News

Cannes competition title Loveless wins best international film.

Films by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pedro Pinho and Tom Lass were among the winners at the 35th Filmfest München which came to a close on Saturday evening with a gala awards ceremony before the German premiere of Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with actor Bill Nighy and producer Stephen Woolley in attendance.

The €50,000 Arri/Osram award for the best international film in the CineMasters sidebar went to Zvyagintsev’s Cannes competition film Loveless which opened in Russian cinemas through Wdssr on June 1 and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch.

Producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Serguey Melkumov accepted the award in Munich from the hands of the international jury comprising German director Valeska Grisebach (whose latest feature Western premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in May), producer Markus Zimmer, and actress Nastassja Kinski.

This is the second time Zvyagintsev received the Munich award after his previous feature Leviathan had won...

Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek in Maren Ade's Oscar nominated Toni Erdmann

This morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Germany's submission for the 89th Academy Awards, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, starring Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek, is one of the five Oscar Best Foreign Language Film nominees.

Martin Zandvliet's Land Of Mine, from Denmark; Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman, from Iran; Bentley Dean and Martin Butler's Tanna, from Australia; and from Sweden, Hannes Holm's A Man Called Ove round out the field. Isabelle Huppert, for Paul Verhoeven's Elle (France's submission), received a Best Lead Actress nomination. Switzerland's My Life As A Courgette, directed by Claude Barras, received a Best Animated Feature nomination.

Sandra Hüller on Ines Conradi: "She should be a boss."

Filming Toni Erdmann in Romania, connecting Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld to King Kong, and what it means...

Sandra Hüller with Toni Erdmann director/writer Maren Ade Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Maren Ade has teamed up again with costume designer Gitti Fuchs and editor Heike Parplies of her The Forest For The Trees (Der Wald Vor Lauter Bäumen) and Everyone Else (Alle Anderen) to bring us Germany's Oscar submission Toni Erdmann, starring Sandra Hüller and Peter Simonischek.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Andy Kaufman's Tony Clifton, meerkats (not from Ang Lee's Life Of Pi), Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, vintage Yves Saint Laurent, and corporate madness came up in my conversation with Maren Ade and Sandra Hüller.

Kent Jones with Maren Ade, Peter Simonischek and Sandra Hüller Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

With a supporting cast including Viktorija Malektorovych, Hadewych Minis, Lucy Russell, Michael Wittenborn, Ingrid Bisu, Thomas Loibl, and Trystan Pütter, Ade gives her characters a chance to rediscover themselves in song and skin-deep encounters of the third or fourth or fifth kind.

Labyrinth Of Lies director Giulio Ricciarelli with Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: Aimee Morris

I met up with the director of Germany's Oscar submission, Labyrinth Of Lies (Im Labyrinth Des Schweigens), Giulio Ricciarelli, at the Loews Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, where I previously engaged Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth on working with Nick Cave, plus Juliano Ribeiro Salgado and Wim Wenders on The Salt Of The Earth earlier this year. Chet Baker's music was playing in the lobby, reminding me of Bruce Weber's Let's Get Lost, upon entering the labyrinth to discuss Ricciarelli's impressive debut feature. It stars Alexander Fehling of Inglourious Basterds fame, with Johannes Krisch (Finsterworld, Revanche), André Szymanski, Friederike Becht, Johann von Bülow and Mathis Reinhardt, and is dedicated to the late great stage actor, Gert Voss, who is spectacular as the unsung real-life hero State Attorney General Fritz Bauer.

Alexander Fehling as Johann Radmann

Claude Lanzmann...

Novelist/screenwriter, Christian Kracht, gives a Paddington hard stare before his conversation on Imperium: A Fiction of the South Seas with Daniel Bowles and Anne-Katrin Titze Photo: David Netto

Douglas Sirk's penultimate film before emigrating from Germany to Hollywood, La Habanera (1937), with Zarah Leander and Ferdinand Marian battling "Puerto Rico fever", fits right in with the mood of Imperium, throwing geography and time frames to the wind. Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) is attached with Tom Schilling (as South Sea savior of a sort, August Engelhardt) to the filming of Christian Kracht's German best-seller.

In 2013, at the Montréal World Film Festival, Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, co-written by Christian Kracht, had its international premiere. The first-rate ensemble cast includes Ronald Zehrfeld and Michael Maertens (both starring in Christian Petzold's latest, Phoenix), Margit Carstensen (of Rainer Werner Fassbinder fame), Sandra Hüller,...

