| The German Films Previews (GFP) took place this year from July 5 to 8, 2023 in Potsdam supported by the film commission Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg. Since 2001 international distributors and world sales companies with German films in their line-up meet at the trade show hosted by German Films for three days each year in Germany to negotiate the sale of new German theatrical films. This year 70 distribution companies sent their buyers to watch 16 full-length films, which were shown in the Program section. The whole range of German filmmaking was covered: from thriller and drama to comedy, children's and animation films, a wide variety of genres were represented in the program. In the Upcoming Films from Germany section, the world sales companies, 13 of whom were represented at the GFP, presented 7 new titles in production or post-production in pitching sessions. | |
| The third edition of the Venice Production Bridge will present two focuses, a European one (Germany, supported by German Films) and an international one (Quebec, supported by Sodec). The focus will provide a comprehensive look at the state of the industry and filmmaking community through a series of dedicated panels, meetings and networking events, as well as thanks to the participation of a large delegation of professionals and decision-makers from Germany and Quebec. Together with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, MOIN!, Hessen Film & Medien, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Nordmedia, FFF Bayern and Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, German Films will host the "Meet the German Creators" VR panel as well as a panel on "German XR Gaming: Exploring the Potential and the Market of Narrative Games in XR". In addition, German Films will be joining forces with SODEC Quebec to host a roundtable discussion with director Edward Berger (ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT) and Canadian director Philippe Falardeau. The German Focus at the Venice Production Bridge will also showcase five German productions to be screened in various programmes. HEN (Pallas Film) by György Pálfi and RESHMA SHERA (NiKo Film) by Megha Ramaswamy can be seen in the Gap-Financing Market. The feature film HAPPY HOLIDAYS (Red Balloon) by Sacandar Copti will be screened in Final Cut. The Immersive Projects section will show LIVING WITH THE SNOW LEOPARDS (NowHere Media) by Gayatri Parameswaran and Felix Gaedtke as well as GENESIS - The LIFE EXPERIENCE (Faber Courtial) by Joerg Courtial. | |
| The 57th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival took place this year from June 30 to July 8, 2023. Nine German films and nine co-productions have been screened at this most renowned international film festival in Central and Eastern Europe. German Films together with the European Film Promotion invited to drinks and talks and gave many filmmakers the opportunity to exchange ideas in Karlovy Vary. The festival was also successful for the participating German films, EMPTY NETS, DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VULCANO and BLAGA'S LESSONS, three German productions and co-productions that were able to win awards in various categories. | |
| On July 19, 2023, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 63 semifinalists of this year’s 50th edition of the Student Academy Awards®, selected from more than 2,000 submissions. The Hamburg Media School produced both German semifinalists in the ”Narrative“ category, ISTINA (TRUTH) by Tamara Denić and THOSE WHO FOLLOW (MITLÄUFER) by Frederic Kau. The two semifinalists representing German film schools in the “Alternative/Experimental” category are the documentary HOMESICK LUNGS (HOAMWEH LUNG) by Felix Klee (University of Television and Film Munich HFF) and the animation JUICE (SAFT) by Mona Keil (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg). The finalists will be announced in August, and the winners in September. The awards ceremony will take place in Los Angeles in October. More info here. | |
| Great success for THE TASTER by Sophia Bierend (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF). The German production won in the category Live Action at the BAFTA Student Awards 2023. The award ceremony took place on July 27, 2023 in Los Angeles. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) annually honors international talents with the BAFTA Student Awards. In 2023, 754 films were submitted by 103 schools in 30 countries. On July 7, 2023, the 15 finalists in the 5 categories were announced (Animation, Documentary, Live Action, Games, Immersive), including three works produced at German film schools: Live Action
ISTINA (TRUTH) by Tamara Denić (Hamburg Media School)
THE TASTER by Sophia Bierend (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF) Immersive
A PASSAGE by Maximilian Villwock (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF)
BAFTA invited the directors for a week of networking activities, meetings and master classes to Los Angeles, culminating in the award ceremony on July 27, 2023. More info about the BAFTA Student Awards. | |
| Summer, in the popular imagination, is a sun-drenched, fun-filled time spent with friends and family travelling, exploring, and dreaming of the possibilities that life holds for us. It’s the days we might spend removed from the daily grind lazing at the beach, camping, or sweating in a too-hot city. Summer is also a time to enjoy cinema, whether it’s in an air-conditioned theater or in a beloved drive-in. The past decades have brought us summer films we all know and love: iconic blockbusters, tender coming-of-age tales, stories of new beginnings, and feel-good-movies to watch over and over again.
