Kirsten Niehuus, head of German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is confident that the changes to film funding proposed by the German government recently will have a “very positive effect on the production scene in Berlin-Brandenburg.”
The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here).
Kirsten Niehuus, Martin Moszkowicz
Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.”
Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions,...
The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here).
Kirsten Niehuus, Martin Moszkowicz
Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.”
Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions,...
- 2/19/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The German film industry is eagerly awaiting the appointment of the Berlin Film Festival’s new director, expected to be announced tomorrow, and as the guessing game surrounding the choice shifts into high gear, one thing looks increasingly clear: the new head will face considerable financial and political challenges at the Berlinale.
Speculation in the local industry has been rife with likely candidates to succeed Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who have co-led the Berlinale as artistic and executive directors since 2020 and will step down after this year’s edition when their respective mandates end.
A number of potential contenders have now quashed those rumors, among them Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy, who made it clear to Variety that he was not in the running and was very content in his current post; Kirsten Niehuus, head of funding org Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, who said she...
Speculation in the local industry has been rife with likely candidates to succeed Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who have co-led the Berlinale as artistic and executive directors since 2020 and will step down after this year’s edition when their respective mandates end.
A number of potential contenders have now quashed those rumors, among them Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy, who made it clear to Variety that he was not in the running and was very content in his current post; Kirsten Niehuus, head of funding org Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, who said she...
- 12/11/2023
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Israeli actor David Cunio is believed to have been abducted by Hamas alongside his wife, 3-year-old daughters, sister-in-law and niece during Saturday’s massacre.
Cunio, who made his debut in Berlinale-premiering feature film “Youth” in 2013 alongside his twin brother Eitan Cunio, was a resident of Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Southern Israel that was the scene of some of the worst atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists.
Cunio’s brother-in-law, Aharon Aloni, told CNN that the actor woke up to the sound of bombs on Saturday morning and sought refuge in his home’s bomb shelter alongside his wife Sharon, the couple’s 3-year-old twin daughters, Sharon’s sister Danielle and her 5-year-old daughter Amelia. But after terrorists set fire to their home the family were forced to flee and have not been seen or heard from since, leading officials to believe they are among the 150 people who have been abducted into Gaza.
Cunio, who made his debut in Berlinale-premiering feature film “Youth” in 2013 alongside his twin brother Eitan Cunio, was a resident of Nir Oz, a kibbutz in Southern Israel that was the scene of some of the worst atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian terrorists.
Cunio’s brother-in-law, Aharon Aloni, told CNN that the actor woke up to the sound of bombs on Saturday morning and sought refuge in his home’s bomb shelter alongside his wife Sharon, the couple’s 3-year-old twin daughters, Sharon’s sister Danielle and her 5-year-old daughter Amelia. But after terrorists set fire to their home the family were forced to flee and have not been seen or heard from since, leading officials to believe they are among the 150 people who have been abducted into Gaza.
- 10/12/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
$120,000 of prizes were handed out at the ceremony at the new Sam Spiegel building.
Tommaso Landucci and Damiano Femfert’s Italian drama Children Of The Monkey won the top prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival Industry Days, hosted on Saturday, July 15 on the rooftop of the new Sam Spiegel building in the city.
The film, about a father who forms a stronger bond with his athletic nephew than with his severely disabled son, took the $50,000 Grand Prize from the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel International Film Lab (Jsfl), which organised the event in partnership with Jff.
Scroll down for the full list...
Tommaso Landucci and Damiano Femfert’s Italian drama Children Of The Monkey won the top prize at the Jerusalem Film Festival Industry Days, hosted on Saturday, July 15 on the rooftop of the new Sam Spiegel building in the city.
The film, about a father who forms a stronger bond with his athletic nephew than with his severely disabled son, took the $50,000 Grand Prize from the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel International Film Lab (Jsfl), which organised the event in partnership with Jff.
Scroll down for the full list...
- 7/17/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Kirsten Niehuus, CEO at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, which funds films and TV series production in the Berlin region, and Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, which promotes and supports the release of German films abroad, welcomed a wide array of guests to their garden party at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
Three Medienboard-funded films are in this year’s Competition: Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters,” Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero,” and U.S. helmer Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City.”