Imperium author Christian Kracht, Finsterworld director Frauke Finsterwalder with Anne-Katrin Titze

Into my conversations with Uschi Reich, producer of Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters at the New York Film Festival, The Sleepwalker's Mona Fastvold and Brady Corbet, director of the upcoming The Childhood Of A Leader, starring Bérénice Bejo, Liam Cunningham, Stacy Martin, Sophie Curtis and Robert Pattinson (who stars with Dane DeHaan and Ben Kingsley in Anton Corbijn's Life), Christian Kracht's novel, Imperium, sailed in.

While reading his South Sea adventure from the age of empire, I envisioned it as a film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the third link to The Master and the Thomas Pynchon adaptation, Inherent Vice.

Christian Kracht's Imperium: A Fiction Of The South Seas (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Jan Ole Gerster, the director of A Coffee In Berlin (Oh Boy!) and its star Tom Schilling (from Philipp Kadelbach's Generation...

The European Film Academy’s (Efa) chairwoman Agnieszka Holland has spoken of a ¨crisis of content¨ in European cinema and called on the continent’s broadcasters to invest more in ambitious TV series.

Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, the Polish director and Efa chair said: ¨The real crisis of European cinema is one of content.

¨We always have some good movies, but not enough. We have to make better ones, ones that are not just artistic and self-involved, but are searching for an audience.

¨Something which doesn’t help is the weakness of European television in terms of the production of ambitious TV series. We don’t have European stars, but nowadays they can be made by European television and that can be later reflected in the cinema.

“If you have this element [from television], it is then much easier to promote the films in the cinemas.¨

Holland also touched on the issue of EU audiovisual policy ahead of the...

Beloved Sisters producer Uschi Reich on Dominik Graf at the New York Film Festival: "It was very important for Dominik to work with the language." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Dominik Graf's Beloved Sisters (Die Geliebten Schwestern) starring Florian Stetter, Henriette Confurius and Hannah Herzsprung alongside Claudia Messner, Ronald Zehrfeld, Michael Wittenborn, Maja Maranow and Andreas Pietschmann, sharply re-invents the costume drama with an historical fiction centered around the ménage-à-trois love story between writer Friedrich Schiller (Stetter) and the sisters Caroline (Herzsprung) and Charlotte (Confurius) von Lengefeld.

I met up with producer Uschi Reich during the New York Film Festival to discuss her role in bringing the story to the screen. We also discussed Dominik Graf's voice and music, his relationship to Christian Kracht's novel Imperium and Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld film, Caroline Link, the connection between Veit Heiduschka to Michael Haneke and Helge Sasse with Anton Corbijn's...

A total of 15 films have been submitted for consideration.

German producers have submitted 15 films for consideration to German Films as the country’s entry for the 87th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

An independent expert jury will decide on Aug 27 which film is to be sent into the race for Germany.

The following titles were submitted:

Home From Home – Chronicle Of A Vision

Edgar Reitz (De/Fr, Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion)

Beloved Sisters

Dominik Graf (Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion)

Finsterworld

Frauke Finsterwalder (Walker + Worm Film)

Hanna’s Journey

Julia von Heinz (De/Il, 2 Pilots Filmproduction)

Im Weissen Rössl – Wehe Du Singst

Christian Theede (Ziegler Film)

Stations Of The Cross

Dietrich Brüggemann (Ufa Fiction)

Run Boy Run

Pepe Danquart (De/Fr, bittersuess pictures, A Company Filmproduktion, B.A. Produktion, Quinte Film)

The Last Mentsch

Pierre-Henri Salfati (Elsani Film)

Stereo

Maximilian Erlenwein (Frisbeefilms, Kaissar Film, Wild Bunch Germany)

West

Christian Schwochow (zero one film, Terz...

A total of 15 films have been submitted for consideration.

German producers have submitted 15 films for consideration to German Films as the country’s entry for the 87th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

An independent expert jury will decide on Aug 27 which film is to be sent into the race for Germany.

