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May 2021

23RD FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS IN MADRID 2021


The FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS in Madrid will be returning to the cinemas of the Spanish capital for its 23rd edition from 9 - 13 June. Last year's festival could only take place online via FILMIN due to the pandemic, but the 2021 edition will now see the latest feature films, short films and documentaries of German cinema being shown again at the Cine Palacio de la Prensa in adherence with current hygiene regulations.

The edition will open with the powerful documentary THE CASE YOU by the director and actress Alison Kuhn. A work that denounces the sexual assaults suffered by six young actresses during a film audition. The three films NO HARD FEELINGS by Faraz Shariat, WALCHENSEE FOREVER by Janna Ji Wonders and PROGRESS IN THE VALLEY OF THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW by Florian Kunert will also be shown in the HEIMAT Focus in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut.

Festival-goers can also look forward to the preview of the family film DEAR MR. FÜHRER by Christian Lerch, which will be shown in cooperation with the Spanish distributor Pirámide Films Distribución.

The festival is being held in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut in Madrid, other partners are the German Embassy in MadridFILMIN as well as Almamedia+.

The list of films at the FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS in Madrid:

THE CASE YOU by Alison Kuhn (opening film)
COPILOT by Anne Zohra Berrached
CORTEX by Moritz Bleibtreu
FREAK CITY by Andreas Kannengießer
DEAR MR. FÜHRER by Christian Lerch (avant premiere with Pirámide Films)
CLOUDY CLOUDS by Christian Schäfer
NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2020 program
SEEPFERDCHEN by Nele Dehnenkamp (short film)
AVANT CARD by Stella Raith (short film)
PROGRESS IN THE VALLEY OF THE PEOPLE WHO DON'T KNOW by Florian Kunert (Heimat Focus)
NO HARD FEELINGS by Faraz Shariat (Heimat Focus)
WALCHENSEE FOREVER by Janna Ji Wonders (Heimat Focus)

Watch the festival trailer here: http://cine-aleman.com/trailer/

More information at: http://cine-aleman.com/

FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS IN ROME 2021


The historic building of the Casa del Cinema and the beautiful garden of the Villa Borghese will serve as the host and location for the event. Since 2004, this place has been used as a home for cinema and audiovisual media under the management of its first director Felice Laudadio on behalf of Roma Capitale. The festival will open on 26 June with FREE COUNTRY by Christian Alvart: the dark thriller follows two policemen (Trystan Pütter and Felix Kramer) who discover the truth about two girls' disappearance in a remote East German village in the 1990s.

The following films will be shown at the Casa del Cinema's open-air cinema and screening hall:

FREE COUNTRY by Christian Alvart
EXILE by Visar Morina
NO HARD FEELINGS by Faraz Shariat
WALCHENSEE FOREVER by Janna Ji Wonders
THE CASE YOU by Alison Kuhn
CURVEBALL, A TRUE STORY - UNFORTUNATELY by Johannes Naber
LEIF IN CONCERT – VOL. 2 by Christian Klandt

Admission will be free this year as a way of celebrating the first edition of the festival.

Watch the festival trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWbxEJLktG4

More information at: https://www.festivalcinematedesco.it/

GERMAN FILMS QUARTERLY – 2-2021 EDITION


In the second part of our series of articles on diversity, German film schools, agents and casting offices describe current challenges and best practices from their respective points of view. Readers will also find portraits of actor Lena Urzendowsky, directors Maria Speth and Jakob M. Erwa as well as producers Martina Haubrich and Viola Fügen. As always, a selection of the latest German films also find a place in the GFQ: a total of seven feature films, two documentaries, five short films and eleven projects currently in production are showcased.