Niehuus told Variety: “Those are three very different productions, but it shows the spectrum [of films] that Medienboard supports.” Tunisian films, like “Four Daughters,” need international co-production funding to get made, she said, and “we believe in world cinema, so were very happy [to back it].” Hausner is “one of the most impressive female filmmakers [in the world], and I think there should be more female filmmakers on the Croisette and every other ‘A’ festival,...
Three Medienboard-funded films are in this year’s Competition: Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “Four Daughters,” Austrian filmmaker Jessica Hausner’s “Club Zero,” and U.S. helmer Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City.”
Niehuus told Variety: “Those are three very different productions, but it shows the spectrum [of films] that Medienboard supports.” Tunisian films, like “Four Daughters,” need international co-production funding to get made, she said, and “we believe in world cinema, so were very happy [to back it].” Hausner is “one of the most impressive female filmmakers [in the world], and I think there should be more female filmmakers on the Croisette and every other ‘A’ festival,...
- 5/22/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Projects can be allocated up to €1 million in financing.
Berlin’s VFX scene has received a cash injection of €4m from the German capital’s Senate for the next two years.
The funding is on top of an existing €5m that is already being provided by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg’s Digital Film Production programme.
The additional funding comes with a change to the programme’s guidelines which will now see the maximum grant that can be allocated for a project increasing from the previous €500,000 to €1m.
Projects supported since the programme’s launch in 2020 have included VFX work by Berlin-based...
Berlin’s VFX scene has received a cash injection of €4m from the German capital’s Senate for the next two years.
The funding is on top of an existing €5m that is already being provided by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg’s Digital Film Production programme.
The additional funding comes with a change to the programme’s guidelines which will now see the maximum grant that can be allocated for a project increasing from the previous €500,000 to €1m.
Projects supported since the programme’s launch in 2020 have included VFX work by Berlin-based...
- 3/17/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Denmark’s Oscar© 2023 Entry for Best International Feature: ‘Holy Spider’ directed by Ali AbbasiThis crime genre drama labeled “Persian Noir” is based on a 20 year old case but is shockingly relevant, as is noted in this interview with producer Sol Bondy conducted by Marina Dallarosa.
US Theatrical Release October 28, 2022.
Producer Sol Bondy’s explanation of Holy Spider’s genesis and progress through the Covid infected era details the difficulties this film met at every step. However, once finished, it premiered in Cannes Competition and went on to play in the Jerusalem Film Festival, and in Toronto International Film Festival. He noted that the audience in Toronto; was 30–40% Iranians. Their ability to understand nuances and “code words” brought an element of laughter to an otherwise bloody crime film, labeled “Persian noir”.
The filmmaker Ali Abbasi is Iranian and lives in Denmark, the country submitting the film to the Motion Picture Academy for Oscar nomination. It could never have been shot in Iran due to its subject matter, though they did try, as they did in Turkey as well before shooting in Jordan. The production faced years of Covid‑19 surges, shooting delays, location changes and government resistance.
Holy Spider is based upon a true story of the infamous “spider killings” which took place while the director, Ali Abbasi, was living in the country between 2000 and 2001. It is produced by Germany’s Sol Bondy whose previous film Persian Lessons was also based on a provocative story and was Belarus’ 2020 submission for Oscars. Abbasi’s film Border was a Cannes winner of Un Certain Regard and 2018 Oscar nominated film.
A coproduction of Denmark, Germany, France, and Sweden, Holy Spider tells the story of Saeed Hanaei, a family man who embarks on his own religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission. In all, he murdered 16 women.
This genre film, with misogyny being the core theme, comes at a time where massive protests in Iran, following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini have unified the country in an unprecedented manner. While more and more protesters, many underage, are being killed by the regime, Holy Spider has met Iranian diaspora audiences with cheers.
During Cannes, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburgcelebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival. These were Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider in Competition, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness in Competition, Emily Atef’s More Than Ever in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Un beau matin in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History of Destruction in Special Screenings, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ Mariupolis 2, in Special Screenings. Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding these films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
At their celebration, I spoke with one of the most outstanding young actresses who played Zinab, a sex worker in the Holy Spider. German-based, Iran-born Sara Fazilat is also German Film’s Face To Face ambassador 2022. She is also the lead cast in Nico by Eline Gehring that was shown almost worldwide at numerous film festivals. Unfortunately Nico is not available online in the U.S…yet. It is about Nico who is enjoying the summer in Berlin with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack pulls her out of her carefree everyday life. Traumatized by the crime, the geriatric nurse decides never to be a victim again and begins to train with a karate world champion.