The following titles were submitted:

Home From Home – Chronicle Of A Vision

Edgar Reitz (De/Fr, Erf Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion)

Beloved Sisters

Dominik Graf (Bavaria Filmverleih- und Produktion)

Finsterworld

Frauke Finsterwalder (Walker + Worm Film)

Hanna’s Journey

Julia von Heinz (De/Il, 2 Pilots Filmproduction)

Im Weissen Rössl – Wehe Du Singst

Christian Theede (Ziegler Film)

Stations Of The Cross

Dietrich Brüggemann (Ufa Fiction)

Run Boy Run

Pepe Danquart (De/Fr, bittersuess pictures, A Company Filmproduktion, B.A. Produktion, Quinte Film)

The Last Mentsch

Pierre-Henri Salfati (Elsani Film)

Stereo

Maximilian Erlenwein (Frisbeefilms, Kaissar Film, Wild Bunch Germany)

West

Christian Schwochow (zero one film, Terz...

A Most Wanted Man director Anton Corbijn on Philip Seymour Hoffman getting it right: "When we had done a take and he wasn't sure he didn't want to look at the monitor, he would just listen." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Anton Corbijn's A Most Wanted Man, with a script by Andrew Bovell, stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rachel McAdams, Willem Dafoe, Robin Wright, Nina Hoss (star of Christian Petzold's Barbara) and Grigoriy Dobrygin. Anton and I spoke about his supporting cast: Bernhard Schütz, terrific in Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld, Martin Wuttke, Adolf Hitler in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, and Herbert Grönemeyer, who played Ian Curtis's doctor in Corbijn's debut feature Control and is the composer for The American and Anton's latest. Homayoun Ershadi, known for his work with Abbas Kiarostami rounds out the superb cast. We also discussed Wim Wenders' The American Friend and the character of Hamburg.

Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld co-written with Christian Kracht celebrates words of lore as well as colloquial rhythms and structures of non-communication.

In part 2 of my conversation with director Frauke Finsterwalder and co-sreenwriter Christian Kracht on Finsterworld, we go beyond Slavoj Žižek's The Pervert's Guide To Ideology, Klaus Theweleit's Male Fantasies, Berlin architecture, Joseph Beuys, Kubrick's The Shining, Adorno, the beauty of Margit Carstensen and the legacy of "Gesichtswurst".

Anne-Katrin Titze: Let's talk about Margit Carstensen. Did you take her work with Rainer Werner Fassbinder into account when casting her?

Frauke Finsterwalder and Christian Kracht on the legacy of Gesichtswurst: "Also, the image of that sandwich, that's a mutual obsession." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Frauke Finsterwalder: I was thinking of Fassbinder's TV movie Martha (1974). That's the one where she gets abused by Karlheinz Böhm. It wasn't released until much later. They have this abusive relationship and finally she escapes from him and crashes her car.

Finsterworld's Christian Kracht and Frauke Finsterwalder with Anne-Katrin Titze in New York

On a sunny morning on Broadway, high above Houston Street, I met with filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder and her co-screenwriter, author Christian Kracht, to speak about their intricately constructed Finsterworld. We discussed why the film could only have been written from outside, childhood obsessions allowed to artists, fairy tale houses made of food and Wes Anderson's stylised truth.

Sandra Hüller as Franziska: "Actually, she wants to scream at him 'Can't you say something? I'm wasting my time'."

This is the Germany of the unconscious where Teutonic earth spirits coexist with pedicurist Claude (Michael Maertens), who, in a raspberry colored turtleneck, works foot-magic at a nursing home. Margit Carstensen, the star of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's films, plays Maria Sandberg, the object of his special affections. In loosely connected strands we meet the different generations of the Sandberg family.

Playing at the Museum of the Moving Image and the Quad Cinema in New York June 13-19 the Kino! Festival Of German Films returns for its 36th year. Once again, the festival continues to offer the best in German cinema produced in the last year. The program features documentaries and narratives that not only focus on the German experience but also on its filmmakers’ points of view on what happens around the world. Quality is always a given with Kino and these wide-ranging stories are no exception. Some revisit the country’s historical past, others travel to distant lands in search of images, and there are also those that feel specific to our time. Here are some highlights of what we've seen so far with some additions to come soon.

