SYNOPSIS:In 1984 the German Democratic Republic (GDR) maintains power via the ubiquitous surveillance operated by the Stasi, the State Secret Police, and their vast network of informers. Their goal is to know everything about the lives of its citizens. Captain Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) is assigned by his boss Grubitz (Ulrich Tuker) to set up surveillance of famous playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), who lives with celebrity actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Dreyman is one o...
The 30th Portland International Film Festival wrapped up its 16 day run Sunday, February 25 after screening 82 features and 34 shorts from 35 countries to more than 31,000 Festival attendees. Enthusiastic audiences voted this year's Oscar winner Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck's THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Germany) Best Feature and Best New Director Award. Florian was on hand at the Opening Night Party sponsored by Hollywood Video.Portland filmmaker Irene Taylor Brodsky's HEAR AND NOW (US) emerged wi...
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's film THE LIVES OF OTHERS (DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN) has received the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Language Film" from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood. "This award is an honour and the greatest compliment both for me as well as the fantastic work of so many people who worked on this film and gave their best. The German cinema is full of power and has experienced an enormous upswing in recent years. I am very happy and grateful to be ...
WINNERS OF THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2006At the European Film Awards Ceremony in Warsaw, the European Film Academy and EFA Productions have announced this year's winners:EUROPEAN FILM 2006DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN (The Lives Of Others); Germanydirected by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarckproduced by Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion/Bayerischer Rundfunk/ARTE/Creado FilmEUROPEAN DIRECTOR 2006Pedro Almodóvar for VOLVER EUROPEAN ACTRESS 2006Penelope Cruz in VOLVER EUROPEAN ACTOR 2006Ulrich Mühe in DAS LE...
At midday, I caught the German feature "The Lives of Others". Directed by Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck, the film is set in East Berlin during the eighties, spanning from 1984 to around 1992. It tells the story of a Stasi officer who is assigned to watch a group of artists. As he puts a prominent theatre director, Georg Dreyman and his actress wife under survellience, he is drawn more and more into their story. As the officer gets grows to empathize with the couple, he begins to look the o...
In the fifth edition of the New Films, New Directors International Competition, the jury comprising Petr Zelenka, Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Alberto Fuguet, Ognjen Sviličić, and Piotr Szczepański awarded the Grand Prix NESCAFÉ and 5,000 euros to Ivan Vyrypaev for Euphoria (Russia).The Cinemax Award for Best Script went to Retrieval directed by Sławomir Fabicki (script: Sławomir Fabicki, Denijal Hasanović, Marek Pruchniewski).The same picture also received a Special Jury Pr...
Copenhagen International Film Festival 2006 has found the winners of The Golden Swan. The winners are appointed by the international jury, which was made up of five known personalities from the European film industry.Ghita Nørby was heading the jury, which also consisted of the cinematographer Robby Müller from the Netherlands, the director Pawel Pawlikowski from the United Kingdom, the director Kornél Mundruczó from Hungary and the actress Tuva Novotny from Sweden.The main award at the Cope...
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...
From July 15 to July 22, 2006, for the 24th time, Munich will be the setting of Germany's largest summer film festival.Among the highlights of our International Program are spectacular debut films such as THANK YOU FOR SMOKING by Jason Reitman from the USA, VALERIE by Birgit Möller from Germany and MÜETTER by French director (but Munich resident) Dominique Lienhard. As always, there are exciting discoveries to be made - like American Wunderkind Andrew Bujalski, whose first two films (FUNNY HA...
