Filmfest Hamburg catches European Premiere Doris Dörrie’s film DER FISCHER UND SEINE FRAU opens the festivalThe 13th Filmfest Hamburg opens with the European premiere of the German comedy DER FISCHER UND SEINE FRAU. The leads are played by Alexandra Maria Lara, Christian Ulmen, Simon Verhoeven and Young-Shin Kim. Incessantly fascinated by the topic, Doris Dörrie asks in her latest film once morethe question, whether men and women actually suit each other.“Every German film festival wants t...
"Alles auf Zucker" (Go for Zucker: An Unorthodox Comedy), the first Jewish comedy made in Germany since World War II, won "Lola" awards for best film, best director and best actor, as well as top honors for screenwriting, costume and music.The film, which cost just 1.5 million euros has been a surprise box office hit, beat the blockbuster "Der Untergang" (Downfall), about Hitler's final days, which went home empty-handed."I just beat Hitler!...It's just great that a little Communist guy of Jewis...
Films from the European Union and the former East are a major component of the 7th edition of the BUENOS AIRES INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF INDEPENDENT CINEMA. Nearly one third of the program, over one hundred films, is devoted to European works, which makes it the most represented region of all the films including films from Latin America.Buenos Aires, which is often referred to as the Paris of the South, is itself a mix of Latin American and European influences. The city has a strong connection t...
The members of the International Jury at the Berlinale:Roland Emmerich (Jury President, Germany)Ingeborga Dapkunaite (Lithuania)Bai Ling (China)Franka Potente (Germany)Wouter Barendrecht (Netherlands)Nino Cerruti (Italy)Andrei Kurkov (Ukraine), The jury hawe awarded the following prizes for feature films screened in the Competition:The Golden Bear goes to: U-CARMEN eKHAYELITSHA by Marc Dornford-MayThe Jury Grand Prix - Silver Bear to KONG QUE | Peacock by Gu ChangweiThe Silver Bear for Best Dire...
INTRODUCING EUROPE’S NEWEST FILM STARSShooting Stars, an initiative of the pan-European promotion organization European Film Promotion (EFP), again used its berth at the Berlin Film Festival to introduce a host of young acting talent from across Europe.This year, twenty-one young actors and actresses were feted and introduced to the press at one of the Berlinale’s most prized events. EFP, which represents the national film boards of almost all the countries of the EU, has presented this focu...
Surprise Film 2005: Mutterseelenallein by Bernd Böhlich with the awarding of the Berlinale Camera to Katrin SassThis year’s Berlinale Surprise Film is Mutterseelenallein, directed by Bernd Böhlich. This feature film debut recounts, with harrowing precision, the situation of a woman who learns that her son has become a murderer. Bea (Katrin Sass), the female protagonist, lives through all imaginable extremes of human behaviour and ends up herself on the periphery of society. Mutterseelenalle...
German director Roland Emmerich will be president of the International Jury of the Berlinale 2005. Emmerich’s international career began with the film Das Arche Noah Prinzip (The Noah’s Ark Principle) which screened at the Berlinale in 1984 and attracted worldwide attention. Hollywood discovered this great talent, who then went on to make Independence Day, Godzilla and The Patriot, all Oscar-crowned works. In 2004, with The Day After Tomorrow, Emmerich contributed to the ongoing debate on th...
The 1st International Festival of German Film HeritageincorporatingThe 17th International Film History Conference 13 – 21 November 2004 in HamburgIn close collaboration with international scholars and archives, CineGraph and Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv have developed a new concept for their traditional conference, expanding it into a Festival of German Film Heritage. Apart from exploring new and forgotten areas of film history, the festival will provide a prominent showcase for archives which pres...
Two German, Wim Wenders and Edgar Reitz, receive Master of Cinema-Award of the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg Mannheim-Heidelberg (IFMH), October 2004 – Two Old Masters of German cinema shall be honoured Master of Cinema at this year’s 53rd International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg. Edgar Reitz, one of the masterminds of New German Cinema, co-author of the “Oberhausener Manifest” and fantastic storyteller, presents his most important and also longest film, the trilog...
THE DOWNFALL represents Germany in the race for the OSCARThe independent expert jury, which was appointed by GERMAN FILMS to selection the German entry to compete for the OSCAR for the best Foreign Language Film, has chosen THE DOWNFALL by Oliver Hirschbiegel. The jury on its decision: with the film The Downfall Oliver Hirschbiegel and Bernd Eichinger succeed in achieving the haunting and demystifying cineamtic realisation of the last days of Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich." The production by...
LOVE IN THOUGHTS (WAS NUETZT DIE LIEBE IN GEDANKEN) opens the 9th Festival of German Cinema in Paris (6 - 12 October 2004) On October 6, 2004, the 9th Festival of German Cinema will be opened in Paris by German Films and its partners in the presence of director Achim von Borries and the main actors August Diehl and Jana Pallaske. A total of eight new feature films, a retrospective, a TV film, two documentaries and two silent films as well as the short film programme of NEXT GENERATION 2004 will ...
Over 6,000 film fans attended the 35 performances of the sixth Festival of German Cinema in Madrid (8-12 June, 2004). The extensive programme was enthusiastically received by the Spanish audience and press. Compared to last year, the attendances increased by a third.The event was opened by Eric Till's LUTHER in the presence of producer Alexander Thies. LUTHER generated great interest among the audience, press and distributors in Catholic Spain. Rosenstrasse by Margarethe von Trotta won the Audie...
Happy Birthday to you, Taormina. The oldest Italian internatiomal film festival, celebrates its 50th anniversary, Launched in 1954 when Taormina, Sicily, was the preferred resort of the Hollywoodian stars, At that post war time, Sicily development was a step behind (still a bit behind today), the institution of an international event was meant to promote its great touristic resources. The Italian island has given much to this Festival, the Festival did too. The "partnership" has led today to one...