For more information on the festival visit Here

West

Dir. Christian Schwochow

In search of a more promising and free life for her and her son, Nelly Sneff (Jördis Triebel) a young East German chemist flees to the more modernized West side. Even though she speaks the same language and is as German as everyone else living in the communal living facilities for refugees, Nelly finds it difficult to adapt to the new system. Ironically, she comes to realize that she is seen as the enemy on this side of the wall. The constant questioning about the whereabouts and affiliation of her Soviet partner, who until now she believed dead, take a toll on her already complex life putting her in a state of paranoia. Her son Alexej (Tristan Göbel), who is bullied at school, befriends a neighbor, Hans ( Alexander Scheer) whose good intentions will put Nelly on the edge. Distrust is at the core of Schwochow’s film that plays as thoughtful answer to films like “The Lives of Others” and “Barbara.” While those examples condemned the system enforced by the Stasi, in “West” the tables are flipped. Nelly feels unsafe, watched, and harassed in a land that was supposed to be against those practices. Triebel's intense performance escalates from hopeful to enraged in a marvelously directed story about an unexamined subject within German history.

Nan Goldin : I Remember Your Face

Dir. Sabine Lidl

In a concisely executed documentary that runs just over 60 minutes, director Sabine Lidl manages to capture the essence of renowned photographer Nal Goldin. Given that her friendships are the inspiration and subjects for her work, the filmmaker follows the eccentric artist as she visits old friends and reminisces about their youth, her failed attempts at seducing attractive gay men, and their role in her career. Her photos are raw and vivid. They shine with colorful nuances that only intimacy can provide. Drunk, naked, and unique people experience sadness and joy in front of her camera. Goldin’s extravagant collections and her turbulent past with drugs and alcohol also make an appearance in this short portrait of a fascinating woman across her beloved Berlin and other European cities.

Art War

Dir. Marco Wilms

While shot by a German filmmaker, the film is very similar to the Academy Awards-nominated film “The Square.” It follows the revolutionary youth of Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that brought down the Mubarak regime. While the aforementioned film tries to depict a holistic picture of the events, the deaths, and the shaky political processes that followed, Wilms decides to focus on the artistic expression that emerged from the movement. Including politically charged rap songs, and more extensively graffiti, the documentary advocates for the youth’s effort to protests by peaceful means. However, it also points at the non-stop attacks by Islamist conservative groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Among their many undertakings, the art on Mohamed Mahmoud Street near the iconic Tahrir Square is of particular importance because it is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the carnage. Young Egyptians turned martyrs are immortalized on the city’s walls as constant reminder of an incessant struggle. There are clearly a great number of similarities between the two films, and though this is less achieved in scope, it can definitely work as a complementary piece.

Finsterworld

Dir. Frauke Finsterwalder

With a multi-story concept that scrutinizes modern German society, the tonally eclectic “Finsterworld” provides some vexed assumptions about the country’s history of violence. A high school class is taking a fieldtrip to a concentration camp, Dominik (Leonard Scheicher) and his unofficial girlfriend Natalie (Carla Juri) are enjoying the day despite having to deal with obnoxious spoiled kid Maximilian (Jakub Gierszal). Meanwhile Franziska (Sandra Hüller), an pretentious aspiring filmmaker wants to capture something profound, inevitably her egocentric personality crashes with her loving boyfriend police officer Tom (Ronald Zehrfeld), who is also a closeted “furry.” Then there is Claude (Michael Maertens), a lonely masseur specialized in feet, and his friendship with elderly woman Frau (Margit Carstensen). Lastly, there are the Sandbergs (Corinna Harfouch &Bernhard Schütz), a wealthy couple on the road who encounter a difficult situation. Touching on the subject of German identity having Hitler as only representative figure and being a nation defined by guilt, Finsterwalder’s feature is heavily provocative. It’s strange tone that shifts between absurd comedy and gruesome violence can come across as uncomfortable or even offensive, but there are a handful of brilliant moments that make the film rather compelling.

Highlights include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Abel Ferrara’s controversial Dsk feature Welcome To New York.

The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.

This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.

New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.

Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.

Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...

The Golden Lola for best feature film went to veteran director Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home - Chronicle of a Vision at the German Film Awards.Scroll down for full list of winners

The black-and-white epic, set in a fictitious village in Germany’s Hunsrück region in the mid-19th century, also received awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay (shared with co-author Gert Heidenreich) after being nominated by the members of the German Film Academy in a total of six categories.

The co-production with Margaret Ménégoz’s Les Films du Losange is handled internationally by Arri Media Worldsales and was released theatrically in Germany by Concorde Filmverleih.

The prizes were handed out at the 64th annual film awards, held in Berlin.

Austrian accent to ceremony

The night belonged to Austrian film-maker Andreas Prochaska and his producers Helmut Grasser of Allegro Film and Stefan Arndt of X Filme Creative Pool with their Alpine western The Dark...