I also saw Sol Bondy of One Two Films, one of the lead producers of Holy Spider. Produced along with Jacob Jarek of Denmark’s Profile Pictures, coproducers were Nordisk Film Production, Wild Bunch International, Film i Väst, Why Not Productions, Zdf/Arte and Arte France Cinéma.
Sol Bondy and Jacob Jarek also stand out as alumni of Berlinale Talents. They both co-produced Icelandic films The County and Under The Tree previously.
Jarek, who went to the National Film School of Denmark with Abbasi and was one of the producers of his debut feature Shelley, says the director “had this story in his mind for a long time but we officially started developing it in 2016”. After Abbasi’s second feature Border was an international success at Cannes and beyond in 2018, the filmmaker was in demand. He told Jarek, “Now’s our chance to make Holy Spider,” a project always close to his heart.
An Interview with Sol Bondy by Marina Dalarossa
Marina: So the first question is just about you and the producer Jakob Jarek. Could you talk a bit about how you actually came to work together?
Sol: We didn’t do the Berlinale Talents the same year. I did it relatively late in my career, and truthfully, mainly because of the woman who runs the program, she urged me to do it. I had worked for the talents for many, many years and quite a few of my friends had done it during film school and by the time I did it, I’d been out of film school running my company for 6 years already.
But we didn’t meet there. Jakob and I were both minor coproducers on an Icelandic film called Under the Tree. That’s how we met. And then we also were both minor coproducers on another Icelandic film called The County.
We knew of each other before, I knew some people that he worked with and thought they were doing really interesting films. And then in Cannes 2018, Border had just premiered a couple of days before, everybody was talking about it and Jakob asked me if I wanted to join the next film of Ali? I didn’t read a script or ask any questions; I also didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I said yes immediately. I sensed this could be a great opportunity.
And that instinct was right. The film was financed relatively quickly and within a year we had most of the budget together. But then Covid came. I’m sure we’ll get into that later!
Marina: Yes thanks. I want to know if you think being in Talents helped your career at all?
Sol: Well, given the very specific timing of it, I think it would have helped my career much more if I had done it earlier. But there are also other great intiatives out there, postgraduate training for producers. Before Talents, I did a program called Transatlantic Partners in 2013. That was really helpful and actually generated two big projects for me. One was Angry Indian Goddessesand the other was The Tale.
A couple of years later I did a program called Inside Pictures. It was also extremely valuable and really helped me make some really important business decisions going forward. Jacob also did this program but again, in another year. There are many great initiatives. Also I’ve always loved going to festivals. They make your network bigger and stronger.
Marina: You talked about how you came on board to produce Holy Spider, but what do you think made Jakob decide you should come in at that point?
Sol: He had a hard task producing and financing a film set in the Middle East without any Middle Eastern money. Also, with this topic it was clear you can’t just roll into Iran and make a film there.
On top of that, there had been a shift in the Danish government. Suddenly, to reach a certain amount of financing from the Danish Film Institute, the film had to be culturally relevant to Denmark. So I believe that halved the financing opportunities for Jacob in Denmark. He needed money from outside Denmark to make this film; he needed coproducers.
He’s well versed in international coproductions, so he knew when is a good time to attach coproducing partners and also how much time it can take. For instance, we often get approached with projects and they tell us they will be shooting in three months. We have to tell them that when we coproduce in Germany, we have deadlines and a lot of bureaucracy, so while we can do a lot — we’re very lucky with that — it still takes time.
To get back to the first question: We were ready to go, we had the budget we thought we needed to make the film and when Covid came and then Jakob found himself in a situation where two of his projects, a series and a feature film, were hit by Covid. And it was unclear how these massive losses were going to be covered. The world was in turmoil and Jakob’s projects in limbo.
It became clear, he could currently not commit to the project — such a challenging production by a very demanding director. Ali (the director) on the other hand, who could have chosen any project after his widely successful and much loved Border, was saying, “Guys, I get it, but I don’t care about circumstances. If you guys can’t figure out how we can make this film now, then it’s over, I’m out.”
