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If you watch Austrian writer-director Florian Pochlatko’s feature film debut How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World (Wie man normal ist und die Merkwürdigkeiten der anderen Welt) in the Perspectives program of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, you may catch yourself rubbing your eyes and wondering: Is Ed Sheeran really in this movie? And how the heck did they get him?

That’s no coincidence. Pochlatko’s film, among other things, reflects on such questions as what is real and what is normal.

The movie’s cast is led by Luisa-Céline Gaffron (And Tomorrow the Entire World) and also features Elke Winkens, Cornelius Obonya, and Felix Pöchhacker, among others. And yes, the British man protagonist Pia meets is called Ned and does look a lot like Ed Sheeran. But the actor’s name is Wesley Byrne, and he is a street cleaner who lives in the Greater Manchester area.

Paris-based sales company Alpha Violet has taken international sales on teen mental health drama “How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World,” a first feature by Austrian filmmaker Florian Pochlatko, ahead of its Berlin Film Festival bow.

The film, about a young woman’s search for sanity after leaving a psychiatric hospital, will premiere in the festival’s new Berlinale Perspectives section dedicated to first features.

In “How to Be Normal,” Pia – played by Austrian actor Luisa-Céline Gaffron (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) – moves back in with her parents after being discharged from a psychiatric hospital. “Juggling jobs, heartbreak, meds, and stigma, she stumbles into a world that feels as unsteady as she does,” says the provided synopsis.

Alpha Violet co-founder Virginie Devesa in a statement praised “How to Be Normal” as “an inventive and energetic movie,” noting that “Florian Pochlatko‘s vision of the world we live in is so playful.

A new Netflix film inspired by the true story of German Ngo Jugend Rettet and its ship, the Iuventa, which saved thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean before it was impounded by Italian authorities in 2016, is in production.

The film, currently untitled, chronicles the journey of a group of young Berliners who find themselves unable to stand by and watch as countless refugees lose their lives attempting to reach Europe by sea. They launch a crowdfunding campaign to buy an old ship and venture to sea to rescue migrants.

Netflix offered a first look on Wednesday of its lead Louis Hofmann (Dark, All the Light We Cannot See), following the start of production in Berlin. The movie is now being shot in Malta.

Alongside lead actor Louis Hofmann, the cast also includes Mala Emde, Katharina Stark, Frederick Lau, Maria Dragus, Trevor Magaya, Kathy Etoa, Felice, Saibon Wang, Joone Dankou, Merlin von Garnier,...

Rolling off Netflix’s Oscar-winning “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Emmy-winning “The Empress,” the streamer has set its next German production, an untitled feature inspired by the true story of the migrant rescue ship the Iuventa. Louis Hofmann, the German breakout actor of “All the Light We Cannot See,” headlines the movie.

Markus Goller, whose latest film “Die Ironie des Lebensand” was a box office hit in Germany and sold over 1.2 million tickets, is directing the Netflix movie.

The film just started shooting in Berlin and Malta, chronicles the journey of a group of young Berliners who were part of the German Ngo Jugend Rettet. “Unable to stand by and watch as countless refugees lose their lives attempting to reach Europe by sea, they take action. Inexperienced but driven by passion and courage, they launch a crowdfunding campaign to buy an old ship. Venturing into the Mediterranean, they...

Netflix has unveiled upcoming movie about real-life German Ngo Jugend Rettet and its ship, the Iuventa, which rescued thousands of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016 before it was impounded by Italian authorities.

In-demand actor Louis Hofmann – whose credits include Dark, Ripley, Masters of the Air, All The Light We Cannot See, and is soon to be seen in Monstrous Beauty opposite Bella Ramsay – leads the cast.

Netflix have unveiled a first image of the film which is currently shooting in Malta, after kicking off production in Berlin. The film follows in the wake of a number of successful German productions for Netflix including the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front and Emmy-winning series The Empress.

The movie tells the true story of the creation in 2015 of Jugend Rettet by a group of young Berliners who felt compelled to do something about the thousands of people who were dying...

The Berlin Film Festival officially kicked off Thursday evening with an eventful opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast theater in the German capital.

After a divisive build-up to the fest, the opening ceremony was, in contrast, a relatively conventional affair. High-profile attendees included veteran German filmmakers Wim Wenders and Fatih Akin, Phantom Thread actress Vicky Krieps, and international jury president Lupita Nyong’o alongside her fellow jury members Brady Corbet, Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca and Oksana Zabuzhko.