New section is aimed at engaging young audiences and programmed by a teenage team.

The Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has announced a new Teen Spirit section and Youth Hub in a bid to engage young audiences and encourage new filmmaking talent. 

The films in the Teen Spirit strand, aimed at 15-to 26-year-olds, have been selected by a 16-strong team aged 15-19. During Eiff, the Young Programmers will be hosting Q&As, promoting the films and reporting from within the festival. 

The section will comprise six features and six shorts, with tickets priced at £5 to encourage younger cinemagoers.

The line-up includes:

Galore (Rhys Graham)

Ballet Boys (Kenneth Elvebakk)

#Chicagogirl - The Social Network Takes On A Dictator (Joe Piscatella)

Finsterworld (Frauke Finsterwalder)

Korso (Akseli Tuomivaara)

Violet (Bas Devos)

The short films are: Emo (The Musical); Half Sour; Letter From An Old Boy; Schoolyard; Tryouts; and Moritz And The Woodwose. 

In addition, Eiff will host...

Constantin Film has been named by the German Federal Film Board (Ffa) as the nation’s top producer of German films for the ninth consecutive year in 2013 and the top distributor for the tenth consecutive year.

The Munich-based producer-distributor was allocated around €2.2m ($3m) “reference funding” in total by the Ffa to invest in future film projects and theatrical campaigns.

The company attracted €1.6m ($2.2m) production “reference” funding based on the box office of such releases as Bora Dagtekin’s comedy Fack Ju Göhte (Suck Me Shakespeer) which was seen by more than 5.8 million cinemagoers last year, as well as Sherry Hormann’s 3096 Tage about the abduction of Natascha Kampusch, and the comedy Dampfnudelblues.

In addition, eight successful releases including Fack Ju Göhte, Fünf Freunde 2, Ostwind and Dampfnudelblues earnt Constantin’s distribution arm €633,000 ($875,000) in distribution “reference” support.

Constantin Film subsidiary Rat Pack Filmproduktion, who was the main producer of Fack Ju Göhte, received the second...

Constantin Film has been named by the German Federal Film Board (Ffa) as the nation’s top producer of German films for the ninth consecutive year in 2013 and the top distributor for the tenth consecutive year.

The Munich-based producer-distributor was allocated around €2.2m ($3m) “reference funding” in total by the Ffa to invest in future film projects and theatrical campaigns.

The company attracted €1.6m ($2.2m) production “reference” funding based on the box office of such releases as Bora Dagtekin’s comedy Fack Ju Göhte (Suck Me Shakespeer) which was seen by more than 5.8 million cinemagoers last year, as well as Sherry Hormann’s 3096 Tage about the abduction of Natascha Kampusch, and the comedy Dampfnudelblues.

In addition, eight successful releases including Fack Ju Göhte, Fünf Freunde 2, Ostwind and Dampfnudelblues earnt Constantin’s distribution arm €633,000 ($875,000) in distribution “reference” support.

Constantin Film subsidiary Rat Pack Filmproduktion, who was the main producer of Fack Ju Göhte, received the second...

I Am The Keeper, Dreamland and Father’s Garden win at Swiss Film Awards; First Saas-Fee Filmfest honours Soldate Jeannette and Love Steaks.

Sabine Boss’ I Am The Keeper (Der Goalie bin ig) was the big winner at this year Swiss Film Awards in Zurich, picking up four prizes for Best Feature Film, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Marcus Signer) and Best Film Score after being nominated in seven categories.

The production by C-Film Ag and Carac Film, based on the eponymous novel by Pedro Lenz about an ex-junkie’s past catching up with him as he tries to find a way back into normal life, was released by Ascot Elite Entertainment Group in cinemas in the German-speaking part of Switzerland on Feb 6 and has already posted over 68,000 admissions.

The members of the Swiss Film Academy voted to give the Quartz trophy for Best Actress to Ursina Lardi for her performance as a prostitute in Zurich in [link...

Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive and Andrzej Wajda’s Walesa: A Man Of Hope will open this year’s ¨Febiofest¨.

The Prague International Film Festival (March 20-28) will present 141 films from 60 countries in 18 different sections.

Special tributes are being dedicated to the Finnish actress Kati Outinen, French animator Sylvain Chomet, Slovak actress Barbora Bobulová, Italian director Gianni Amelio and Ivory Coast-born actor Isaach de Bankolé.