And that put me under maximum pressure because making films is squarey our only source of income. I had three employees to pay, was expecting my second child, and at that pont, we didn’t know that the German government would be helping out companies like ours. Without this film, it seemed I would have to close my shop. So Jacob and I looked at what options we had and decided I would go for it. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I said, Ok, I’ll do it.
What was unfortunate at that time is that Jordan, during the first wave, basically closed the borders and would not let anyone in. So the country that we had scouted and wanted to shoot in was essentially shut down. We couldn’t really plan a production there because nobody knew when the borders would open again or if they might close again at some point.
So it was decided to go to Turkey. It didn’t look like Erdogan was going to close Turkey. So we went into Turkey and we scouted for weeks with a big crew, the cinematographer, the production designer, the line producers from Germany, the Turkish line producer who we hired to service the production. There was a big gang scouting different cities in Turkey. And although it was harder to match Iran, we found the right locations a couple of weeks later.
The crew was growing; we were exploring how to bring period cars over the border. Pre-production was basically in full swing, at the same time, we were waiting for a shooting permit, and this shooting permit never came. So I decided to do some more digging because this was making me very uncomfortable. I knew I couldn’t shoot without the permit. I was about to spend a significant amount of more money and I’d already spent around €50,000. Not being able to shoot the film in Turkey would mean that money would just be down the drain. Plus the entire production plan. You can imagine, with everything there, where we came from, the delays that we had already encountered, it was nerve-wracking.
We then basically found out behind the scenes that our application had gone from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Turkish Ambassador and he got the feedback that this film should not be supported.
I then took Ali and my two line producers and we flew to Ankara to meet with the Ministry of Culture. And they told us to speak to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told us that to get shooting permits we hd to speak with the Ministry of Culture. They basically used us like a pinball. We realiaed that we had been censored in Turkey. And it was a huge blow. I fet so hepless. Everyone was upset. Ali was furious.
It took some time to get the whole demoralized team back into the mental state to give it another go back in Jordan, where the borders had re-opened but which was logistically much more complicated.
And we went for it. We found new locations, hired local crews, got visas for our Iranian players and even managed to import Iranian cars to Jordan. You could make a documentary feature about just this aspect of the production of importing these cars. They arrived after a huge delay, when we were already shooting, but we managed to make it work.
Marina: This sounds intense. Were there other significant issues?
One of the most challenging aspects of the film was the casting, which was very complex, as we were mainly looking for Iranians who didn’t live in Iran. We knew participating in this film would be challenging for their future in the country. But Ali was adamant that his two main roles needed to be perfect in terms of their body language and the dialect. So we essentially needed people from Iran. We had found two who were willing to take the risk with all the consequences even potentially relocating after the shoot. The lead actress finally came for the makeup and hair test about 10 days before shooting. Couple days later she came to my hotel room crying and said, “I can’t do it. It’s too much.”
So we were a week before shooting and we didn’t have a lead actress. It was another massive blow. And this is when it was decided after bit of back and forth and deliberation that our casting director Zar Amir-Ebrahimi would step in and play the role. And she was rewarded in Cannes with the Best Actress Golden Palm. It’s a pretty crazy story.
And then, just two days before we were Finally going to shoot the film, Covid hit us in a way where couldn’t start shooting. I felt like I didn’t know if I was making a film or if I was in “Lost in La Mancha — Part 2”. My wife for months kept telling me I should have a documentary crew filming all this madness. I told her I was going to murder someone if I had a documentary crew around.
Marina: Wow! And after the film was completed, Denmark’s decided to submit your film to the Academy Awards. Do you know what went into their decision?
Sol: Well, the Danes may have one of the best track records in recent years when it comes to choosing the film and then being nominated or even winning. I think in the last 11 years they won twice. They got 7 nominations and I think 9 made the shortlist.
So this speaks to two things: First of all, the quality of the films they make in this small country. And then, they really look carefully at which films has the biggest chances. In our case: no other Danish film had been to Cannes competition. No other film had US distribution and played Telluride and TIFF. And already in Cannes, we had the fantastic PR of past successes like Drive My Car and Flee, so it made a lot of sense for them to choose Holy Spider. It’s still a very brave choice because it’s not a very Danish film on the outside. On the inside it looks different, you know the composer is Danish, the editor is Danish, the production designer, ok she’s Swedish, but Ali also has a Danish passport. Jakob is like me, a delegate producer and is Danish. So it has a strong Danish footprint.
