| In a new tradition, the French-German Film Meeting 2023 took place on October 10 & 11, 2023 this year at the same time as the 28th German Film Festival in Paris. About 200 producers and promoters from France and Germany met this year in the premises of the Goethe-Institut in the center of Paris.
Current and important topics of the film industry such as diversity of stories and voices, producing with platforms or the challenges of the application of artificial intelligence for the film industry were on the agenda during two days. Find an insight into the official program here.
"In a world of increasing right-wing movements, war and destruction, the film industry is also facing great economic challenges. In this context, it is very important that two of the largest European countries, Germany and France, stand together and defend European values. The film meeting is also dedicated to this cause," stated Simone Baumann, Managing Director of German Films, at the film meeting in Paris.
The participants celebrated the end of the film meeting at the opening of the Festival du Cinéma Allemand at the cinema L'Arlequin in Montparnasse.
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| From October 11 to 15, 2023 Cinéma L'Arlequin in Paris opened its doors for the 28th Festival du Cinéma Allemand.
THE TEACHERS‘ LOUNGE was the opening film. Together with the French distributor Tandem lead actor Leonie Benesch presented this years' German entry for the Oscars® in front of more than 400 moviegoers at the Cinéma L'Arlequin in Montparnasse.
The festival continued with a very special focus, hosting Bettina Böhler in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Paris and the DFJW. The filmmaker and editor presented the films SCHLINGENSIEF, TRANSIT and WESTERN and held a masterclass for students.
The young director Lukas Nathrath presented his film ONE LAST EVENING to the Parisian audience and press and held two wonderful and lively Q&As, winning the audience award at the end of the festival.
The diverse program brought more guests to Paris, among them short film director Lisa Hürtgen (SWIMMING LESSON), who presented her film in Paris as part of the NGST short film program. Another interesting performance was delivered by SUN AND CONCRETE in the presence of producer Fabian Gasmia.
Finally the film ANSELM by Wim Wenders was shown to the Parisian audience in 3D as a preview (in cooperation with Les Films du Losange) in France.
The Festival of German Film in Paris was organized in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Paris and with the support of Arte and the DFJW.
List of screened films:
THE TEACHER'S ROOM by İlker Çatak (Tandem)
ANSELM by Wim Wenders (Les Films du Losange)
ELAHA by Milena Aboyan (Wayna Pitch)
IN THE DEAD ANGLE by Ayşe Polat
LAST EVENING by Lukas Nathrath
SUN AND CONCRETE by David Wnendt
SHE CHEF by Melanie Liebheit, Gereon Wetzel
WHEN WILL IT FINALLY BE AS IT WAS again by Sonja Heiss
SCHLINGENSIEF by Bettina Böhler
TRANSIT by Christian Petzold
WESTERN by Valeska Grisebach
Next Generation Short Tiger 2023 (various directors) | |
| At this year’s MIPCOM market from October 16 to 19, 2023, German Films, like in previous years, hosted the GERMAN PAVILION at the Festival Palais in Cannes again. The umbrella booth exists since 2006, and this year presented the German world sales companies Albatross World Sales, Euroarts, German Documentaries, Media Luna New Films, Sola Media, The Playmaker Munich, as well as Spiegel TV and some more German TV companies as meeting point partners. MIPCOM has recovered well, and the business on the croisette has found back to its pre-pandemic strength. With more than 11,000 TV executives from over 100 countries attending, it was a successful and healthy market for all German sales company participants. | |
| This year, German Films was present at the MIA Market for the third time. The international platform for the audiovisual industry took place from October 9 to 13, 2023 in Rome and gathered over 2,600 industry participants from 66 countries. The impressive historic Palazzo Barberini and the newly renovated Cinema Barberini were the setting for the event. The MIA Market once again lived up to its special crossover character: presented were over 80 events and panels, 5 content showcases, 4 pitching forums, more than 60 market screenings and film presentations, over 120 selected projects, a new ultra-tech hall, 5 immersive experiences , 2 live podcasts, and last but not least awards in 9 categories.
The Umbrella booth, organized by German Films, featured German world distributors Arthood Entertainment and Picture Tree International. The German Films industry brunch was well attended and provided the perfect setting for effective networking of the three target groups: international distributors, German world sales and producers.