The evening’s opening film was Small Things Like These, starring Cillian Murphy, who was in attendance with producer Matt Damon and co-star Emily Watson. Directed by Tim Mielants (Peaky Blinders), Small Things Like These is the first Irish film to open the Berlinale.

Related: ‘Small Things Like These’ Review: Cillian Murphy Plays A Father In Torment In ’80s-Set Irish Trauma Tale

Before the pic opened, the crowd inside the...

After kicking off with a feisty press conference, the Berlin Film Festival got even more political as three groups of protesters descended on Potsdamer Platz before the start of opening night festivities.

The first saw around 50 members of the film industry walk the red carpet holding hands. The demonstrators then turned on their phone flashlights and chanted “defend democracy!” while the same phrase was displayed on the Palast’s big screen. The red carpet’s music was turned off for the occasion, and the demonstrators wore pins stating “movies unite, hate divides.” Berlinale organizers had planned this demonstration to highlight their decision to disinvite members of the far-right political party AfD.

Among the talent was Jonathan Berlin, Meret Becker, Luisa Gaffron, Pegah Ferydoni, Roshanak Khodabakhsh Anne Leppin, Jannis Niewöhner, Murali Perumal, Katja Riemann, Lavinia Wilson and Jessica Schwarz.

A group of demonstrators at Berlin Film Festival chant “defend democracy” ahead of tonight’s opening ceremony.

"You just make sure the murderers eat well." Cohen Media Group has revealed another official US trailer for the German WWII drama Persian Lessons, made by Ukrainian filmmaker Vadim Perelman. This first premiered back in 2020 just before the pandemic at the Berlin Film Festival, before getting lost in all the shutdowns. It played at various fests over the next few years, and opened in Germany in late 2020 already. The US release has finally been set - over three years later - for this June in select theaters. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by Nazis alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to the Head of Camp Koch. Through an ingenious trick, he manages to survive...

Alastair Mackenzie, Jessica Frances Dukes and Debi Mazar have been added as supporting players in Filip Jan Rymsza’s fourth feature — cameras are currently rolling on Object Permanence which is being toplined by Millie Brady. Variety reports that the production is currently taking place in Poland with stops in Thailand and Germany directly after. Vincent Riotta, Johanna Wokalek, Andrzej Chyra, Jim Caesar, Luisa-Celine Gaffron, Marianna Zydek, Weronika Rosati, Ola Rudnicka and Maddie Kulicka complete the full cast. Cinematographer Bartosz Świniarski (Christos Nikou’s Apples and Aga Woszczynska’s Silent Land) is on board. Rymsza recently saw his third feature Mosquito State get showcased at the Venice Film Festival and he also produced The Other Side of the Wind and Katharine O’Brien’s Lost Transmissions.…...

Scottish actor Alastair Mackenzie, recently spotted in “The Crown” and “Andor,” Jessica Frances Dukes and Debi Mazar have been added to the cast of Filip Jan Rymsza’s feature film “Object Permanence.”

They join previously announced star Millie Brady, who plays Brooke Brooks: a former supermodel who becomes a successful lifestyle mogul and is the first person to IPO herself.

Production is currently underway in Poland and will continue in Thailand and Germany. “Apples” DoP Bartosz Świniarski is lensing the film.

Set in the near future, “Object Permanence” is produced by Friends with Benefits Studio, with co-financing by the Polish Film Institute. Marta Lewandowska and Rymsza – the latter also behind “Mosquito State” – are producing, while CAA is handling North American sales.

“Filip’s script is an inspired study of the perils of celebrity and the conflictual relationships that exist within the system built up around it,” says Mackenzie, opening...

Germany has become the latest country to make its submission for the 2021 International Oscar race, choosing Julia von Heinz’s political drama And Tomorrow the Entire World.

The film premiered at Venice Film Festival in Competition. It stars Mala Emde, Noah Saavedra, Tonio Schneider, Luisa-Céline Gaffron, Andreas Lust.

When Germany is struck by a violent series of racist terror attacks, 20-year-old Luisa joins a subdivision of the Antifa to oppose the uprising neo-Nazi movement. With her reckless actions, she not only fights against the extreme right but also tries to impress Alfa, an Antifa activist she is secretly in love with. Soon, things escalate, and Luisa and her friends clash over the question if violence could ever be a legitimate political answer to fascism and hatred.

