NRW@Berlinale 2012
- 21 films in the official sections of the Berlinale festival 2012
- “Home For The Weekend” by Hans-Christian Schmid featuring Corinna Harfouch and Lars Eidinger in the main Competition
- “Elles” by Malgoska Szumowska featuring Juliette Binoche opens the Panorama Special
- “Revision” by Philip Scheffner in the Forum
- Five examples of “Junges Kino aus NRW” in the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino
- “Say Goodbye to the Story” by Christoph Schlingensief in the Berlinale Shorts Competition
- “Abschied von den Fröschen” by Ulrike Schamoni as a special screening
- NRW @ EFM: Distribution in a Crossmedial World
NRW is well represented as a film state at the 62nd International Film Festival Berlin (9th to 19th February): 21 films that were realized in or with participation by North Rhine-Westphalia have received an invitation to the official sections of the Berlinale this year. 18 of them were made with support from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
Besides the competition entry “Home For The Weekend” by Hans-Christian Schmid, who is competing with one of his films for the Golden Bear for the fourth time, and Malgoska Szumowska’s cinema film “Elles” starring Juliette Binoche, which will be opening the Panorama section, North Rhine-Westphalia will present itself as primarily young and highly experimental in Berlin: five NRW-productions by young generation filmmakers can be seen in the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino only. In addition to the presence of films in all the sections of the Berlinale, the Filmstiftung NRW will also be participating at the stand of Focus Germany in the European Film Market. The Filmstiftung, together with the European Film Market (EFM) in collaboration with Blickpunkt:Film, is also inviting guests to a round table to discuss “Distribution in a Crossmedia World” in the Gropius Mirror on 13th February.
Competition: “Home For The Weekend” by Hans-Christian Schmid featuring Corinna Harfouch and Lars Eidinger
Director Hans-Christian Schmid is presenting his new film “Home For The Weekend” at the Berlinale. The leading roles in this family drama, which was filmed almost entirely in a villa near Recklinghausen, are played by Lars Eidinger, Corinna Harfouch, Ernst Stötzner, Sebastian Zimmler and Picco von Groote. “Home For The Weekend” is a supported production by 23/5-Filmproduktion in coproduction with SWR, Arte and WDR, which will be launched in German cinemas by Cologne-based Pandora Film Distributors.
Panorama Special: “Elles” by Malgoska Szumowska featuring Juliette Binoche
Malgoska Szumowska staged her funded film “Elles” with Juliette Binoche in the leading role in locations including Cologne. In the opening film of the section Panorama Special, Binoche plays a journalist who is researching into students who finance their studies by means of prostitution. “Elles” was produced as a European coproduction by Cologne-based Zentropa International together with ZDF (cinema launch, distributed by Zorro Film: 29th March).
Panorama: “Death for Sale” and “Detlef”
In “Death for Sale”, Zentropa International producer Bettina Brokemper has a second film in the Panorama section. In this international coproduction by her Cologne-based company Heimatfilm, director Faouzi Bensaidi tells the story of three friends who live from minor thefts in a Moroccan town and dream of a fantastic coup.
In their documentary film “Detlef”, Stefan Westerwelle and Jan Rothstein portray the gay activist from Bielefeld, Detlef Stoffel, talking to people including Gustav-Peter Wöhler, Lilo Wanders and Corny Littmann. The production by Bonheur Filme, subtitled “60 Jahre schwul”, is being shown in the section Panorama Dokumente.
Forum: “Revision” by Philip Scheffner
Philip Scheffner has undertaken the “Revision” of the case of two Roma, who were shot by three hunters in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 1992, in his documentary film of the same name. The supported cinema film is a coproduction by Cologne-based Blinker Film together with pong – Kröger & Scheffner, Worklights Media and ZDF/Arte.
Perspektive Deutsches Kino: “Tage in der Stadt”, “Rodicas”, “Ararat”, “Die Vermissten” and “Sterben nicht vorgesehen”
In the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino, the Berlinale shows content and style trends among the young generation of German filmmakers. Five of the productions selected come from NRW:
In his funded, 25-minute short film “Tage in der Stadt” KHM graduate Janis Mazuch tells of a woman who is released from prison and searches for a place in society. Production: KHM and blowball film.
In the 53-minute film “Rodicas” actress and director Alice Gruia portrays her mother and her mother’s best friend in her own production. The two women live in Australia; they are completely different but both have the same Christian name: Rodica.