You can find the current GFQ as a digital edition here: https://germanfilmsquarterly.de/index.html 

A PDF of the new issue is available for download here: https://www.german-films.de/fileadmin/mediapool/pdf/German_Films_Quarterly/GFQ_2_2021_web.pdf

 

ON OUR OWN ACCOUNT: SIMONE BAUMAN ON THE EFP BOARD OF DIRECTORS


Three of the members are newly appointed to the board: Eda Koppel, Head of Marketing Estonian Film Institute, Daniela Elstner, Executive Director UniFrance, and Simone Baumann, Managing Director German Films. Returning to the board are Markéta Šantrochová (Head of Czech Film Center, division of the Czech Film Fund) serving as President, Stine Oppegaard (Manager International Relations Feature Films, Norwegian Film Institute) as Vice President, both continuing in their office on the board, as well as Arben Zharku (Director of Kosovo Cinematography Center) and Briony Hanson, Director of Film, British Council. The Board is composed of seven members, with their term of office lasting for two years.

EFP (European Film Promotion) is an international network of film promotion institutes from 37 countries from throughout Europe, each representing their national films and talent abroad. Under the EFP flag, these organisations team up to jointly promote the diversity and spirit of European cinema and talent at key film festivals and markets, in particular outside of Europe. EFP is financially supported by the Creative Europe – MEDIA Program of the European Union and by its member organisations. 

More information at: https://www.efp-online.com/en/

NEW EPISODES - SHORT TAKE: THE GERMAN FILMS PODCAST


Arne Nolting and Jan Martin Scharf's credits include the script for the TNT mystery series THE VALLEY which received the Grimme Award. In addition, they were head writers on the gigantic German free TV hit THE RED BAND SOCIETY which won the German Television Award in the "Best Series" category for two years in a row in 2016 and 2017. They landed their last big coup with the action-packed historical series BARBARIANS for Netflix: the battle between the Teutons and Romans attracted a whopping 37 million viewers worldwide to their screens, thus breaking the ratings record for a non-English-language Netflix series. We can't wait to see where their journey will take them now - the new episodes of SHORT TAKE give us a foretaste.

This month sees us giving another tip from the SHORT TAKE archive: director Sarah Blaßkiewitz, a FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS talent for 2021, was nominated for the First Steps Award in the "Feature-Length Fiction Film" category with her film PRECIOUS IVIE and she has also made it to the shortlist for the German Film Awards! If you'd like to know more about the up-and-coming filmmaker, the best thing to do is to have a listen to our SHORT TAKE episode with Sarah.

Moreover, SHORT TAKE will be celebrating its first anniversary in June and, suffice it to say, a little surprise is in store for all the listeners...

You can find all the episodes on our website and wherever podcasts are available.

Follow SHORT TAKE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shorttake/

NEWS BITES


NEXT DOOR OPENED GERMAN FILM FESTIVAL IN AUSTRALIA
The German Film Festival in Australia got off to a brilliant start with Daniel Brühl's directorial debut NEXT DOOR. The rest of the program is also quite impressive, with the screenings including Maria Schrader's award-winning comedy I'M YOUR MAN. Both films have their international premieres during the festival. Local audiences still have a chance until 20 June to catch such films as FABIAN – GOING TO THE DOGSEXILE or BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ at the Palace Cinemas in seven different cities.

More information about the festival is available here: https://germanfilmfestival.com.au/films
 
HORIZONTE FESTIVAL IN JAPAN POSTPONED
The HORIZONTE Festival of German Films 2021 was scheduled for 20 - 23 May, but unfortunately had to be postponed due to the extension of the state of emergency in the Tokyo prefecture. The festival is now being planned for November 2021 at Eurolive in Shibuya. The festival is organised by the Goethe-Institut in Tokyo in cooperation with German Films.

More information here: https://www.goethe.de/ins/jp/de/kul/sup/h21.html

GERMAN FILMS PREVIEWS
This year's German Films Previews are being held in Munich from 23 - 25 June. European film buyers and distributors are invited to screen new German feature films and also use the event as a networking platform. More about the event in the upcoming June newsletter as well as here.

NEXT KINO! FILM SALON IN JUNE
The English-language online film club enters the next round: the meeting on Sunday 13 June will have a tie-in with the US theatrical release of UNDINE on 4 June and focus on Christian Petzold and his film TRANSIT which saw him collaborate with UNDINE lead actress Paula Beer for the first time.

Date and Time:  Sunday, June 13, 2021 at 11am – 12pm PDT, 14pm - 15pm EDT, 20pm - 21pm CET

Hosted by Sydney Levine

To receive the Zoom link, please RSVP to info@telescopefilm.com

KINO! Film Salon is a production of Telescope Film, in partnership with the German Film Office.