De Bankolé, who first came to prominence in the French film industry with his role in Black Mic Mac, will present his two newest films, Mother Of August and Chaos, in Prague and will receive the Kristian Award for his Contribution to World Cinema.

Febiofest’s New Europe Competition open to first and second feature films will have such films as Wolfskinder, My Nephew, The Idiot, Life Feels Good, Puppy Love, The Machine and Rock The Casbah competing for the €10,000 Grand Prix, including a €5,000 premium for a potential Czech distributor...

Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home [pictured] wins best film, while Katrin Gebbe’s Cannes 2013 title Tore Tanzt wins best debut.

Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home (Die andere Heimat) and newcomer Katrin Gebbe’s Nothing Bad Can Happen (Tore Tanzt) were the big winners at this year’s German Film Critics Awards presented in Berlin this week.

Reitz, who had been awarded the Producer Prize with his son Christian at the Bavarian Film Awards last month, received the critics’ distinction of Best Film of 2013 and hi cinematographer Gernot Roll the Prize for Best Cinematography.

The film, which is being handled by Arri Worldsales, has been picked by several distributors in Berlin including Artificial Eye/Curzon for the UK.

Gebbe, whose film had premiered last year in Cannes, picked up the prize for Best Feature Film Debut and one of her lead actors, Sascha Alexander Gersak, shared the prize for Best Actor with Murat Kurnaz for his role...

Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home [pictured] wins best film, while Katrin Gebbe’s Cannes 2013 title wins best debut.

Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home (Die andere Heimat) and newcomer Katrin Gebbe’s Nothing Bad Can Happen (Tore Tanzt) were the big winners at this year’s German Film Critics Awards presented in Berlin this week.

Reitz, who had been awarded the Producer Prize with his son Christian at the Bavarian Film Awards last month, received the critics’ distinction of Best Film of 2013 and hi cinematographer Gernot Roll the Prize for Best Cinematography.

The film, which is being handled by Arri Worldsales, has been picked by several distributors in Berlin including Artificial Eye/Curzon for the UK.

Gebbe, whose film had premiered last year in Cannes, picked up the prize for Best Feature Film Debut and one of her lead actors, Sascha Alexander Gersak, shared the prize for Best Actor with Murat Kurnaz for his role in 5 Years...

Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home [pictured] wins best film, while Katrin Gebbe’s Cannes 2013 title wins best debut.

Edgar Reitz’s Home From Home (Die andere Heimat) and newcomer Katrin Gebbe’s Nothing Bad Can Happen (Tore Tanzt) were the big winners at this year’s German Film Critics Awards presented in Berlin this week.

Reitz, who had been awarded the Producer Prize with his son Christian at the Bavarian Film Awards last month, received the critics’ distinction of Best Film of 2013 and hi cinematographer Gernot Roll the Prize for Best Cinematography.

The film, which is being handled by Arri Worldsales, has been picked by several distributors in Berlin including Artificial Eye/Curzon for the UK.

Gebbe, whose film had premiered last year in Cannes, picked up the prize for Best Feature Film Debut and one of her lead actors, Sascha Alexander Gersak, shared the prize for Best Actor with Murat Kurnaz for his role in 5 Years...

They range in age, amount of screen time, supporting or principle characters, and have previous (television work, stage and or bit parts in Hollywood/Indiewood productions or next to no film experience at all. In essence these folks have a special gift and have essentially broken out. I had the fortune of having a team of four journalists (Caitlin Coder, Jordan M. Smith, Nicholas Bell and myself) covering the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and when you got a small army covering a major fest it ensures that fine performances from a new crop of acting talents don’t go undetected. Michael B. Jordan, Robin Weigert and Miles Teller (who follows up The Speculator Now with a dramatically and physically charged perf in the marvelous Whiplash) were just some of the new faces included on our top list last year.Worthy mnetions that did not break into our Top 10 include Fishing Without Nets‘ Abdikani Muktar,...

Frauke Finsterwalder’s tragicomic Finsterworld and a new screen adaptation of the children’s classic Pinocchio are among five market premieres being unveiled by Munich-based Global Screen at next month’s Efm in Berlin.

Head of Theatrical Sales Julia Weber and her team will be showing Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince in Berlin fresh from its world premiere as the opening film of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition last week.

The first deals on this Red Box/Passion Pictures production were concluded on Sundance’s first weekend with Curzon for the UK and Madman Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand.

