Wondering who the new TIFF Co-Head is? We chatted with Joana Vicente in January, just after she started at TIFF and was packing for the Berlinale.Part of an ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and fans, from rookies to veterans.
Name & role: Joana Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF as of late 2018. Producer of Oscar-nomitated CAPERNAUM. Formerly Executive Director of New York’s IFP - Independent Filmmaker Project (whose founder Sandra Schulberg is honoured with a Berlinale Camera Award this year).
This is my 6th Berlinale.
"I’ve always looked to TIFF as a prominent international platform for world cinema, with an impact that is both local and global,” you recently said about your new home. Where do you position the Berlinale on the international festival and industry circuit? Continue reading "Berlinale People: Joana Vicente, TIFF" »
The Film- und Medienstiftung NRW awarded the Gerd Ruge Scholarship for the 18th time. The stipends are supported by and named after the well-known German broadcast journalist Ruge, who also co-founded the German Amnesty International section. Endowed with up to €100,000, the scholarships offer the most funding for the development of cinematic documentary films in Germany. The jury chose 4 projects from 27 submissions:
A veritable nailbiter by an Oscar®-nominated director on the Piazza Grande, a sensitive film about life as a space filled with possibilities in the Competition, and a wide range of German productions across all sections: 2019 is another excellent German year in Locarno. A total of 27 German films and co-productions have been programmed for the 72nd Locarno Festival that runs 7–17 August 2019 -- the first directed by Lili Hinstin after long-time AD Carlo Chatrian is now programming the Berlinale.
Web series, international documentary series, multilingual mini-series, genre in all its colourful manifestations, LGBTQ+ coming of age shows and prime talent -- international streaming giants (and some indie producers) keep reinventing television as we know it on the hunt for the sweet spot of glocal content (and consequently world domination) -- including several exciting offerings to come out of Germany this year:
SWR Doku Festival in Stuttgart just awarded the German Documentary Film Prizes. Endowed with €20,000 by broadcaster Südwestrundfunk and film funder MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg, the main prize goes to East Berlin documentary filmmaker Thomas Heise (63) for his film Heimat is a Space in Time (
In a loose series, we’re highlighting the professionals behind the camera that together bring stories to life, the writers and dubbing actors, the camera people and set designers -- and the script supervisors and continuity experts.
One of the highlights of TIFF 2012 was the German-Australian WWII drama LORE by Cate Shortland, a film adaptation of British author Rachel Seiffert's novella The Dark Room. LORE became the Australian Best Foreign Language Film entry to the Academy Awards 2013. 
I've previously written about the 
Before Harry Potter and Inkheart, there was the classic fantasy tale of Bastian Balthazar Bux, accompanied by creatures with peculiar names and a book that magically comes to life. 40 years ago, in 1979, German children’s book author Michael Ende (1929-1995) --the author of screen-adapted previous bestsellers MOMO and JIM BUTTON-- brought out The Neverending Story. 
Select media responses to the May 2019 GOETHE FILMS series "