Many outlets, like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter included the film in their predictions to get the nomination. So I guess all this helped the Danes come to this decision.
Marina: How does it feel to be chosen by the Danes and also to be chosen for Cannes and have gotten so many prizes already?
Sol: What can I say? It feels great! At the same time, it’s also a lot of hard work. And it’s something that we always had our eyes upon, also because Border won the Un Certain Regard. So after that, the next step is to be in Cannes Competition. Now I’ve seen this go both ways, The Icelandic film where Jacob and I were minority producers together: the filmmaker had previously done the film Rams, which had also won Un Certain Regard. We all hoped to go to Cannes Competition with this new film, The County. But we didn’t get into Cannes at all. We premiered in Toronto, which is good, but it’s not the same So looking coldly at that, you could say we failed.
Another example would be a finished film, that I was happy to be a coproducer on, called The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki . It won Un Certain Regard the year after Rams did. And so the director wanted his next film, Compartment No. 6, to go to Cannes Competition — and it did. It even won the Jury Prize! Sadly, I wasn’t involved in that production.
This is something we were discussing throughout this entire production. We were always saying the film was our chance to show the world Ali was not a one-hit wonder. You know, many people refer to Border as Ali’s first film, which it’s not. It’s his second film, his first film Shelley did well, but it wasn’t a massive breakout hit like Border was. It’s hard to follow up on a success like that.
So that fact that we succeeded in following up the Certain Regard win with getting into Competition was very exciting and rewarding. I also have to give credit to our French co-producers Wild Bunch and Why Not Productions. While they didn’t really have a lot to do with the physical production, they really helped in securing the world premiere. They gave us invaluable advice in the last stretch.
I can say that until now, we have achieved every goal that we had, and there are a few exciting steps ahead. The US release had a great limited opening weekend, the nominations at the European Film Awards are coming up and then there’s of course the Oscar shortlist of 15 films just before Christmas. We’re crossing our fingers!
Marina: I also have to ask, with the recent events in Iran, was this something you were thinking of making the film?
Sol: Well no, of course not! But the fact that our film is based on a 20 year old case — and has become so shockingly timely is incredible. Showing the film at festivals where many Iranians attend has been such an intense experience. People have thanked us for our courage to finally make a film that shows a (big) portion of their reality, one they don’t get to see in Iranian cinema. And of course the film’s main theme, misogyny, is squarely what is firing up this revolution in Iran. It really feels like the days of the Islamic Republic will be over, the different groups withing the Iranian society are more united then ever before, men are supporting women on the street and the next generation isn’t willing to give up. It’s insane what is happening there and honestly, more people should be talking about this. They are killing teenagers in the street.
Marina: The next couple questions I want to ask you are more general about your career. What did you think when you chose your career?
Sol: My parents are both filmmakers, but I never really cared too much about their work. I was quite oblivious to what was what was going on right in front of me.
But through my parents connections, I was cast as a child actor and did quite a bit of acting, so I always thought that after high school I would become an actor. But then I realized maybe I should also look for something behind the camera, because I remembered as a child actor, people were so nice and the jobs seemed fun and interesting and so I did an internship. And it became clear to me that I needed to become a director! I thought this would be the perfect way to combine all my talents.
It took three or four years and a lot of failed applications for directing to realize that I would not be studying film directing at any film school. But Reinhad Hauff, the head of the dffb, the Berlin Film School, said at some point after my second failed application that he thought I might be good for his producing class. And that’s how I got into producing after never having given it a thought before.
And I really came to terms with my profession the end of my second year while working with this one director, Grzegorz Muskala, I realized if I could find people like him, with an exceptional level of talent and tenacity and foresight I could be the right person to support them. I just needed to be very picky about who I chose to work with.
On the other hand, I also realized I have a real knack for distribution, because many producing students in my film school would just produce a film and then they would just produce the next film. And this was always crazy for me, because when the film is finished, finding distribution for your film is the most exciting moment. Like now we can do something, even for shorts! We can take the film to festivals, we can sell it to TV, this is the fun part. Of course you need to have the right film.