In addition, the Munich-based sales agent will have premieres at the Efm of:

Arne Birkenstock’s documentary Beltracchi - The Art of Forgery, about Wolfgang Beltracchi, one of the biggest art forgers of all time. Birkenstock came into contact with Beltracchi through his father Reinhard Birkenstock who was one of the defence lawyers for the...

Frauke Finsterwalder’s tragicomic Finsterworld and a new screen adaptation of the children’s classic Pinocchio are among five market premieres being unveiled by Munich-based Global Screen at next month’s Efm in Berlin.

Head of Theatrical Sales Julia Weber and her team will be showing Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince in Berlin fresh from its world premiere as the opening film of Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary Competition last week.

The first deals on this Red Box/Passion Pictures production were concluded on Sundance’s first weekend with Curzon for the UK and Madman Entertainment for Australia and New Zealand.

In addition, the Munich-based sales agent will have premieres at the Efm of:

Arne Birkenstock’s documentary Beltracchi - The Art of Forgery, about Wolfgang Beltracchi, one of the biggest art forgers of all time. Birkenstock came into contact with Beltracchi through his father Reinhard Birkenstock who was one of the defence lawyers for the...

Sebastian Junger and Andrea Nix Fine among filmmakers screening in competition at the cinematography festival.

Camerimage , the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Nov 16-23), has revealed its 2013 line-up of films screening in six of the festival’s competition sections.

The 21st edition of Camerimage will screen more than 300 feature and short films, grouped into 24 sections, including 10 competitions. There are films from 50 countries around the world.

Around 30 films will receive their European premieres in Bydgoszcz, and more that 50 will have their Polish premieres.

The Golden Frog, Silver Frog and Bronze Frog awards will be bestowed upon competition titles representing the greatest achievements in cinematography. In the Student Etudes Competition, the Festival awards Golden Tadpole, Silver Tadpole and Bronze Tadpole.

It was previously announced that Oscar-nominated cinematographer Sławomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Gattaca) will be the recipient of the Festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Competing films

Polish...

The 9th Zurich Film Festival wrapped over the weekend in Switzerland with a closing awards ceremony where films from Mexico, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland all prevailed. The jury for the International Feature Film competition, led by "World War Z" filmmaker Marc Forster (who's Swiss), awarded the Golden Eye for Best Film to "La Jaula de Oro," from Mexican filmmaker Diego Quemada-Diez. They gave a Special Mention to Michael B. Jordan, star of "Fruitvale Station." The documentary jury awarded Denmark's Kaspar Astrup Schroeder with the Golden Eye for best documentary for "Lej En Familie A/S." Pakistan's "These Birds Walk" was singled out for a Special Mention. Below find a list of the event's other winners: Golden Eye for Best Film in the German-Language Feature Film Competition: "Finsterworld," Frauke Finsterwalder Golden Eye for Best Film in the Documentary Film Germany, Austria, Swizerland Competiton: "Neuland," Anna Thommen Svfj Critics Choice Award: "Finsterworld,...

Attendance up 22%; festival director Karl Spoerri talks about Zurich’s potential as a film finance hub.

The Zurich Film Festival’s ninth edition has given its Golden Eye for best international film to The Golden Cage (La Jaula De Oro) from Mexico’s Diego Quemada-Diez. The jury gave a special mention to actor Michael B Jordan in Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station.

The International Documentary Film winner was Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schroeder’s Rent A Family Inc. (Lej En Familie A/S). A special mention went to Omar Mullick and Bassam Tariq’s These Birds Walk from Pakistan.

The German-language competition awards went to Frauke Finsterwalder’s German feature Finsterworld and Anna Thommen’s Swiss documentary Neuland. A special mention went to Die Frau Die Sich Traut by Marc Rensing for feature and to Sabine Lidl’s Nan Goldin – I Remember Your Face for documentary.

Each of the awards comes with a $22,050 (CHF20,000) cash prize and...

Berlin – Female voices will be in focus at this year's Zurich Film Festival, with five out of the eight features picked for the event's German-language feature section directed by women. Katrin Gebbe's critically-acclaimed debut Nothing Bad Can Happen (Tore Tanzt), which premiered in the Un Certain Regard section in Cannes this year, is heading to Zurich, as its Frauke Finsterwalder's debut Finsterworld, a dark take on the traditionally comforting German Heimatfilm genre. Heimatfilm movies were popular in the German-speaking world in the 1940s through the 1970s and typically featured simple stories of love, friendship and family

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