German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

Scott Miller Berry, lead programmer of Toronto's Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival and a long-time collaborator of Goethe-Instituts from Toronto to Jakarta to Bangalore, attended to Oberhausen 2021 --virtually of course (see his head floating on the right of the Oberhausen Festival Space). We asked him to report back on his best-of-show and critical takeaways.

My first visit to the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, the world's oldest and largest short film extravaganza, was in 2008 if I remember correctly. After the requisite overnight flight with lovely Images Festival colleagues we piled into a shiny new Volkswagen and the festival driver proceeded at a modest 180km/h clip from Düsseldorf north into the Ruhr valley's post-industrial pocket. At that speed I felt like my face was melting off, which became an inspired metaphor for the entire Oberhausen festival experience --face- and all senses-melting over concentrated days stacked with upwards of 7 slots of short film programs followed by very late nights at the festival lounge. As a film festival worker and lover, I've been incredibly inspired by Oberhausen over the years, its mammoth program and their smooth ability to host hundreds and hundreds of guests from festivals, galleries, distributors, broadcasters and artists. Continue reading "Reflections on the 67th Oberhausen Short Film..." »

German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk has just distanced itself from the film "Lovemobil". The award-winning cinema documentary by Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauss, co-produced by NDR, shows scenes in large sections that are not authentic. This is the result of research by NDR's investigative YouTube youth program "STRG_F." The film is said to be based on many years of research by the author, but central protagonists of the film do not describe their personal experiences, but play a role. Numerous situations are re-enacted or staged. Watch the trailer here. Continue reading "Public broadcaster distances itself from the..." »

The plot is racy: A terrorist attack at the beginning of the film rocks a family to the core. Teenage Maxi – who loses her mother, her brothers and her home – tries to look ahead, but is deeply disoriented and angry. Her father Alex is shell-shocked and fragile. Former certainties and beliefs have been wiped out and the grief that comes with their loss obscures everything. Seeming sidewalk acquaintance Karl gets her out of her paralysis, urges her to conquer her fears, promises solutions. He has organised a meeting of educated, multilingual, and dissatisfied European students called Re/Generation. The task he assigns Maxi could be the deciding factor in the success of a grand plan. Je suis Karl --the pre-manufactured faux grievance call and hashtag battle cry of the film's final scenes-- traces an insidious and seductive political takeover, picking up where the theoretical mind games of The Wave and In the Fade’s legal revenge drama left off.

Factual analysis is not at the heart of this reality -- rage, hubris, and narcissism are. Who is the bomber who kills the progressive German family who recently smuggled in a Libyan refugee? Who cares, the public assumes it was an Islamist. Continue reading "Berlinale 2021: Je Suis Karl #review" »

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. This year, two female Toronto filmmakers-programmers are attending the Berlinale with a European Film Market badge as guests of the Goethe-Institut and a joint Berlinale-Goethe initiative to strengthen festival and industry access for BIPOC/LGBTQIA+/women-led organizations, organizations working towards the empowerment, advancement and growth for marginalized film and media sectors, and towards the greater inclusion, empowerment and advancement of marginalized film professionals in the mainstream industry.

Name & role: Mariam Zaidi, ED Breakthroughs Film Festival, a not for profit organization established in 2011 in Toronto, dedicated to supporting emerging filmmakers who identify as women or non-binary. She is also Associate Programmer for Canadian films at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

This is my 1st Berlinale. Continue reading "#BerlinalePeople: Mariam Zaidi, Breakthroughs..." »

SPOILER ALERT!

In 2013, German(-Algerian) filmmaker Anne Zohra Berrached made her debut in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino with Two Mothers. In 2016, she was invited into the Berlinale Competition with her second female-centric feature, the lauded late-term abortion drama 24 Weeks. Five years later, Berrached is celebrating the world premiere of Copilot in the Berlinale Panorama section.

