Filmstiftung-backed drama "Exile" official Kosovar entry for Oscars

The Filmstiftung-backed drama "Exile" by Visar Morina has been selected for the Oscars' International Feature Film Race in 2021 by Kosovo. Two productions backed by the Film- and Medienstiftung NRW are already in the race for the 93rd Academy Awards. In August, Poland had chosen "Never Gonna Snow Again" by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert.

"Exile"
Visar Morina’s Filmstiftung-backed drama "Exile" had its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at the 35th Sundance Film Festival. Morina, a graduate of Cologne’s Academy of Media Arts, was awarded the German Screenplay Prize for his script in 2018. The Filmstiftung had already development funding of 20,000 Euros to the production company Komplizen Film for "Exile" at the end of 2017. At the beginning of 2018, it supported the film’s shoot with production funding of 600,000 Euros, with additional support coming from MBB, DFFF, BKM and Eurimages. Synopsis: Xhafer, a pharmaceutical engineer, feels discriminated against and bullied at work. He plunges into an identity crisis. Komplizen Film co-produced with Frakas Productions, Ikone Studio, WDR, Arte, VOO and BeTV. Mišel Matičević, Sandra Hüller, Rainer Bock and Thomas Mraz star in the lead roles. It was shot entirely in Cologne and the surrounding area over a total of 41 days.

"Never Gonna Snow Again"
Małgorzata Szumowska, who directed and wrote the screenplay together with Co-Director and DoP Michał Englert, once more delivers an entertaining and profound social satire on today’s Poland in "Śniegu już nigdy nie będzie" (original title). A masseur from the East enters the lives of the rich residents of a bland, walled off community. Despite their wealth, the residents emit an inner sadness, a longing. The mysterious newcomer’s hands heal, his eyes seem to penetrate their souls. To them, his Russian accent sounds like a song from the past, a memory of their seemingly safer childhood. Zhenia, for this is his name, changes their lives. The lead actors Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska, Agata Kulesza and Weronika Rosati appeared in NRW, among other locations, in front of the camera. The Filmstiftung supported the German-Polish production of the Cologne-based Match Factory Productions and Lava Films in co-production with Kino Świat, the Mazowia Film Fund and Di Factory (all PL), with 400,000 Euros, with additional funding coming from the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), BR/Arte, MBB, Polish-German Film Fund, Polish Film Institute and the CineCoPro Award. World sales are being handled by The Match Factory. Cologne-based Real Fiction distributor will release the social satire in German cinemas.