Director Engin Kundag, graduate of the ifs internationale filmschule köln, made his 27-minute short film in his parents' home village on the Armenian border. In “Ararat” he tells the story of a return and supposed second chances.
“Die Vermissten” is the title of the supported film debut by Jan Speckenbach. In this production André Hennicke plays a nuclear engineer who is looking for his missing 16-year-old daughter. The production by Junifilm and ZDF – Das kleine Fernsehspiel was shot on location, including in NRW, and is taking part in the competition for the Best Debut Film.
In his 25-minute graduation / diploma film “Sterben nicht vorgesehen” KHM-graduate Matthias Stoll has tackled a very personal theme. The film tells of the death of his father, which happened when the filmmaker was far away, even on a different continent.
Berlinale Shorts Competition: “Say Goodbye to the Story” by Christoph Schlingensief
A fresh encounter with Christoph Schlingensief: his supported short film “Say Goodbye to the Story”, which was discovered when archiving the estate of the filmmaker, who died in 2010, is running in the Berlinale Shorts competition. The film’s actors include Katharina Schlothauer, Stefan Kolosko, Robert Stadlober, Irm Hermann and Björn Thors; it is a fragment of Schlingensief’s film project “The African Twin Towers”.
LOLA@Berlinale
In the section Lola@Berlinale, the Berlin Film Festival presents productions that have been short-listed for the German Film Award. These also include seven cinema films made with support from the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW.
“Charlotte Rampling – The Look” by Angelina Maccarone
“Gerhard Richter Painting” by Corinna Belz
“Hotel Lux” by Leander Haußmann
“Klitschko” by Sebastian Dehnhardt
“Tom Sawyer” by Hermine Huntgeburth
“The City Below” by Christoph Hochhäusler
“Raising Resistance” by Bettina Borgfeld and David Bernet
Special screenings: “Abschied von den Fröschen” and “The Reader”
2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the Oberhausen Manifest. On this occasion, the Berlinale is showing Ulrike Schamoni’s supported documentary film “Abschied von den Fröschen” about her father Ulrich Schamoni. The co-production by Ziegler Film and Bären Film Berlin is based on the filmmaker’s film diary, which he kept shortly before his death in 1998.
Studio Babelsberg is also celebrating its birthday in 2012, and the Berlinale will be congratulating it on this 100th anniversary with a special section, “Happy Birthday, Studio Babelsberg”, in which Stephen Daldry’s “The Reader” is also being shown. The literary film version, for which Kate Winslet won an Oscar in 2009, was made with support from NRW not only in Babelsberg but also in the MMC Studios in Cologne.
Panel discussion: „Distribution in a Crossmedia World”
On Monday 13 February 2012 the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, together with European Film Marketand in collaboration with the trade magazine Blickpunkt:Film, is also inviting to the panel discussion “Distribution in a Crossmedia World” in the Gropius Mirror. The Danish film producer Peter Aalbæck Jensen (Zentropa, i.e.“Melancholia”), YouTube Content Creators Manager Christoph Poropatits (Ireland) and the media lawyer Dr. Christoph Wagner (Hogan Lovells International, LLP, Berlin) will shed light on the current crossmedia landscape and debate new perspectives on the distribution of film and moving image content. Marek Walton, co-founder of The Mustard Corporation (UK) and international expert and consultant in crossmedia storytelling, will chair the event.
Film distribution and new distribution platforms will be among the key themes at the International Film Conference, which the Film- und Medienstiftung is organizing during Medienforum.NRW in Cologne this June.
Film- und Medienstiftung NRW at the European Film Market
During the Berlinale, staff of the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW at the European Film Market in the Gropius-Building will be informing visitors about possibilities for support in NRW. You will find the Filmstiftung at the stand of FOCUS Germany, the association of German film funding institutions. FOCUS Germany can be reached at the Berlinale by phoning 030-767646-419.
MEDIA at the Berlinale
During the Berlinale, the teams of the German MEDIA Desk and Antenna will be available with their own information stand offering advisory services at the MEDIA Umbrella at the European Film Market. To reach the team by phone, please ring 030 -767 646 442. 32 production companies from 20 European countries, including the company Tradewind from NRW, will be taking part in the coproduction meeting “Share Your Slate”, which is organized by the Desk and Antennas Germany. Last but not least, at the MEDIA Info Day on 13th February there will be an opportunity to find out about current funding possibilities, training programs and the MEDIA successor program (as from 2014). The event will take place at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Potsdamer Platz. Further information from www.mediadesk.de