In a surprise twist, a Chinese film has won the Berlinale Golden Bear, the Berlin Film Festival's highest honor. TUYA'S MARRIAGE by Chinese director Wang Quan'an won the Festival's top prize, which was announced with other awards at the Festival's closing ceremony Saturday evening. The film, the story of a woman living in rural northwestern Mongolia and facing pressure to abandon her life as a shepherd, did not figure on most critics' prediction lists. A gentle, atmospheric and almost non-verba...
The Panorama section is the non-competitive sidebar of the Berlinale that has a reputation among Festival veterans as the most ambitious and exploratory program in the Festival. The section has introduced many of world cinema’s most illustrious talents. Showcasing more than 50 films, most making their international premieres, the Panorama opened on Friday with Canadian director Bruce McDonald’s THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS, a visually inventive exploration of a fifteen-year-old girl’s fragmented e...
Sunday, February 11----The Panorama section is the non-competitive sidebar of the Berlinale that has a reputation among Festival veterans as the most ambitious and exploratory program in the Festival. The section has introduced many of world cinema’s most illustrious talents. Showcasing more than 50 films, most making their international premieres, the Panorama opened on Friday with Canadian director Bruce McDonald’s THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS, a visually inventive exploration of a fifteen-year-...
Sunday, February 11---Seven young film fans from Germany and France comprise the independent jury that will determine the DIALOGUE EN PERSPECTIVE prize, which is awarded to a German feature film in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlinale. The prize was initiated in 2004 by the French TV Channel TV5MONDE and the Berlinale, and will be awarded in collaboration with the Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk (DFJW).
In view of the large number of excellent entries, the selection commit...
Tom Tykwer and Kees Kasander explore virtual worlds
These days, no other stories do as well in the cinemas as stories set in fantastical worlds or that take audiences on a journey into the past. Elaborate adventure-fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings and Eragon and opulent historical epic dramas like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Kingdom of Heaven are among the biggest box-office winners. A similar development can be observed in the gaming world. Here, online role-playing games are...
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Tom Tykwer (Lola Rennt, Heaven) will open the competition of the 33rd edition of the Flanders International Film Festival - Ghent on Wednesday October 11. This film is based on Patrick Süskind’s best-selling novel of the same title from 1985, of which more than 15 million copies have been sold worldwide. The film attracted no fewer than 250,000 film lovers to the cinemas when it premiered in Germany.For 15 years, Patrick Süskind refused to sell the film ri...
DER FILM - the festival of German-language films will be held in Prague for the first time from October 4 - 8. Prague's AERO and SVĚTOZOR program cinemas will be showing a total of 22 feature films and documentaries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The festival is being organised by the Goethe Institut, the Austrian Culture Forum and the Swiss Embassy in Prague.The festival will be opened with the most successful German film of this year, THE LIVES OF OTHERS (DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN) by...
2nd Festival of German Cinema in Budapest from 21 – 24 September 2006 The winner of the Tiscali Audience Award and the Lion’s Award in Rotterdam 2006 EDEN will open the 2nd Festival of German Cinema in Budapest on 21 September 2006. The director Michael Hofmann will be there to present his film to the Hungarian audience and the press. Other films in the program include: REQUIEM by Hans-Christian Schmid, THE RED COCKATOO (DER ROTE KAKADU) by Dominik Graf, TOUGH ENOUGH (KNALLHART) by Detlev Bu...
2nd Festival of German Cinema in Budapest from 21 – 24 September 2006 The winner of the Tiscali Audience Award and the Lion’s Award in Rotterdam 2006 EDEN will open the 2nd Festival of German Cinema in Budapest on 21 September 2006. The director Michael Hofmann will be there to present his film to the Hungarian audience and the press. Other films in the program include: REQUIEM by Hans-Christian Schmid, THE RED COCKATOO (DER ROTE KAKADU) by Dominik Graf, TOUGH ENOUGH (KNALLHART) by Detlev Bu...
Amsterdam – September 7th – 16thLocations: Filmhuis Rialto, Club Bitterzoet, Podium Mozaïek, Imagine IC free open air cinema throughout Amsterdam.Parallel programmeRotterdam, The Hague, Eindhoven, Nijmegen & Den Bosch.African Film is experiencing a transformation! Africa in the Picture – the annual platform in Europe for African cinema and African Diaspora cinema (North and South America, Europe, Surinam, the Caribbean) demonstrates these developments in over 80 films. The varied programm...
Milano Film Festival - eleventh edition 15 - 24 September 2006The Films in CompetitionOne year of commitment. A thorough search among film schools, producers, distributors and independent festivals.From Mexico to Korea, from South Africa to Finland, from the United States to Palestine, from New Zealand to India, from Chiapas to France.More than 2000 films have been submitted from over 90 countries: among them, the selection committee has chosen the films that will take part in this year's editio...
OFFICIAL PRESENTATION OF THE 54TH SAN SEBASTIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALThis year’s Festival will pay homage to the career of fabulous creator Ernst Lubitsch, dedicating its thematic retrospective to emigration, a harsh reality of our time repeatedly appearing in other epochs and always energetically reflected by the cinema.At its presentation on 12th May, the Festival unveiled its 54th official poster in addition to the posters representing the different sections. A meeting with friends fr...