Christian Petzold’s AFIRE (2023), which is now in theaters, is a summer film with an existential vein. The filmmaker turned to the genre when he realized that summer films had virtually not existed in Germany since Weimar cinema. As he recently told The New York Times, “National Socialism […] destroyed everything: the German summers, the German youth, the German bodies, the poetry”. It is perhaps no coincidence that films like Fatih Akin’s IN JULY (2000) and Andreas Dresen’s SUMMER IN BERLIN (2005) only emerged in the new millennium.
The German Film Office’s online series Sommerfilme presents eight under-the-radar German summer films from the past decade. In these movies, the warm season is rarely the carefree time it is supposed to be. Some films depict summer evocatively as a moment of childish adventure (QUEEN OF NIENDORF), youthful discovery (COCOON), and longing for a different life (NEUBAU). In others, summer is when family tensions coalesce (BRIGHT NIGHTS, SUMMERS DOWNSTAIRS), tragedy and trauma unfold (THE GARDEN, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUPLE), and the personal becomes political (I WAS, I AM, I WILL BE).
Free streaming in the U.S. and Canada only for the duration of August 1 – 31, 2023! Presented by the German Film Office in collaboration with the Goethe-Instituts in North America. More info here. | |
| The focus of the next session for the English-language KINO! FILM SALON online film club on August 20th will be Stefan Krohmer’s SUMMER ‘04. The film received its world premiere at the Directors Fortnight of the Cannes International Film Festival in 2006.
In his review in The New York Times, Matt Zoller Seitz wrote, "Mr. Krohmer's film is distinguished by very long takes, ominous cutaways to undulating river reeds, near-somnambulist underplaying by a first-rate cast and nail-on-the-head dialogue about materialism, hypocrisy, morality and mortality." Our curator Jim Kolmar selected this movie: “Stefan Krohmer’s sultry, sunny melodrama trades in the kind of uneasy sensuality that would make Eric Rohmer blush. Martina Gedeck stars as the alluring Miriam, a middle-class libertine who finds her particular strain of urbane permissiveness challenged when her adolescent son brings his provocative young girlfriend into the family idyll. Unabashedly problematic, SUMMER '04 bristles with an oddball eroticism that feels especially uncomfortable in the context of a family dynamic. Krohmer’s film asks plenty of awkward questions, but has few qualms about leaving most of them unanswered.“ RSVP: https://bit.ly/kinofilmsalonsummer
Date and time: Sunday, August 20, 2023 at 11am - 12pm PT, 2pm - 3pm ET, 8pm - 9pm CET.
Hosted by Jim Kolmar
KINO! FILM SALON is a production of Telescope Film, in collaboration with the German Film Office. | |
| Episode 47 - August 17, 2023: In this episode you can learn more about trilingual actor Teo Yoo. He talked about the zen-like universality of the TV series YELLOWSTONE and 1883, liking the work of fellow Short Take interviewee, director Alison Kuhn and being intense and sincere. Teo Yoo will star in the movie PAST LIVES which hits the theatres this summer. You can find all of the episodes on our website and wherever podcasts are available. SHORT TAKE on Instagram! | |
| The Iranian director Ali Ahmadzadeh is not allowed to leave his home country by order of the state. His film CRITICAL ZONE, a German-Iranian co-production, was supposed to take part in the Locarno Film Festival next week in the main competition Concorso Internationale. Various American media outlets such as Screen daily, Variety and Deadline have reported that according to the film's producer, Sina Ataeian Dena, and distributor Luxbox Films Ahmadzadeh was pressured to withdraw the film from the festival. He is under investigation by the Security Ministry and will not be allowed to travel to Locarno. Both the producer and the world distributor of the film, Luxbox, and the German production company Counter Intuitive Film are fighting for Ahmadzadeh.
