Schwentke, Wenders, Akin, Zabeil, Grisebach, Odar, Tabak - the Toronto International Film Festival (7 - 17 September 2017) includes a number of world and North American premieres for German filmmakers and an astounding four titles in the prestigious Special Presentations. (Here's the full German Films brochure.)55 STEPS by Bille August (DE/BE), with Germany's Elsani Film as delegate producer, will be screened as a world premiere in the exclusive red carpet Gala Presentations.
The Special Presentations section is reserved for outstanding films by prominent directors. THE CAPTAIN by Robert Schwentke (D/FR/PL) was invited from Germany and will have its world premiere in Toronto. The filmmaker has already enjoyed blockbuster status in the USA with such films as R.E.D. with Bruce Willis. Another world premiere -as previously announced- will be Wim Wenders' latest feature film SUBMERGENCE (DE/FR/ES) headlined by international stars Alicia Vikander and James McAvoy. Wenders has been invited to the Masters section at TIFF for the third year in a row following EVERY THING WILL BE FINE in 2015 and THE BEAUTIFUL DAYS OF ARANJUEZ in 2016. This year will also see him serving as a jury member for the Platform competitive section.
IN THE FADE by Fatih Akin (DE/FR) and THREE PEAKS by Jan Zabeil (DE/IT) will be continuing their respective successful festival careers after the launch in the Cannes competition and on Locarno's Piazza Grande.
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2017 does not shape up to have a record German showing at the Berlinale. While 2016 was a great overall Berlinale year with Meryl Streep as opinionated jury president, a George Clooney-starring new Coen brothers film as opener, and Fassbinder-cum-Hollywood cinematographer Michael Ballhaus as the homage honouree --an outstanding German festival year it wasn’t by any stretch. One German debut feature was in Competition last year and did not make it abroad. (Of course, TONI ERDMANN later made up for any perceived weakness in perpetuity.) But as in previous years, if you dig deeper this February, the German gems start to shine through, among the 399 films seen by 300000 visitors.