More information about the MIA Market is available here. | |
| Actor Lena Urzendowsky, one of this year’s young talents of our FACE TO FACE WITH GERMAN FILMS campaign, toured various cities in the US this October to present her current film FRANKY FIVE STAR to the American audience. Her trip, funded by German Films and various Goethe-Institutes, started in Los Angeles, where she attended the 17th German Currents Film Festival, that made FRANKY FIVE STAR its opening film, and also screened other German current productions like SUN AND CONCRETE, THE ORDINARIES, or ORPHEA IN LOVE. Lena then travelled all across the country, on to a delightful evening in New York, where the German Film Office presented Birgit Möller’s award-winning film starring Lena alias Franky at the Goethe-Institut New York, after which the audience enjoyed a conversation between her and Maddie Whittle, Assistant Programmer at Film at Lincoln Center. Lena's third stop was finally in Boston, for one last screening of FRANKY FIVE STAR and a Q&A, followed by a lovely encounter with the audience. | |
| The Tokyo International Film Festival, one of the largest film festivals in Asia, was held this year from October 23 to November 1, 2023. At the 36th edition of Japan's only film festival, German filmmaker Wim Wenders has presided over the jury.
In addition, the two German productions GONDOLA (Veit Helmer Filmproduktion) by Veit Helmer and the novel adaptation BLIND AT HEART (Lucky Bird Pictures) by Barbara Albert celebrated their world premiere in the Competition section.
In total, six German productions and co-productions took part in the Tokyo Film Festival. | |
| The 39th Warsaw Film Festival (WFF) screened a total of eight majority German productions in the various competitions from October 6 to 15, 2023, most of them were presented to the audiences by the directors and other team members: For the international premiere of BLACK BOX in the International Competition, director Aslı Özge was joined by actors Christian Berkel, Timur Magomedgadzhiev and Felix Kramer as well as DoP Emre Erkmen and producer Daniel Mann. Hanna Slak celebrated the European premiere of NOT A WORD in the International Competition and was honored with the Ecumenical Jury Award. In the Competition 1-2, director Janin Halisch showed her debut feature TALK TO ME. At the world premiere in the Free Spirit Competition, the team of the German-Kenyan co-production BUFIS-DAYDREAMER included the German producer Titus Kreyenberg, co-director and co-producer Vincenco Cavallo, actor Ahmed Abdirizak Maalim, DoP Joan Poggio and sales agent Philipp Hoffmann. The short documentaries THE SOIL OF NAMIB – DREAMS by Christian Zipfel and TRINKHALLE by Alexa Ramthun were selected for the Short Films Competition and presented by the directors as well. The festival continued the long tradition to present German Films’ annual talent showcase Next Generation Short Tiger,director Oliver Adam Kusio (FREE NIGHTS) was also in Warsaw as a member of the Short Film Jury. A full list of the German co-productions at the festival is available here. | |
| From October 5 to 10, 2023, the 12th Sehenswert Film Festival took place in Budapest. With the support of German Films, the Swiss Embassy, the Austrian Cultural Forum and the Goethe-Institut Hungary organized the event. The film festival was opened by Christian Petzold's AFIRE. Actor Langston Uibel presented the film personally on location and answered the audience's questions in a Q&A afterwards.
The lunch with Hungarian distributors organized by German Films was well attended and gave the opportunity for exchange.
More information and the whole program can be found here. | |
| The 14th edition of the Czech-German Short Film Tour FEINKOŠT kicked off with a premiere screening at Prague’s Přítomnost Cinema on October 6, 2023. This year’s focus is on short documentaries that present a broad range of styles and perspectives. Three Czech and three German productions were selected for the program that will be screened until December 2023 in several German and Czech cities: ARALKUM by Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko (DE/UZ), CHEMKIDS by Julius Gintaras Blum (DE), THE CROSSING by Tereza Plavecká (CZ), EVERYTHING’S FINE, POTATOES IN LINE by Piotr Jasiński (PL/CZ), SERPENTIS by Sarah Lomenová (CZ) and URBAN JUNGLE – THE HOUSEPLANTS TAKE UP SPACE! by Celia Regina Ibáñez Lamuño (DE). For the first time, the program can also be booked for screenings in the framework of the German Short Film Day from 15 to 22 December. FEINKOŠT is organized by the AG Kurzfilm and KineDok / Institute of Documentary Film Prague with support by German Films and other institutions. Further details are available here. | |
| With the final update for 2023, 30 new shorts were added to the Online Short Film Catalogue. The members of the AG Kurzfilm – German Short Film Association and a jury selected a broad spectrum of short films - fiction films, animated films, experimental films and documentaries as well as various hybrid forms. The update includes films that premiered since April at festivals such as Nyon, Oberhausen, Cannes, Annecy and Locarno. Everyone interested can search for German short films in the online catalogue using a wide range of functions, keywords, themes, categories, etc. International film professionals can also screen the films online after registering. Short documentaries and animations from the update were registered as well for DOK Leipzig’s Market Library. The 2023 catalogue selection is now complete with a total of 87 short films added this year. More than 1,000 short films produced since 2004 are now available for viewing. The selection process is currently underway for the films of the next update which will go online in February 2024 in time of the festivals Clermont-Ferrand and Berlin. | |