KINO! CHAT WITH LENA URZENDOWSKY
The 6th KINO! CHAT took place at the beginning of May: Kristin McCracken spoke with talented young actor Lena Urzendowsky (HOW TO SELL DRUGS ONLINE (FAST)COCOON), who can currently be seen in the Amazon Prime Original WE CHILDREN FROM BAHNHOF ZOO. In the series, Lena is thoroughly convincing with her brilliant performance as Christiane F.'s drug-addicted girlfriend Stella. In the interview, she talks about her role as Stella, climate change and her role models.

KINO! CHAT is a series of interviews with German filmmakers and talents, produced by KINO! Germany NOW!, the digital media brand of German Films in the US.

The complete interview with Lena Urzendowsky is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYQg0cbibRA

NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2020 AT THIS IS SHORT
Almost a year after their premiere, the short films of the NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2020 program will be available globally from 3 June as a "National Highlight" during the first edition of the THIS IS SHORT online short film festival (1 April - 30 June, 2021). The festival is being organised by the European Short Film Network, a joint initiative of the International Short Film Festival OberhausenGo Short NijmegenVienna Shorts and Short Waves Poznań. Those who prefer the big screen can also see the program in June at the Festival of German Films in Madrid and Rome.

More information about THIS IS SHORT:
https://thisisshort.filmchief.com/hub/viewing-details/169?back=european-visions

GERMAN ENTRIES ON GSA BAFTA SHORTLIST
20 international shorts were shortlisted for each of the Animation, Documentary and Live Action categories of the GSA BAFTA Student Awards 2021 drawn from 680 submissions made by students at film schools in 34 countries. They include seven short films produced at German film schools. The nominations will be announced on 9 June.

Animation
AVANT CARD by Stella Raith (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg)

Documentary
HAEBERLI by Moritz Müller-Preißer (HFF University of Television and Film Munich)
TOUCH ME by Hendrik Ströhle (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg)

Live Action
GOLDILOCKS by Philipp Straetker (HFF University of Television and Film Munich)
GOOD GERMAN WORK
 by Jannis Alexander Kiefer (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF)
A SMALL CUT by Marleen Valien (Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg)
TWONESS by Lara Torp (Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF)

More information is available here:
https://www.bafta.org/los-angeles/events-initiatives/news/shortlist-announced-for-2021-gsa-bafta-student-awards

GERMAN FILMS AT CROSSING EUROPE
The CROSSING EUROPE FILMFESTIVAL will be showing numerous German films and co-productions at in-person screenings in Linz cinemas this year. 123 new films from 40 different countries are to be presented by the festival under the banner of „Experience Europe!“ from 1 - 6 June. CROSSING EUROPE's opening night program will include Maria Schrader's award-winning comedy I'M YOUR MAN which premiered at this year's Berlinale and will now be shown in Austria for the first time. In total, more than 20 German films and co-productions are in the line-up, including such titles as EXILE by Visar Morina, COURAGE by Aliaksei Paluyan, BEHIND THE HEADLINES by Daniel Sager or STAMBUL GARDEN by Ilker Çatak.

GERMAN FILMS IN ANNECY LINE-UP
The programme of the 60th Annecy International Animation Film Festival (14 - 19 June), which will be held in a hybrid format in 2021, includes two German co-productions: SNOTTY BOY by Marcus H. Rosenmüller and Santiago López Jover will screen in the Official Competition, while CHICKEN OF THE MOUND by Xi Chen can be seen in the Contrechamp Competition. The unique hybrid project COPPELIA, a co-production between Germany, Belgium and The Netherlands, will be shown as a Screening Event on 18 June.

All German films in the Annecy competitions:
https://www.german-films.de/news/news-releases/german-animated-films-at-annecy-2021/index.html

PRIMETIME - NEW VISIBILITY PLATFORM FOR FEMALE FILMMAKERS
The start-up PRIMETIME offers a stage to women in the film business who mainly work behind the camera. Women filmmakers can promote themselves on the global job platform and, at the same time employers are given a practical tool to be able to assemble gender-balanced teams. PRIMETIME was one of the selected start-ups presented at this year's European Film Market at the Berlinale. Members from 55 countries are already registered on the platform, including BAFTA, Emmy and Oscar winners. Registration is free of charge.