But I quickly earned a reputation of being somebody who took very good care of his films. All my films went to many festivals and won awards and did well. So at the end of my studies I graduated with a 1.2 million feature, which was a big achievement at that time, this was 2010. I also launched my company more or less at the same time. Since then we’ve produced or coproduced 16 films.
Marina: What do you think drives you now to continue?
Sol: There was a moment, a couple of years ago where I realized I needed to shift gears. I separated from my previous business partner with whom I had had set up the company. We built the company together, but I realized our visions weren’t really aligned anymore. I had this urge to do slightly bigger films and my little family was growing and I simply needed to make more money — while staying true to the films that I love.
So rather than diversifying with many small projects, I wanted to make fewer films but larger ones. That is also a bigger risk in a way. I wanted to take it a bit slower than the previous 10 years. Maybe also because my wife is a filmmaker. We’ve had two kids, and now it’s also her turn to go to the forefront and make more films.
Marina: And so now I guess one could say you’ve kind of made it to the top or at least you’ve checked off all those goals that you wanted to reach.
Sol: Everything that has happened with Holy Spider is really great. And having a film in Cannes Competition is quite special — who knows if it’s going to happen again? So maybe, maybe this is the top.
Marina: Do you have different kinds of goals now?
Sol: No I think I have similar goals. I like to aim high. I’m ambitious. But I also know what’s within reach. I wouldn’t set goals that are completely unrealistic in that sense.
Marina: And can you talk about what you are working on right now, so that we can start tracking it?
Sol: Yeah, so Northern Comfort is a is a fear of flying comedy by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, the same Icelandic director of Under the Tree. And this is his English language debut because his previous films have been remade in the US. We thought, why not just shoot in English language in the first place?
A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north. That film is a lot of fun for a change! And I know there’s appetite in the market for comedies. We’re in the final stages of postproduction and hoping to show the film sometime early next year.
Köln 75 is our real passion project. It’s set in Germany. The story came to us through Oren Moverman who approached us because we had worked on The Tale together. He felt that we would be the right people to be producing this. It’s a beautiful and inspiring great true story about a 17 year old school girl who organizes one of the the world’s most famous concerts on German soil, the Cologne concert from Keith Jarrett in 1975 which is widely regarded as his masterpiece and sold nearly 5 mil. copies worldwide. It really was the soundtrack of an entire generation. So it’s really exciting. An uplifting and fun story with a fantastic script by Ido Fluk. We already have amazing partners to work on this film.
Marina: Is it different now working on German soil?
Sol: Well it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time in a couple years and it is different, yes. Production has exploded across the world with the arrival of the streamers. In Germany we really feel it. All the actors, all the crews, everybody is just like working like crazy. So you could say of course it’s a great time to be a producer. But for us it’s always hard to make a film. Always has been, always will be, there are really no free rides if you’re producing independent films.
Marina: And last question, what advice do you have for young filmmakers?
Sol: The most simple and striking advice that I received myself at some point, though at first I nearly missed it, was from Katriel Schory who ran the film fund in Israel for a long time.
Sydney knows him well I’m sure.
He gave this one inspirational speech at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2006, when I was a film student. He said the most important thing for a producer is you always have to be nice, open and friendly. And I was like, well yeah… But the way that he explained it got to me. He said that everybody who’s in a certain position of power has a free choice who he wants to work with.
And these people are always going to choose to work with the people who are nice, open and friendly and if you are that person and if you are nice, open and friendly all the time, then you’re just more likely to climb the steps of your career. And at the same time you will make this industry a better place to work in.
I found it very compelling and striking and I’ve realized that that really is what brings you forward. And so I always tried to be that person. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, so I wonder if maybe I’ve lost it a little bit on the way. Producing Holy Spider was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and has surely made me very cynical at times, but that is definitely a good piece of advice for young filmmaker, I think.
