German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

Berlin directors Mohammed Abugeth & Daniel Carsenty were in the official TIFF 2021 & DOC NYC selection and are back in Toronto for one night at the Toronto Palestinian Film Festival 2022 with their documentary The Devil’s Drivers, in which they accompanied Bedouins smuggling Palestinian workers through the Negev desert for a decade. I spoke to them before their world premiere about difficult terrain and documentary responsibilities:

Our friends at German Films, the national film promoter and long-time Goethe-Institut partner, once again hosted European, Canadian and international industry and talent at TIFF, in splendid sunshine and, as you can see, in a buoyant mood. Thank you to their team from Munich and New York for amplifying German films and co-productions.


Talent and creative team of German Oscar contender All Quiet On The Western Front Continue reading "GERMAN FILMS @ TIFF 2022 reception" »

If you’re expecting a remake of the romantic 1950s Sissi melodramas that brought a teenage Romy Schneider to fame, look for other current treatments of the Sissi myth. Austrian auteur Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage offers a luminous character portrait of a torn and tortured woman in mid-life that reveals a lot and resolves nothing. Continue reading "#TIFF22: Corsage #review" »

☆ German Oscar contender All Quiet On the Western Front is relentlessly good, from the hyper-concentrated ensemble acting --it is not hard to predict German Film Awards for Felix Kämmerer and Albrecht Schuch-- to magnificent camera, the meticulous design & near-perfect score by @hauschkamusic to Edward Berger’s tight direction. Watch the trailer.
Review to follow.

☆ If you want to see stellar acting (and like Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread) — Continue reading "#TIFF22 halftime in tweets" »

Starting TIFF22 with a film we will not see: In an April 2021 interview with German weekly Die Zeit, filmmaker Ulrich Seidl had said: "I stage reality, and deliberately intervene. But there are limits, of course." The provocative Austrian director and chronicler of social dysfunction and human misdemeanour, known for his Paradise trilogy, is no stranger to strife and hot-button topics, but seems to have now crossed one line too many. (Austrian actually has a semi-reverent word for their own brand of artistic instigators: Nestbeschmutzer, someone who sullies their own nest).

TIFF called off the world premiere (without further comment to my knowledge) of his latest film Sparta amidst allegations of the mistreatment of minors on set. Continue reading "Ulrich Seidl, from Paradise to Purgatory" »

The feature film ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT by Edward Berger (Jack) will enter the race for Germany for the 95th Oscars in the category Best International Feature Film. The decision was made by an independent jury out of a total of nine films submitted for consideration.

The nine-member jury with chairwoman actor Maria Furtwängler (German Film Academy) explained their choice:

“The jury recognises a radical work with its choice of ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. It is unsparing in its portrayal of the machinery and dehumanisation of war. Continue reading "OSCARS 2023: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT..." »

Follow the Goethe-Institut's right here throughout the festival for reviews, background, photos & more!

Can't argue with Idris Elba: TIFF stands for Toronto is F-ing Fantastic. #TIFF22 takes us back into the cinema and out onto Festival Street --and brings a fresh selection of German films and co-productions, including Special Presentations and award-winning titles, from drama to documentaries to series.

All Quiet on the Western Front
Special Presentation, World Premiere
by Edward Berger (Jack; Patrick Melrose) with an all-male star cast incl. Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Bastards; Good Bye Lenin!), Albrecht Schuch (Berlin Alexanderplatz; Fabian), Sebastian Hülk (The White Ribbon), Devid Striesow (I Was at Home, But...; Yella), Felix Kammerer, Edin Hasanovic (A Heavy Heart; You Are Wanted), Anton von Lucke (Frantz; Bad Banks), Michael Wittenborn (Toni Erdmann) et al.
This impassioned, visually arresting interpretation of the classic German anti-war novel makes the pacifist case to contemporary audiences through its depiction of the horrible madness of World War I and the tragedy of a doomed generation.
Continue reading "GERMAN FILMS @ TIFF 2022" »

German central film funder FFA just awarded over 2 million euros to six new productions, four screenplays, one treatment, and scripts in development.

The German-British co-production "The Outrun" is the new project by Berlinale and Film Award winner Nora Fingscheidt ("System Crasher"). Irish-U.S. actress Saoirse Ronan takes the lead role in the alcoholism drama based on Amy Liptrot's memoir of the same name about a young woman's new beginning. Fresh out of rehab, Rona returns to the Scottish Orkney Islands after more than a decade away. When she returns to the sheep farm where she grew up, memories of childhood mingle with the catastrophic events that set her on the road to recovery. Continue reading "Next up from Nora Fingscheidt ("The..." »

Little moving works of art flutter through the opening and closing credits of the German TV ARD miniseries “Eldorado KaDeWe.” Xenia Fink, an illustrator from Berlin, is their creator. Continue reading "The Sensuality of Opening Credits" »

When Zazie hears that her former best friend is getting married, she cannot accept it. But when she decides to sabotage the wedding, something strange happens... Zazie relives the same day over and over again. Maggie Peren's fresh and cheerful romantic comedy convinces with a first-class ensemble and many ideas that give the time loop genre a new spin. Continue reading "Hello Again -- A Wedding a Day" »