No less than 16 German films and two German-international co-productions are being shown at the 26th Moscow International Film Festival (18 –27 June 2004).Germany will be represented in the competition for the St. George Award by OLGA'S SUMMER by Nina Grosse. The film tells the story of 16-year-old Olga who lives with her father and brother at a petrol station in the countryside and is ready for life, love, adventure - in fact, for everything that would take her away from her boring everyday l...
Moscow festival jury members:MAIN COMPETITIONAlan PARKER — Chairman, director (United Kingdom) Jerzy STUHR — actor, director (Poland) Boris AKUNIN — author (Russia) Armen MEDVEDEV — film critic, film producer (Russia) Barbara SUKOWA — actress (Germany) Humbert BALSAN — film producer (France) COMPETITION PERSPECTIVESAlexei UCHITEL — Chairman, director, producer (Russia) Diana DUMBRAVA — actress (Romania) Stefan LAUDYN — festival director (Pola...
“WHICH MARKET FOR EUROPEAN FILMS?”The aim of this research by MEDIA Salles is to provide a detailed description of the distribution of European films in Europe and to make a quantitative analysis of the phenomena lying behind the difficulties that have always been experienced by European films in crossing the threshold of their country of origin.Although the results of the research are rather complex and difficult to classify, some main trends do emerge:1. The considerable variation in admis...
The Export-Union of German Cinema will be presenting 23 new German films at the Marché du Film at the film festival in Cannes (12 – 23 May 2004) on behalf of German producers and distributors. The following German films can be seen in the market from 14 – 19 May in 36 screenings: · Äshäk, Tales from the Sahara by Ulrike Koch· Aus Liebe zum Volk by Eyal Sivan and Audrey Maurion· Autobahnraser by Michael Keusch· Blueprint by Rolf Schübel· The Dark Side of Our Inner Space by Roland Re...
The Italian Film Award DAVID DI DONATELLO for ROSENSTRASSE by Margarethe von Trotta The Accademia del Cinema Italiano awarded the Premi David di Donatello for the "Best Film of the European Union" to ROSENSTRASSE by Margarethe von Trotta ex aequo with Lars von Trier's DOGVILLE. The DONATELLO (the Italian Film Award) was first awarded in 1950. After Katja Riemann's COPPA VOLPI for Best Actress in Venice last year, yesterday's presentation in the Palazzo die Congressi in Rome was the second import...
"Relaunched last year with a new crew and new objectives, the Festival continues with its new formula that discovers new European talent from the 45 countries of the Council of Europe. The programme will therefore be made up exclusively of the first and second works of European filmmakers, but across all the genres.English decadence, irreverent Belgian humour, French transsexuals, intellectual Spanish directors, almost silent but moving cinema from Italy. This is what we will find in the selecti...
Berlinale winner HEAD-ON (GEGEN DIE WAND) opens 5th Festival of German Cinema in RomeThe Export-Union and its partners will be staging the 5th Festival of German Cinema in Rome from 2 - 6 April, 2004. With 14 feature films, a documentary and a selection of shorts, the event provides an overview of new German film production.The Festival will be opened by HEAD-ON (GEGEN DIE WAND) by Fatih Akin, this year's winner of the Golden Bear in Berlin. The director and the two lead actors will come to Rome...
The awards of the Film Festival Turkey / Germany have been announcedduring the award cerenomy on sunday 14th March. AWARDs of the FICTION FILMSbest film : "Schussangst " Yön: Dito Tsintsadzes (Berlin)best actdress : Sibel Kekilli (Gegen die Wand by Fatih Akin) (Hamburg)best actor : Birol Ünel (Gegen die Wand by Fatih Akin) (Berlin)Special mention : "Urban Guerillas " Dir: Neco Celik (Berlin)Audience Price: "Urban Guerillas" Dir: Neco Celik (Berlin)Jury : Atilla Dorsay, Klaus Eder, Joc...
Following a 9 day long festival the members of the International Jury headed by Frances McDormand (USA), Maji-da Abdi (Ethiopia), Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Italy), Samira Makhmalbaf (Iran), Peter Rommel (Germany), Gabriele Salvatores (Italy) and Dan Talbot (USA) have awarded the following prizes for feature films screening in the Competition to:The Golden Bear toGEGEN DIE WAND / Head On by Fatih AkinThe Jury Grand Prix - Silver Bear toEL ABRAZO PARTIDO /Lost Embrace by Daniel BurmanThe Silver Bea...
In cooperation with CineGraph and the Hamburgisches Centrum für Filmforschung e.V. and with the support of the other members of the deutscher Kinematheksverbund, the Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF e.V., Frankfurt, is developing a central Internet portal for German film. The project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs, the German Federal Film Board, the hessen-media program of the Hessian State Government, the Cultural Authority of the Hanseatic City o...
Stars from around the world are set to attend the gala opening of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival. The opening night gala ceremony in the Berlianle Palast begins today at 7.00pm on Thursday, 5 February. The evening will be hosted by Anke Engelke and Festival Director Dieter Kosslick. The Berlin International Film Festival will be opened by Minister of State for Culture Dr Christina Weiss and the Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit. The opening night film, Anthony Minghella’s ...
Pre-festival Laurels: Two Perspektive Deutsches Kino Films Win Prestigious AwardsJust one day before the beginning of the 54th Berlin International Film Festival, two films from the series Perspektive Deutsches Kino made a big splash in Saarbrücken und Rotterdam: Muxmäuschenstill, actor Marcus Mittermeier’s directing debut, was awarded not only the main award at the “Max Ophüls Prize” film festival for up-and-coming German-language filmmakers in Saarland’s capital last Sunday, but als...