Producers are Fabian Gasmia and von Heinz for Seven Elephant and John Quester for Kings & Queens. Films Boutique handles sales.

Germany was last...

Chicago – The Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff) is competitive, and the 56th edition presented its awards on October 23rd, 2020, as a live virtual and online event on the Ciff YouTube page. The winner of the Gold Hugo as Best International Film was “Sweat” (France), directed by Magnus von Horn.

The 56th Chicago International Film Festival Celebrates Day Ten of the movie extravaganza, with films available for 2020 virtually and online. Click here for a complete how-to guide on navigating the 2020 Ciff. Go to Page Two for the schedule of October 23rd, 2020.

The awards were presented by the various jury members in each film category, and were hosted by Artistic Director Mimi Plauché, Managing Director Vivian Teng, as well as programmers Anthony Kaufman and Sam Flancher. The Festival’s highest honor is the Gold Hugo, named for the mythical God of Discovery.

International Feature Film Competition

‘Sweat’

Photo credit: Chicago International Film...

"You would die with that nameless horde?" "They're only nameless, because you don't know their names." Memento Films has released an official trailer for Persian Lessons (feat. English subtitles), a German-Russian WWII thriller from filmmaker Vadim Perelman (House of Sand and Fog). This premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart) is arrested by SS soldiers alongside other Jews and sent to a camp in Germany. He narrowly avoids execution by swearing to the guards that he is not Jewish, but Persian. This lie temporarily saves him, but Gilles gets assigned a life-or-death mission: to teach Farsi to Head of Camp Koch. Through an ingenious trick, he manages to survive by inventing words of "Farsi" every day and teaching them to Koch. A harrowing story of survival during the Holocaust. The cast features Lars Eidinger as Koch, Jonas Nay, David Schütter, Alexander Beyer, Andreas Hofer,...

“And Tomorrow the Entire World” is a taut, headlong dive into a student Antifa commune in Berlin, whose residents gradually splinter over how to fight a rising tide of white supremacy. It was, per its press notes, originally conceived as a period piece by director Julia von Heinz, before she concluded that there was no need to do so. That her film feels at once bristlingly current and easily tethered to other eras is its blunt power: It finds room for the perspective of both fervent Generation Z activists and their jaded elders, who may support the cause but are aggrieved that the fight hasn’t changed since their day, and fear it never will. Politically resonant but also solidly effective as straightforward youth-in-revolt drama, this Venice competition entry could make the international impression that von Heinz’s previous features have not.

Having never previously been in the official selection of a major festival,...

"Back then it was about the big picture. Not this small fry." An official festival promo trailer has debuted for a provocative German film titled And Tomorrow The Entire World, also known as Und Morgen die Ganze Welt. This will be premiering at the Venice Film Festival next week. The very timely film is about a German woman who joins the Antifa movement as a left-wing activist to fight Nazis. But she deals with the struggle of being non-violent, and starts to wonder "if violence could ever be a legitimate political answer to fascism and hatred." Starring Mala Emde, Noah Saavedra, Tonio Schneider, Luisa-Céline Gaffron, and Andreas Lust. "This is not only a story about the strong division running through Germany, but about the one running through our entire Western society." This is easily one of my most anticipated films that's premiering in Venice, and I'm very curious to see how the story plays out.

Julia von Heinz’s feature is the first made under her new Seven Elephants banner.

Berlin-based Films Boutique has taken world sales rights to Julia von Heinz’s hard-hitting “girl power” political drama And Tomorrow The Entire World, which will premiere in competition in Venice.

This is the first feature from German filmmaker von Heinz to be made through her new Berlin-based production company Seven Elephants, which she co-founded recently with fellow directors David Wnendt (Look Who’s Back) and Erik Schmitt (Cleo) and producer Fabian Gasmia (Personal Shopper).

Von Heinz co-wrote the script with John Quester. The Germany/France co-production’s cast includes Mala Emde,...

Selection includes TV series from UK, Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Israel and Denmark.

The Berlin International Film Festival (February 7 – 17) has unveiled the seven TV titles set to be screened in this year’s Berlinale Series programme.

Among the line-up is Amazon’s Hanna written by David Farr, who co-wrote the 2011 film of the same name. It is directed by Sarah Adina Smith, whose film credits include Buster Mal’s Heart, which starred Rami Malek. Hanna stars Esmé Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos. NBCUniversal International Studios is producing alongside Working Title Television.

Also in the selection is Netflix’s first Swedish original series Quicksand,...