopefully, we can do as well again next year."
The year 10 German class from Columba College also had success in the competition, winning the year 7-10 category with a film titled Roald Dahl an der Mauer - Couscous.
It was based on Roald Dahl's Mrs Bixby and the Colonel's Coat from his collection of short stories called Kiss Kiss.
German teacher Jennes Riethmaier said it was "a twisted and slightly risque version" of the story in which one of the main characters - Barbel Schmidt - travels from West Berlin to visit her aunt Tanja in East Berlin, crossing the Berlin Wall through the underground station at Friedrichstrasse.
"The back of Bishopscourt made a very good setting for the Berlin Wall, and various sitting rooms and a BMW provided the other backdrops.
"The film showed all the processes people had to go through to cross the wall."
Both teams received awards at a ceremony held in Wellington on November 6.
The films were shown on a large screen at the National Film Archive as part of the ceremony.
It was the fourth time the competition had been held by International Languages Aotearoa New Zealand in association with the Goethe-Institut, the German Embassy in Wellington, and German in Aotearoa New Zealand.