Likewise, Giona Nazzaro, Artistic Director at Locarno, has said: “The Locarno Film Festival has always stood by freedom of artistic expression and thought. A place where cinema art is celebrated in all its manifestations, with respect for individual beliefs. We call for the release of Ali Ahmadzadeh and the respect of his physical and mental integrity and dignity as human being and artist.” | |
| Focus on Ute Aurand at EXiS Seoul
The 20th edition of the Experimental Film and Video Festival Seoul EXiS (July 20 - 27, 2023) invited German experimental film artist Ute Aurand for this year’s Indi-Visual focus programs. The festival opened with her film HALF MOON FOR MARGARET (2004), two programs presented 5 of her own short and midlength films, for a third program she selected works by fellow female directors. Ute Aurand also served on the jury of the festival’s competition. More info on the festival’s website.
MunichFilmUp! International Mentoring Program
The initiative MunichFilmUp! sees the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF) supporting six debut feature projects on the basis of a treatment in cooperation with the Filmschoolfest Munich and the Filmfest München and as part of a partnership with the Pop Up Film Residency. Filmmakers will receive comprehensive mentoring between November 2023 and June 2024. This includes an individual three-week residency, support with the first draft of the film's script, and intensive networking activities within the industry and at festivals. The program is free of charge for the six finalists and also includes travel and accommodation. International film school students and young alumni (up to three years after graduation) can apply up until September 1, 2023. Further information is available here.
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| Awards for German productions and co-productions in Karlovy Vary, Vila Do Conde and Skopje. | |
| International releases of German films in August 2023 supported by the German Films Distribution Support program: AFIRE in UK and Ireland (Distributor: Curzon Film World, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: August 25, 2023) OVER & OUT in Lithuania (Distributor: Unlimited Media, World Sales:The Playmaker Munich, Theatrical Release: August 18, 2023) RHEINGOLDin Brazil (Distributor: Imovision, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: August 17, 2023) RICHARD THE STORK AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT JEWEL in Hungary (Distributor: ADS SERVICE, World Sales: Indie Sales Company, Theatrical Release: August 17, 2023) THE AMAZING MAURICE in Greece (Distributor: Rosebud.21, World Sales: Global Screen, Theatrical Release: August 3, 2023) THE AMAZING MAURICE in Taiwan (Distributor: Swallow Wings Films, World Sales: Global Screen, Theatrical Release: August 11, 2023) THE DIVE in Southkorea (Distributor: DOKI Entertainment, World Sales: Protagonist Pictures, Theatrical Release: August 30, 2023) THE FOX in Israel (Distributor: Lev Cinemas, World Sales: BETA Cinemas, Theatrical Release: August 3, 2023) THE MAGIC FLUTE in Slovakia (Distributor: Continental film, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: August 31, 2023) THE MUCKLAS ... AND HOW THEY CAME TO PETTERSSON AND FINDUS in Turkey (Distributor: Yeni Bir Film, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: August 11, 2023) THE MUCKLAS ... AND HOW THEY CAME TO PETTERSSON AND FINDUS in Romania (Distributor: Contactory Studio /CAY Films, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: August 25, 2023) THE PATH in Denmark (Distributor: Filmbazar, World Sales: Global Screen, Theatrical Release: August 24, 2023) WILD HEART – RIDE TO FREEDOM in Austria (Distributor: Filmladen Filmverleih, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: August 24, 2023)
Please note: Correct at time of going to press. Changes may occur at any time.
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