Largest American festival of German-Language Cinema brings broad slate of celebrated pictures to Castro Theatre this January

The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival (Jan 15-21) marks its 18th year with a return to its original exhibition schedule at the head of the calendar in January and a selection of some of the best and brightest award-winning films and talents of European cinema. It is the fourth year under the direction of festival director Sophoan Sorn, and his third in collaboration and leadership with Sabine Erlenwein, Director of the Goethe-Institut San Francisco. The festival features a vivid selection of the best films from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and a rising selection of international co-productions in the German language. This year’s festival celebrates the theme “Courage in Motion” with cinematic stories of overcoming life’s obstacles, moving bravely, embracing hope, connecting minds, finding solutions and bonding through common humanity.

The festival will open with Germany’s official entry to the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film consideration, the riveting time-spanning espionage drama Two Lives by Georg Maas. The festival’s elegant, opulent centerpiece, Ludwig II, a sweeping chronicle of Bavaria’s most intriguing monarch, will also serve as the focus of a celebration of the life and career of the great European director and cinema devotee Peter Sehr (Obsession, The Anarchist’s Wife), who is honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award in Directing posthumously at this year’s festival. Accepting it in his place will be his wife and creative partner Marie Nöelle.

For the first time since 2010, the festival will present an astounding 3D spectacular on the Castro screen in Detlev Buck’s Measuring the World (3D), a riveting historical romp based on the experiences and exploits of 19th century scientists Alexander von Humboldt and mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss. The festival will close with up-and-coming filmmaker Nana Neul‘s superbly observed family drama, Silent Summer, for which the director and stars will be in attendance, at the Castro Theatre before completing it’s run at the Goethe-Institut with two days of more intimate screenings.

GERMAN FEATURES

The festival's largest program, German Features (formerly German Films Panorama), showcases the high volume of excellent cinema emerging from Germany this year, including the excellent drama Breaking Horizons, which won the Best German Language Feature Film award at the Zürich Film Festival and stars festival favorite Aylin Tezel (BBFF 2011 Opening Night Film Almanya – Welcome to Germany); Oscar-nominee Marc Rothemund’s courageous cancer exploration The Girl with Nine Wigs; Gold, a Nina Hoss-starring new western that recreates America’s Gold Rush by Thomas Arslan (In The Shadows, BBFF 2010); the engaging, electric policeman-on-policeman love affair Free Fall; Julia von Heinz’s German/Israel co-production Hanna’s Journey; Lars-Gunnar Hanson’s tense thriller Shifting the Blame; the GDR immigrant drama Shores of Hope; and the boundary-crossing adaptation of Julia Franck’s novel, West, directed by Christian Schwochow’s (Cracks in the Shell, BBFF 2012).

GERMAN DOCUMENTARIES

The festival's German Documentaries selections this year raise and answer questions of conflicting cultures and experiences, both across national and species lines. The later is explored in Redemption Impossible, Christian Rost’s stirring document of the rehabilitation Austrian chimpanzees that have been used for experimentation on a remote safari park, which screened as part of the Berlinale Special this past February in Germany. The later finds a more jovial home in Sound of Heimat – Germany Sings, Arne Birkenstock and Jan Tengeler’s musical exploration of Germany’s folk music through the eyes of a New Zealand musician; and Munich in India, Walter Steffen’s historical documentary about Fritz-Munich, the only German court painter of the Maharajas.

YOUTH 4 GERMAN CINEMA

This year, Berlin & Beyond inaugurated a new educationally focused program, Youth 4 German Cinema, a unique student-juried competition offering local high school students the opportunity to participate directly in an internationally recognized film festival. The locally-selected jury chose Katja von Garnier’s equestrian adventure Windstorm as this year’s winning film, awarding runner-up accolades to Your Beauty Is Worth Nothing, Huseyin Tabak’s immigration tale told through the eyes of a young Turkish boy which has received considerable attention on the international festival circuit.

SWISS WINDOW

Showcase documentary Miles & War, which recently won the Lüdia Audience Award, the top prize at Kinofest Lünen in Germany, is a fly-on-the-wall portrait of the work of some of the world’s top conflict mediators—negotiators who work with a variety of factions from nomadic tribesmen to government functionaries to foster peace, often in the most dangerous environments. Markus Imhoof’s documentary More Than Honey, one of the year’s most discussed documentary films, boldly probes the world’s disappearing bee population, and is Switzerland’s official entry to the 2014 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film consideration. Alongside is Christoph Schaub’s kinetic narrative, Lullaby Ride, a tale of two parents searching in the night for their stolen child.