The Boston Indie Film Festival 2006: Gritty, Noirish, and FunBy Julian PetersonThe 4th annual Independent Film Festival shuttered April 23 after six days of films, galas, and workshops. The Festival grows steadily each year as evidenced by the round the block lines at the Somerville Theater and an array of corporate sponsors. But the festival is refreshingly free of the corporate definition of "independent", which in other festivals have threatened a truly independent agenda. The hard work and...
For the fifth time German Films is joining with the Goethe Institutes in Sydney und Melbourne to stage a Festival of German Films in four cities and would like to achieve the record admissions from 2005 – last year more than 16,000 cinemagoers had the opportunity to see German films. From April 20 - 30, the festival will be showing a broad spectrum of German filmmaking in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Canberra.The following films are in the programme, including some new titles from the Berl...
Filmfestivals correspondant Claus Mueller sat down with Dieter Kosslick head of the Berlin festival for an open discussion on the festival changes. Claus Mueller What is the most important change compared to last year?Dieter Kosslick The most important change of course is that we finished out five year plan, including the change of the market, that is the move to the Martin Gropius Bau. That was a big move, and there is another little change, that we give the awards at the end of the festival on...
It's always a bit of a let-down when a big one like this wraps and you look through the catalogue noting oodles of films you were dying to see but just didn't have time to get to. Ouch! Among the most coveted 'near misses' (since it would have been possible to see them, but at the expense of missing other simultaneously scheduled events) I can list with sweet regret (and this is only a small sampling), the following: "The Notorious Betty Page" (with a fetishistically luscious Gretchen Mol); "Ab...
During the ten days of the Berlinale most Berlin dailies adorn their front pages with large color photos of celebrity posturings the night before. On Thursday, day number 7 of the fest, however, what was to be seen on all Berlin front pages were shots of men in hooded white spacesuits holding up dead swans fished out of the city lakes, or otherwise attempting to deal with the sudden arrival of the dreaded aviarian flu virus in the midst of the city. Of course, this does not mean that we can exp...
Detlev Buck’s TOUGH ENOUGH (Knallhart) was awarded the Europa Cinemas Label today by a jury of four Europa Cinemas exhibitors at the closing ceremony of the Panorama section of the Berlinale/Berlin Film Festival.Sold internationally by the Match Factory, TOUGH ENOUGH (Knallhart) is a powerful film from renowned German director Detlev Buck, starring Jenny Elvers-Elbertzhagen, David Kross, Jan Henrik Stahlberg, Erhan Emre, Oktay Őzdemir and Kida Khodr Ramadan. Delphi Film Verleih will relea...
GLOBAL FILM FINANCE 7 - BERLIN 2006 FEBRUARY 9th 20060900 – 1800Financing Conference during the 56th Berlin International Film Festival Business Centre, 3rd floor, Sony Style Store, Potsdamer StrasseFrom V for Vendetta to Match Point, the UK’s capital can always be relied on to deliver on screen. London hosted over 50 major features last year, but with new UK tax regulations due to come in to operation from April, the city is poised to become an even more popular destination.Find out what Lo...
German auteur director Wim Wenders will be feted with the Career Achievement Tribute by the Miami International Film Festival, which will be held from March 3 to 12. Wenders joins a distinguished roster of Festival honorees including actress/director Liv Ullmann, Spanish director Carlos Saura and Brazilian director Hector Babenco.“We are proud to pay tribute to this legendary director, writer, and producer whose contribution to the spirit of independent cinema continues to inspire filmmakers a...
For the twentieth time, the annual gay and lesbian Teddy Award will be presented at the upcoming Berlinale. For the anniversary the Panorama, working with the Berlin Film Museum, has put together a Retrospective. The Teddy Twenty Tribute will present Teddy Award winners from the past two decades, documenting the turbulent history of gay and lesbian film. An interview with Wieland Speck, director of the Panorama and prime witness to the development of the Teddy, about early battles, old wounds an...
The European Film Awards 2005The European Film Awards ceremony took place for the eighteenth time December 3 in Berlin (the last one for DDA) and included 19 categories. Michael Haneke's Caché was one of the strong winners of the evening and took away best film, best director, best actor, best editor, and Fipresci award.European FilmHidden (Caché), Directed by Michael HanekeEuropean DirectorMichael Haneke for Hidden (Caché) European Actress Julia Jentsch in Sophie Scholl, The Final Days Europ...
30th Retrospective at the 56th Berlin International Film FestivalDream Girls. Film Stars of the Fifties The Retrospective of the 56th Berlin International Film Festival will be dedicated to the screen heroines of the 1950s. A diverse programme of 45 films will present 30 actresses from the US, Europe and Japan. The Retrospective focuses on the portrayal of femininity in international films of the post-war period, which mirrors the reactionary climate of the Cold War and questions the obsolete ro...
Nine films for eternity – Hommage to Rainer Werner Fassbinder atthe 54th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg taking place from 17 to 26 November 2005The 54th International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg dedicates thisyear’s hommage to one of the rare superstars of German cinema,Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He died in 1982. But still there is nodiscussion about German film that doesn’t start with him and also endswith a reference to his work. He showed his first films in Mannheim ...
SOPHIE SCHOLL – THE FINAL DAYS (SOPHIE SCHOLL – DIE LETZTEN TAGE) will open the Fifth Festival of German Cinema at the Village Recoletas in Buenos Aires on September 1, 2005. Lead actress Julia Jentsch and director Marc Rothemund will be travelling to Argentina to introduce their film in person. Presenting a total of 34 films in 29 performances, the organiser German Films will be offering a varied and exciting snapshot of contemporary German cinema. The programme includes nine feature films...
