For the third time in a row, Martin Hartweg and Band Pro Munich / Leica win the Film and Digital Times Cinec 2012 Best Booth and Catering Award.

This is not a flippant as it sounds. Cinec is the motion picture industry’s preeminent show not only because of great new equipment, but also because of its convivial  atmosphere fueled by fine food and lovely libations. Can you imagine NAB with slices of dried free-running wild boar sprinkled with truffles and virgin olive oil, served with chilled Mirabella Franciacorta? Freshly ground espresso with even fresher pastry? Next time you wait on a long trade show line for a plastic-wrapped, flash-frozen, mystery-meat sandwich, dream instead of Martin’s wild boar, magical olives and cheese from his farm in Alba, washed down with sparkling mineral water or a bold Barbera d’Alba Cascina Longoria.

A word about Martin Hartweg. He is a leading importer of wine from Italy to Germany, and supplies many of the top restaurants in Munich, including Grappa, Garpunkt, Limoni, Inszenario (Rablstr 10)…

Having a celebrity-in-residence didn’t hurt either. Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC was perched on a stool in the Band Pro Munich / Leica booth for the duration–signing autographs, greeting friends and crews, telling stories and describing his recent foray into F65 and Leica lens cinematography. Band Pro’s new Munich Managing Director Tino Liberatore and Leica CW Sonderoptic MD Gerhard Baier were on hand to greet customers and manage crowd control in what appeared to be the busiest booth at the show.

The latest line-up of Leica Summilux-C lenses were on display, along with 3ality Technica accessories, Sony F65 cameras, Codex recorders, and much more.