More information is available at: https://primetime.network/
 
FACE TO FACE PROJECTS AT THE GERMAN FILM AWARDS & FIRST STEPS AWARDS
We are happy to announce that two projects by this year's FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS filmmakers have made it to the shortlist of the German Film Awards: director Sarah Blaßkiewitz's  PRECIOUS IVIE is in the Feature Film category, while SPACE DOGS, produced by Annekatrin Hendel's production company IT WORKS!, is in the running for the Documentary category. The nominations will be announced on 19 August.

PRECIOUS IVIE has also been nominated for the First Steps Award in the "Feature-Length Fiction Film" category. The First Steps Award is regarded as being the most prestigious award for the young generation of filmmakers coming from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The awards ceremony will be held in Berlin on 21 June.
AWARDS FOR GERMAN ANIMATED FILMS
The awards of the 28th Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film were announced on 9 May. Two German films were among the winners: Heidi Foss and Lienne Sawatsky received the German Animation Screenplay Award for BUTTERFLY TALE. The German-Syrian co-production HAVE A NICE DOG! by Jalal Maghout was presented with the Lotte Reininger Promotion Award for Animated Film and the Young Animation Award.

FESTIVALS


German films and co-productions at JeonjuViennaCascadiaRotterdam and Zagreb.

AWARDS


Awards for German films and co-productions at MoscowAtlanta and Jeonju.

INTERNATIONAL RELEASES IN JUNE


THE COLLINI CASE in Israel (Distributor: Red Cape Distribution, World Sales: Global Screen, Theatrical Release: 01 June 2021)
ONE OF THESE DAYS in Belarus (Distributor: ART Corporation, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: 03 June 2021)
ONE OF THESE DAYS in Russia (Distributor: Silver Box, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: 03 June 2021)
COCOON in Czech Republic (Distributor: Mezipatra, World Sales: m-appeal, Theatrical Release: 03 June 2021)
GRANNY NANNY in Poland (Distributor: Vivarto, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: 04 June 2021)
UNDINE in Turkey (Distributor: Yenir Bir Film, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: 04 June 2021)
HELLO AGAIN in Spain (Distributor: Alfa Pictures, World Sales: Beta Cinema, Theatrical Release: 04 June 2021)
WHO WE WERE in Switzerland (Distributor: Filmcoopi Zürich., World Sales: X Verleih, Theatrical Release: 10 June 2021)
ROCCA CHANGES THE WORLD in North Macedonia (Distributor: CutAway Dooel, World Sales: Radar, Theatrical Release: 10 June 2021)
MAYA THE BEE III – THE GOLDEN ORB in Finland (Distributor: Cinemanse, World Sales: Studio 100 Media, Theatrical Release: 11 June 2021)
COPILOT in France (Distributor: Haut et Court Distribution, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: 16 June 2021)
VEINS OF THE WORLD in France (Distributor: Les Films du Préau, World Sales: Global Screen, Theatrical Release: 16 June 2021)
WALCHENSEE FOREVER in Austria (Distributor: Polyfilm, World Sales: Deckert Distribution, Theatrical Release: 18 June 2021)
THE ELFKINS – BAKING A DIFFERENCE in Belgium + Luxembourg (Distributor: Santa Fé Productions, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: 23 June 2021)
THE OGGLIES – WELCOME TO SMELLIVILLE in Hungary (Distributor: ADS Service, World Sales: The Playmaker, Theatrical Release: 24 June 2021)
EVER AFTER in UK (Distributor: Exploitation Films, World Sales: Picture Tree International, Theatrical Release: 25 June 2021)
VEINS OF THE WORLD in Norway (Distributor: Storytelling Media, World Sales: Global Screen, Theatrical Release: 25 June 2021)
CURVEBALL in Austria (Distributor: Polyfilm, World Sales: The Playmaker, Theatrical Release: 25 June 2021)

Status: Newsletter publication date. Please be aware that all release dates are subject to change.



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