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On Wednesday, world sales agency Beta Cinema hosts the market premiere of “John Cranko,” starring Sam Riley, at the American Film Market in Las Vegas. Variety speaks to the director Joachim A. Lang ahead of the screening and debuts the film’s international trailer (below).

The film, based on true events, follows in the footsteps of John Cranko as he arrives in Stuttgart in 1960 to be guest choreographer at the German city’s ballet company. A South African by birth, he had previously worked in London, but his tenure at the Sadler’s Wells Ballet had been jeopardized after he was prosecuted for committing a “homosexual act” in a public place, which at that time was outlawed in the U.K.

The film follows Cranko as he is made director of the Stuttgart ballet company and fights to revolutionize the art, culminating in a triumphant visit to New York, after which Time magazine commented,...

Die lokalen Blockbuster von 2025 werden jetzt schon gedreht: Studiocanal Germany hat das allererste Drehstartfoto von „Woodwalkers 2“ diesmal unter der Regie von Sven Unterwaldt veröffentlicht, der am 25. Oktober 2025 in die Kinos kommen wird.

First Look: „Woodwalkers 2“! Kinder vorn: Emile Cherif (Carag), Olivia Sinclair (Tikaani), Johan von Ehrlich (Brandon), Sophie Lelenta (Lou), Lilli Falk (Holly); Erwachsene hinten: Sven Unterwaldt (Regie), Martina Gedeck (Lissa Clearwater), Tom Schilling (Mr. Crump) (Credit: © blue eyes/Studiocanal/Marc Reimann)

Hat man auch nicht oft: Die Fortsetzung wird schon gedreht, obwohl der erste Film noch gar nicht im Kino ist. Im Fall von „Woodwalkers“ ist das so. Die erste Verfilmung der Bestsellerreihe von Katja Brandis kommt am 24. Oktober in die deutschen Kinos. Nun hat bereits der Dreh von Teil zwei begonnen, diesmal unter der Regie von Sven Unterwaldt Jr. und wieder produziert von blue eyes Fiction. Zum bereits bestehenden Cast mit Oliver Masucci, Martina Gedeck, Hannah Herzsprung und...

In der Kulturbrauerei in Berlin feierte gestern der jüngste Pixar-Film „Alles steht Kopf 2“ seine Deutschlandpremiere, den Disney am kommenden Donnerstag startet.

Bei der Deutschlandpremiere von „Alles steht Kopf 2“: die Younes Zarou, Dr. Leon Windscheid, Tahnee und Hans-Joachim Heist (v.l.n.r.) (Credit: Hanna Boussouar/Disney•Pixar2024)

Wenige Tage vor seinem Kinostart am kommenden Donnerstag feierte der jüngste Pixar-Film „Alles steht Kopf 2“ gestern Abend in der Berliner Kulturbrauerei seine Deutschlandpremiere.

Vor rund 700 Gäste konnte Moderatorin Aylin Kazi u.a. die deutschen Synchronstimmen Tahnee, Hans-Joachim Heist, Dr. Leon Windscheid und Younes Zarou begrüßen. Zu weiteren Gästen zählten Lars Eidinger, Michi Beck, Jasna Fritzi Bauer, Katharina Zorn, Lucas Gregorowicz, Anna Maria Mühe, Daniel Boschmann, Toni Dreher, Lisa Maria Potthoff, Simone Hanselmann, Paula Schramm, Marie Mouroum, Tupoka Ogette, Christian Schwochow, Zetphan Smith-Gneist, Katharina Stark, Katja von Garnier, Rebecca Wilson-Kamm, Paul Fischer, Henriette Richter-Röhl, Corinna Meins, Elias Raul und Esra,...

’The Forest Maker’ is the Palme d’Or winning director’s first ever feature doc

German sales agent Patra Spanou Film is to introduce veteran German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff’s first feature documentary, The Forest Maker, to international buyers at the Cannes market next week.

The completed documentary focuses on the Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo who has lived and worked in Africa for several decades. There he has discovered and put in practice a solution to the extreme deforestation and desertification of the Sahel region.

The Forest Maker was released by Weltkino in German cinemas on April 7. Schlöndorff has travelled...

Production has got underway in Germany and Poland on “Oderbruch,” a major thriller series produced by Paramount Global’s CBS Studios, Syrreal Entertainment and Ard Degeto, part of German public broadcast group Ard.

The previously announced drama stars Karoline Schuch (“Dark Woods”), Felix Kramer (“Dogs of Berlin”) and Lucas Gregorowicz and is a tale which begins with the discovery of multiple murder victims in a remote area near the German-Polish border.

The eight-part series is directed by Adolfo J. Kolmerer and Christian Alvart. Series creator and head writer Arend Remmers developed the series concept with Kolmerer.

Siegfried Kamml, Christian Alvart and Timm Oberwelland from Syrreal serve as producers. The executives overseeing the project are: Christoph Pellander, editor-in-chief of Ard Degeto; Sebastian Lückel, head of acquisitions and co-productions at Ard Degeto; Patrick Noel Simon, commissioning editor at Ard Degeto; and Meghan Lyvers, senior VP of international co-productions and development at CBS Studios.

The thriller will star Lucas Gregorowicz, Katharina Schüttler and Denis Moschitto. Martin Hawie and Laura Harwarth (screenwriter of Toro) are currently working on the gansgter drama Die Zukunft ist ein einsamer Ort [The future is a lonely place]. The film will center on Frank, a man who attacks a money transporter and willingly turns himself in, for no comprehensible reason. In prison, he meets Fuad, a convict protected by his clan. Aiming to get closer to him, Frank gets involved in the drug business and has to face both his Arab and his German inmates. He only becomes emotionally attached to Susanna, one of the guards. Yet Frank – who has in fact entered the prison seeking revenge against Fuad because he considers him responsible for the death of his wife and child in a car accident – doesn’t know that Susanna and Fuad are having a sexual...

What at first appears to be simple good-naturedness pervading Fatih Akin's "Soul Kitchen" starts to seem, as the film rolls on, like something crazier and more generous. The closest I can come to describing it is as a near-spiritual embrace of human failings, their inevitability and the fact that most of us still want to live together in great, messy communities anyway.

For instance: At one point, a character who's responsible for essentially ruining the life of our hero, genial Greek-German slacker Zinos Kazantsakis (Adam Bousdoukos), runs into Zinos' brother Illias (Moritz Bleibtreu, of "Run, Lola, Run") in jail, where Illias has been serving out a sentence for burglary. Instead of punching the guy, which seems, in context, not undeserved, Illias gives him a wink in greeting, and he responds by earnestly asking Illias to tell his brother hello. Illias says he will.

Such is life. And that sloppy,...

• #21. Soul Kitchen Director: Fatih AkinCast: Adam Bousdoukos, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birol Ünel, Anna Bederke, Lucas Gregorowicz, Udo KierDistributor: Rights Available. Buzz: After some dark, dark material, I'm looking forward in seeing how Akin handles the comedy format. Also playing in Venice, this should garner some interest from buyers. The Gist: This is the story of a young restaurant owner Zinos is down on his luck. His girlfriend Nadine has moved to Shanghai, his Soul Kitchen customers are boycotting the new gourmet chef, and he’s having back trouble. Things start looking up when the hip crowd embraces his revamped culinary concept, but that doesn’t mend Zinos’ broken heart. He decides to fly to China for Nadine, leaving the restaurant in the hands of his unreliable ex-con brother Illias. Tiff Schedule: Click here for screening times ...

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