Although May Spils may have been an autodidact when it came to filmmaking, that didn’t keep her very first film, Das Porträt, a clever and humorous short colour film about the difficulties the artist herself faces when attempting to create a self-portrait, from being honoured at the International Film Week Mannheim back in 1966. (Sabine Schöbel, programme booklet for Aufbruch der Autorinnen II, 2016)