| Submissions are open for the 2024 edition of the talent showcase NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER and the FFA SHORT TIGER AWARD. German films schools can submit student productions up to 15 minutes to German Films. German short films up to 7 minutes directed by non-student filmmakers can be submitted for the SHORT TIGER AWARD to the AG Kurzfilm. Non-student productions up to 15 minutes can also be submitted to the AG Kurzfilm for NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER, if the filmmaker is based in Germany, and either not older than 40 years or it’s the first film after graduation, and if the film was selected for the AG Kurzfilm’s online catalogue GERMAN SHORT FILMS 2023. Click here to download the detailed regulations and the submission form, the deadline is November 30, 2023. A jury will decide on the selection until February, the program and the winners of the Short Tiger Awards will be presented at the Filmfest Dresden and the Marché du Film in Cannes 2024. | |
| The focus of the next session for the English-language KINO! FILM SALON online film club on November 19, 2023 will be Michael Schorr‘s musical tragicomedy SCHULTZE GETS THE BLUES. The film received several international prizes: San Marco Special Jury Award at the Venice Film Festival (2003), Best Directorial Debut at the Stockholm International Film Festival (2003), Best Feature Film, Best Director & Best Art Direction at Gijón Film Festival (2003), European Film Awards: nomination for European Discovery of the Year in 2003, and the German Film Award 2004 for Production Design. Our curator Jim Kolmar selected this movie: “Michael Schorr’s 2004 film is a folksy, eccentric delight. Horst Krause plays Schultze, an earnest mineworker of simple pleasures who suddenly finds his uneventful life flipped upside down. So, with his trusty accordion by his side, he embarks on an oddball road trip from rural Germany to small-town Texas for a Polka festival. With warmth and gentle humor, Schorr concocts a surprisingly universal tale of art, community, and the ineffable desire to belong. There’s more than a touch of Aki Kaurismaki to the way this lovely film evolves into something that’s as much a celebration of life as it is an ode to the very American desire to follow one’s dreams, however modest they might seem.“ RSVP: https://bit.ly/kinofilmsalonschultzegetstheblues Date and time: Sunday, November 19 at 11:30am – 12:30pm PT, 2:30pm – 3:30pm ET, 8:30pm – 9:30pm CET.
Hosted by Jim Kolmar KINO! FILM SALON is a production of Telescope Film, in collaboration with the German Film Office. | |
| Episode 51 - November 9, 2023:
Welket Bungué burst onto the scene with a brilliant, passionate performance in BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ. The actor (and writer and director) reveals his favorite movie (TRUE LIES), favorite dish (Mancara), why he would like to be a Yogi and more interesting facts about what inspires him. Episode 52 - November 30, 2023:
We talked to writer and director Timm Kroeger about his love for sleeping – or rather dreaming. His guilty pleasure: Steven Spielberg’s HOOK. And why cramming everything into one life is not the answer. You can find all of the episodes on our website and wherever podcasts are available. SHORT TAKE on Instagram! | |
| Episode 5 - November 7, 2023:
There are some people who have stories to tell, and then there are people who have STORIES to tell. Tommy Krappweis is the latter. The multi-hyphenate – writer, comedian, musician and all around-creative talent talked to us about his series KOHLRABENSCHWARZ, which was initially an audio play, then became a book series and finally a TV series. As you can imagine we had lots to talk about in regards to genre-mix and folk tales. Episode 6 - November 21, 2023:
For our last episode of season 3 we talked to the wonderful Hannah Schiller. About her series DIE NETTESTEN MENSCHEN DER WELT, her talent for drawing and her fascination with stories that are situated in the horror realm and how they captivate, touch and move us. What a great end to our third season – Enjoy! You can find all of the episodes on our website and wherever podcasts are available. DEEP DIVE GENRE on Instagram! | |
| German Films Umbrella Booth at the American Film Market (October 31 - November 5, 2023)
German sales companies will once again be present at the last major film market of the year. The American Film Market will take place as a face-to-face event in Santa Monica, and eight German world sales companies are on board in the hotel suites on the 4th floor at the Le Méridien Delfina Hotel, welcoming international buyers and distributors from around the world. Please make sure to stop by at Atlas International Film (#417), Beta Cinema (#423), Global Screen (#419), Kinostar (#417), Media Luna new films (#421), Picture Tree International (#409), Sola Media (#411) and The Playmaker Munich (#415) Torino Film Lab: Calls for applications
Take your project and bring it to the next level with ScriptLab. The scriptwriting flagship programme of the Lab brings together once again international writer/directors (or teams) with afilm project at an early development stage & story editor trainees wishing to work on their skills in the field. Deadline is November 6, 2023.
