In October, we introduced you to Toronto filmmaker Stephanie Weimar and her new project WRITING THE LAND (produced by Primitive Entertainment for CBC Arts and Arte/ZDF) in our series "The Making of" that follows two German-Canadian film projects over one year. Now we're checking in with the team to hear about their latest travel, new writing that has emerged, and an editing road map.Dear Stephanie, in our last conversation you mentioned that you were looking forward to seeing how the subject matter of your film interweaves – the land and the writing.
Can you let us in on one of these, literally, story-telling and story-making encounters you had with a Canadian writer?
It’s all very exciting. So far we have visited with eight writers, most recently we spent two days with Esi Edugyan ("Half Blood Blues" and "Washington Black") and another two with Joshua Whitehead in Calgary ("Full-Metal Indigiqueer: Poems" and "Jonny Appleseed"). As we’re gathering more content, more stories, I can see each episode taking shape, which is always a thrilling experience. When a project, which previously had only been a vision in my head, actually comes into being. Continue reading "The Making of: "Writing the Land" in..." »
The 36th edition of the Sundance Film Festival will take place from 23 January-2 February, 2020 in Park City, Utah. It is regarded as the most important North American film festival in the indie scene and is organized by the Sundance Institute, which was founded by Robert Redford in 1981. The festival is held in particular esteem as a springboard for up-and-coming independent film directors. Great news for the Goethe-Institut Toronto: Bianca Kennedy and Felix Kraus ("Swan Collective"), who created a VR piece for the institute's Goethe Media Space in downtown Toronto in the spring, have been invited to the Sundance New Frontier section dedicated to experimental media works across VR, AR, MR and AI.
If you saw the Nina Hoss-led drama PELICAN BLOOD at TIFF19 (or her other new feature, THE AUDITION, for that matter) you might have wondered how an 5-year-old actress can possibly play a “possessed” child --let alone in a foreign language-- to such a degree of authenticity and intensity. Berlinale winner and German Oscar nominee SYSTEM CRASHER is another example of nearly too-perfect-to-be-true “difficult child” performances, in a year heavy with outstanding youngest performers (JOJO RABBIT ...). The arthouse phenomenon --a debut film no less-- was a surprisingly huge box office success as well, and composer John Gürtler received the European Film Award. SYSTEM CRASHER director Nora Fingscheidt is currently shooting an English-language film in the US and is in pre-production for a new German feature dealing with Germany's post-war Nazi legacy.
And the winner of the #EUFFTO2019 Audience Choice Award goes to.... the timely flight thriller BALLOON by Michael Herbig, inspired by a true story. Thank you for the second win in a row (with the highest audience rating ever) out of four awards overall that the Goethe-Institut Toronto's German film choices have been honoured with by Toronto's curious cinema-going audience. An audience favourite proving that the power of cinema helps us to come together.
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Following on the heels of his success with BALLOON, the story of an escape from East Germany, with which we just sold out Toronto's Royal Cinema during the EUFFTO, actor-director Michael Bully Herbig (51) has several projects in the works. For Herbig, BALLOON was his transition into serious subject matter; the film garnered a million viewers. Before that, Herbig was known as a comedy specialist. 
