Still need some money for presents? Win $50,000 on Sing On! Germany, filmed before the COVID lockdown at London's Pinewood Studios. Will Naeman or Lars make it, Yagmar or Carina? Hostess Palina Rojinski you might remember as Sofie Hartmann from Welcome to Germany, the film that won the EUFFTO Audience Award 2018.
On to some family entertainment. In ride tween heroines Bibi & Tina on their horses Amadeus & Sabrina, times 4 features. After successful audio books and an animation series, director Detlev Buck (Same Same But Different) took on the live action features and is about to take a new B&T series to Amazon Prime. Also see his latest, Christmas Crossfire, below.
More horsing around, for the teen crowd: Rock My Heart is just the family film for the holidays. “Granddad” Dieter Hallervorden you might remember as granddad from Head Full of Honey, the film that won the EUFFTO Audience Award 2016. Milan Peschel starred as a terminal cancer patient in Stopped On Track, which we featured at EUFFTO 2012.
If your heart is set on relationship dramas, pick your poison: Lavinia Wilson (from Oskar Roehler's Sources of Life) and Elyas M'Barek (The Collini Case) struggle with infertility in this brand-new release.
Isi & Ossi is Oliver Kienle's latest, with bright young stars Dennis Mojen (The Poll Diaries) and Lisa Vicari (Dark) in a rich girl poor boy story. Kienle's Stronger Than Blood lent its title to our thriller series at GOETHE FILMS 2019.
Follow the €: The reason to catch Austrian series Old Money is in the cover image — veteran character actors Udo Kier (The Painted Bird; Bacurau) and Sunnyi Melles (Enfant Terrible).
Which family doesn't have Holiday Secrets? This one's, over three episodes, are likely a bit more intense than yours. The strong female cast includes Corinna Harfouch (Lara; Deutschland89), Christiane Paul (In July; Parents at EUFFTO 2016) and Svenja Jung (Dark; Deutschland89).
Will Detlev Buck's bizarrely and darkly funny holiday Heimatfilm Christmas Crossfire be the new Die Hard? It most certainly is a departure from Bibi & Tina, see above, scripted by Dark writer Martin Behnke.
By now you might be Over Christmas —a pun that works as well in English as the original German Über Weihnachten. Fun fact: Lead Luke Mockridge is Canadian-expat-to-Germany Bill Mockridge's son, the father best known for a 10-year stint on TV's Lindenstraße, the German answer to Coronation Street.
Happy New Year, right here, right now! Max Ophüls Prize winnig director Jacob Lass (Tiger Girl; Lovesteaks), alongside his brother Tom, is an adherent of the lofi wave called German Mumblecore, if rough and dirty is your filmmaking style.
And if you want to sail away from it all in 2021, get yourself on The Houseboat. Over two years, Youtuber/handyman Fynn Kliemann and musician Olli Schulz have been renovating their new abode. Kliemann described The Houseboat “perhaps the most beautiful and the worst project of my life.” Coming in this 4-part mini series in early 2021.
P.S. Have a closer look at Schulz' hipster T-shirt ... a Bibi & Tina fan!
Happy holidays to you & yours!
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
images: courtesy Netflix