Out-of-competition in the Youth 4 German Cinema program is the North American Premiere of The Black Brothers, the latest picture from Oscar-nominated director Xavier Koller (Journey of Hope) based on the famed children’s novel by Lisa Tetzner about the adventures of a poor chimney sweep.

AUSTRIAN CINEMA SPECIAL

In addition to Your Beauty is Worth Nothing in the Youth 4 German Cinema section, the festival presents a stunning performance with its Austrian Cinema Special this year in Philipp Hochmair’s sensitive turn in La Pivellina duo Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel’s The Shine of Day, for which he received the Best Actor award at the internationally recognized Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland.

SHORT FILMS

The well-loved Shorts Program, entitled Sensational Seven for 2014, features stories that use Germany as a base to explore the ecstacies and limitations of continental living. Highlights include Erik Schmitt and Stephan Müller’s Rhino Full Throttle, which was honored with the Future Filmmaker Award at the Palm Springs International ShortFest, and Martin Christopher Bode’s A Good Story, lensed by Christopher Doyle.

Complimenting the North American Premiere of Breaking Horizons (German Features section) is the directorial debut of the film’s star, Aylin Tezel, Inhale, an introspective short film combining fantasy and reality.

FESTIVAL GUESTS

Each year, Berlin & Beyond is proud to serve as not only a showcase for the best German, Austrian and Swiss cinema, but as a focal point for discussion on the continuing influence of the European tradition on cinema as a whole, and a forum for European talent to connect with American audiences in person. A roster of some of the brightest lights names in contemporary German language cinema is confirmed to appear in conversation at the festival: from Germany, director, and partner of the late Peter Sehr. Marie Noëlle (Ludwig II); actor/director Alyin Tezel (Breaking Horizons, Almanya – Welcome to Germany, BBFF2012); producer Ali Saghri (Breaking Horizons); director Nana Neul (Silent Summer); actor Hans-Jochen Wagner (Silent Summer); director Georg Maas (Two Lives); director Christian Schwochow (West, Cracks in the Shell, BFF2012); documentarian Walter Steffen (Munich in India); production designer Udo Kramer (Measuring the World - 3D); Youth 4 German Cinema award winner Katja von Garnier (Windstorm); and Oscar-nominated director Marc Rothemund (The Girl with Nine Wigs, Sophie Scholl – The Final Days).

Representing the Swiss Window program, Los Angeles-based, Oscar-winning director Xavier Koller (The Black Brothers, Journey of Hope) and Berlin and Geneva-based documentarian Anne Thoma (Miles & War) are scheduled to appear. Further guest appearances will be announced as they are confirmed.

Admission: prices vary, please refer to program guide or website for information.

Tickets for the film can be purchased at: www.BerlinBeyond.com

For photos and press materials, email the festival publicist at jackson.scarlett@gmail.com.

18TH BERLIN & BEYOND FILM FESTIVAL

Since 1996, the Berlin & Beyond Film Festival has been the leading festival of contemporary German cinema in the Americas, and has presented over 500 motion pictures, along with the presence of celebrated film figures, including Mario Adorf, Fatih Akin, Moritz Bleibtreu, Daniel Brühl, Hannelore Elsner, Florian David Fitz, Bruno Ganz, Barbara Sukowa and Wim Wenders. The festival is presented in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut San Francisco, a national cultural institution of the Federal Republic of Germany. The main 18th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival will take place January 15th-19th, 2014 at the Castro Theatre movie palace and January 20-21 at the Goethe-Institut San Francisco auditorium. For the 18th festival, the festival is proud to present the educational program Youth 4 German Cinema and the new "preview series" Berlin & Beyond Honolulu, taking place December 16-20, 2013 at the Doris Duke Theatre, at the Honolulu Museum of Art in Hawai'i.

The festival celebrates the generous support of many partners and sponsors, including: Presenting Sponsors – Lufthansa and MetaDesign; Premier Sponsors – Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in San Francisco, the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, Unitrans International Logistics, Inc., and the San Francisco Grants for the Arts; the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany; Grand Sponsors – German Films and Montage Services, Inc; Media Partners – Bay Guardian and German World Magazine; Official Venue – The Castro Theatre.

For festival information, go to www.berlinbeyond.com

GOETHE-INSTITUT

The Goethe-Institut is Germany’s official cultural center comprised of 136 institutes in 92 countries. The Institut exists to promote art and films from Germany, the study of the German language, and encourage the international cultural exchange with Germany. The San Francisco branch has been promoting German culture and language since 1967. Its year-round cultural activities include up to five art exhibitions, weekly film screenings, annual events with local cultural institutions and periodic social gatherings.

Official website: www.goethe.de/sanfrancisco