The film tells the love story of Asli and Saeed, a young Turkish-Arab couple studying in East Germany, before "the world becomes a different place” (as the film’s original title literally translates) because of Saeed's actions on September 11, 2001. Continue reading "Berlinale 2021: Copilot #review (Panorama)" »

The future is bright, but some of the most anticipated German arthouse films are still far out. Julia von Heinz of German Oscar submission And Tomorrow The Entire World has just secured Mandy Patinkin and Lena Dunham to star in her planned Holocaust drama Iron Box, while we’re excitedly waiting for Nora Fingscheidt to follow up on her Oscar submission System Crasher (now on Netflix) with her still untitled Sandra Bullock drama (2021?). Count on Christian Schwochow to tie us over on Netflix soon with his UK-made adaptation of Robert Harris' history drama Munich, starring Jeremy Irons, Jannis Niewöhner, Sandra Hüller, Liv Lisa Fries, August Diehl, and Martin Wuttke.

Closer at hand I hope at Berlinale 2021: Dominik Graf’s star-studded Erich Kästner adaptation Fabian —with Tom Schilling, Saskia Rosendahl, Dominik Graf, Meret Becker, and Berlinale Shooting Star Albrecht Schuch— and Anne Zohra Berrached's Copilot, shot by Christopher Aoun. Berrached is already scripting her next project, a fantastical internet love story with the working title Kuschel Cat. Continue reading "Next German films & Berlinale guesses" »

The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (DE), the Go Short Festival in Nijmegen (NL), the Short Waves Festival in Poznan (PL) and the international short film festival Vienna Shorts (AT) jointly founded the European Short Film Network (ESFN) in 2020. On April 1, 2021, the network will now launch the newly developed online portal THIS IS SHORT, which will make the respective festivals' content as well as new joint content—including an online competition for European short films—accessible on just one platform. With this project, the ESFN, one of seven EU-funded film festival networks, is formulating a counter-model to the fragmented film culture on the net.
Continue reading "4 European film festivals join forces online:..." »

72 films from 29 countries (out of 14,200 entries), with nearly half directed by women, makes up this year's largely virtual Sundance Film Festival 2021 that runs 28 January to 3 February 2021. 50 Shorts, 4 Indie Series, 14 New Frontier Projects to Debut on Feature-Rich Digital Platform & Satellite Screens Nationwide complement this year's edition, for which you won't have to pack your skis.

Ronny Trocker's German-Italian-Danish feature HUMAN FACTORS (DER MENSCHLICHE FAKTOR), developed through the Torino Film Lab, is part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Continue reading "German Films @ Sundance 2021" »

Normally, our German Films colleagues from Munich would be busy setting up their booth at the TIFF Industry Centre at the Hyatt on King Street right now, with the first, early guests stopping by to say hi and grab a brochure. Not this year. But the work hasn't stopped. I spoke to the new head of German Films, Simone Baumann, about what to expect in terms of film promotion and the market:

Jutta Brendemuhl: TIFF2020 is happening, but all industry events have moved online, which for you means no booth at the Industry Centre with walk-up traffic or scheduled one-on-one meetings, no parties, physical producer meetings or pitch sessions, no red carpets and interviews with actors and filmmakers, nor coincidental hallway chats that lead to next projects. How are you pivoting your strategy to reach your target groups in the international festival circuit this year?

Simone Baumann: The COVID crisis hit us like everybody else totally unexpected. It is interestingly speeding up processes that had been underway for a while. In terms of promotion, we are reevaluating all of our activities and trying to make up our minds what is the most efficient way to reach our audience in these conditions. Continue reading "#TIFF20: Simone Baumann, head of German Films" »

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: Dr. Simone Emmelius, Senior Vice President International Fiction - Coproduction & Acquisitions; previously head of ZDFneo, ZDFinfokanal, ZDFdokukanal, and multimedia; board member of the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems

This is my 2nd Berlinale for ZDF as Senior Vice President International Fiction.

ZDF is the Berlinale’s main sponsor. What’s your broadcaster’s interest in the festival, and what opportunities does it give you as head of international fiction?
For the national public broadcaster in Germany, it’s not only a “must”, it’s an affair of the heart to be committed to the Berlinale – and by the way, ZDF is media partner for the 17th time. Continue reading "Berlinale People: Simone Emmelius, ZDF" »