FeatureLab 2024 is open to creative teams of international director and producer (together with a scriptwriter, if on board) developing their 1st or 2nd feature film projects at an advanced stage of development. Join this intense six-month programme, participate in the TFL Meeting Event 2024 and, perhaps, bring home an award! Deadline is December 11, 2023.
SCHLAMASSEL by Sylke Enders in São Paulo
This year, the German film SCHLAMASSEL by Sykle Enders will screen at the 47th Mostra, the São Paulo International Film Festival, on October 20th, 24th, and 31st. ISTINA awarded in ceremony in Los Angeles
For the 50th time, the Student Academy Awards®, also called the "Student Oscars", were presented this year in Beverly Hills. Two graduation films from Hamburg Media School were among the candidates, and one made it: The drama ISTINA by director Tamara Denić won in the "Narrative" category and received the bronze trophy on October 24 in Los Angeles. | |
| German productions and co-productions at Reykjavik, Tokyo, Cambridge, Montclair, Limassol, Uppsala, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Philadelphia, Middleburg, Mill Valley, Vancouver, Denver, Cork, Leeds, Winterthur, New York City, New Fest, Bilbao, Alcala de Henares and Tallinn. | |
| Awards for German productions and co-productions in San Sebastian, Zurich, the Hamptons, Warsaw and Orcas Island. | |
| International releases of German films in November 2023 supported by the German Films Distribution Support program: ANSELM in Belgium/Luxembourg (Distributor: Cherry Pickers, World Sales: HanWay Films, Theatrical Release: November 1, 2023) WEEKEND REBELS in Slovakia (Distributor: Magic Box Slovakia, World Sales: Picture Tree International, Theatrical Release: November 2, 2023) WEEKEND REBELS in Czech Republic (Distributor: AQS, World Sales: Picture Tree International, Theatrical Release: November 2, 2023) RICHARD THE STORK AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT JEWEL in Turkey (Distributor: Filmarti Film, World Sales: Indie Sales Company, Theatrical Release: November 3, 023) MISSION: SCHOOL OF FUN in Latvia (Distributor: Unlimited Media, World Sales: The Playmaker Munich, Theatrical Release: November 3, 2023) THE DIVE in Southkorea (Distributor: DOKI Entertainment, World Sales: Protagonist Pictures via Atrium Productions, Theatrical Release: November 8, 2023) THE TEACHERS‘ LOUNGE in Denmark (Distributor: Filmporten ApS (Andersen Film ApS), World Sales: Be For Films via NonStop Entertainment, Theatrical Release: November 9, 2023) THABO – THE RHINO ADVENTURE in Switzerland (Distributor: Filmcoopi Zürich, World Sales: Wild Bunch Germany, Theatrical Release: November 9, 2023) RICHARD THE STORK AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT JEWEL in Peru (Distributor: BF Peru, World Sales: Indie Sales Company, Theatrical Release: November 9, 2023) IN THE BLIND SPOT in Argentina (Distributor: Mirada Distribution, World Sales: ArtHood Entertainment, Theatrical Release: November 9, 2023) MISSION: SCHOOL OF FUN in Estonia (Distributor: Unlimited Media, World Sales: The Playmaker Munich, Theatrical Release: November 10, 2023) SEASIDE SPECIAL in UK/Ireland (Distributor: Tull Stories, Sales: Egoli Tossell, Theatrical Release: November 10, 2023) MUSIC in Brazil (Distributor: Zeta Films, World Sales: Shellac, Theatrical Release: November 16, 2023) THE MUCKLES – THE QUEST FOR A NEW HOME in Poland (Distributor: Vivarto, World Sales: Sola Media, Theatrical Release: November 17, 2023) SENECA in Spain (Distributor: Sinestesia Producciones/Puntal Films, World Sales: Picture Tree International, Theatrical Release: November 19, 2023) RICHARD THE STORK AND THE MYSTERY OF THE GREAT JEWEL in Argentina (Distributor: BF Paris, World Sales: Indie Sales Company, Theatrical Release: November 23, 2023) AFIRE in Austria (Distributor: Stadtkino Filmverleih, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: November 24, 2023) AFIRE in Italy (Distributor: Just Wanted, World Sales: The Match Factory, Theatrical Release: November 30, 2023)
Please note: Correct at time of going to press. Changes may occur at any time.
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