Holy Spider, 115 minutes
Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden
Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Screenplay: Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami
Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Nima Akbarpour, Sara Fazilat, Sina Parvaneh, Alice Rahimi, Mesbah Taleb
Cinematography by: Nadim Carlsen
Film Editing: Olivia Neergaard-Holm
Production Designer: Lina Nordqvist
Costumes Cesigner: Hanadi Khurma
Music: Martin Dirkov
Produced by: Sol Bondy, Jacob Jarek
Co-producers: Fred Burle, Eva Åkergren, Vincent Maraval, Calle Marthin, Peter Possne, Olivier Père, Rémi Burah
Production Cos: Profile Pictures, One Two Films, Why Not Productions, Nordisk Film Production Ab
Backing: Danish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Moin Filmförderung, Dfff, Ffa, Nordisk Film + TV Fund, Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages, Film I Väst, Zdf, Arte, Arte France Cinéma
Isa Wild Bunch has thus far sold Holy Spider to Utopia for U.S., Cinéart for Benelux, A-One Films Baltic for Baltics, Academy 2 ror Italy, Alamode Filmsfor Germany, BTeam Pictures for Spain, Bir Film for Turkey, Camera Film for Denmark, Canibal for Mexico, Cinobo for Greece, Edko Films for Hong Kong, Falcon Pictures for Indonesia, Film Europe for Czechia and Slovakia, Fivia/Cenex for Yugoslavia, Gaga for Japan, Gutek Film for Poland, Independenta Film for Romania, Karma for Spain, Metropolitan Filmexportfor France, Mubi for UK Ireland, Malaysia, India; Nordisk and Mer for Norway, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, Pancinema for South Korea, United King Films for Israel, Vertigo for Hungary, Xenix for Switzerland, Front Row for Mena.
US Theatrical Release October 28, 2022.
Producer Sol Bondy’s explanation of Holy Spider’s genesis and progress through the Covid infected era details the difficulties this film met at every step. However, once finished, it premiered in Cannes Competition and went on to play in the Jerusalem Film Festival, and in Toronto International Film Festival. He noted that the audience in Toronto; was 30–40% Iranians. Their ability to understand nuances and “code words” brought an element of laughter to an otherwise bloody crime film, labeled “Persian noir”.
The filmmaker Ali Abbasi is Iranian and lives in Denmark, the country submitting the film to the Motion Picture Academy for Oscar nomination. It could never have been shot in Iran due to its subject matter, though they did try, as they did in Turkey as well before shooting in Jordan. The production faced years of Covid‑19 surges, shooting delays, location changes and government resistance.
Holy Spider is based upon a true story of the infamous “spider killings” which took place while the director, Ali Abbasi, was living in the country between 2000 and 2001. It is produced by Germany’s Sol Bondy whose previous film Persian Lessons was also based on a provocative story and was Belarus’ 2020 submission for Oscars. Abbasi’s film Border was a Cannes winner of Un Certain Regard and 2018 Oscar nominated film.
A coproduction of Denmark, Germany, France, and Sweden, Holy Spider tells the story of Saeed Hanaei, a family man who embarks on his own religious quest to “cleanse” the holy Iranian city of Mashhad of immoral and corrupt street prostitutes. After murdering several women, he grows ever more desperate about the lack of public interest in his divine mission. In all, he murdered 16 women.
This genre film, with misogyny being the core theme, comes at a time where massive protests in Iran, following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini have unified the country in an unprecedented manner. While more and more protesters, many underage, are being killed by the regime, Holy Spider has met Iranian diaspora audiences with cheers.
During Cannes, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburgcelebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival. These were Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider in Competition, Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness in Competition, Emily Atef’s More Than Ever in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s Un beau matin in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History of Destruction in Special Screenings, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ Mariupolis 2, in Special Screenings. Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding these films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
At their celebration, I spoke with one of the most outstanding young actresses who played Zinab, a sex worker in the Holy Spider. German-based, Iran-born Sara Fazilat is also German Film’s Face To Face ambassador 2022. She is also the lead cast in Nico by Eline Gehring that was shown almost worldwide at numerous film festivals. Unfortunately Nico is not available online in the U.S…yet. It is about Nico who is enjoying the summer in Berlin with her best friend Rosa until a racist attack pulls her out of her carefree everyday life. Traumatized by the crime, the geriatric nurse decides never to be a victim again and begins to train with a karate world champion.
I also saw Sol Bondy of One Two Films, one of the lead producers of Holy Spider. Produced along with Jacob Jarek of Denmark’s Profile Pictures, coproducers were Nordisk Film Production, Wild Bunch International, Film i Väst, Why Not Productions, Zdf/Arte and Arte France Cinéma.
Sol Bondy and Jacob Jarek also stand out as alumni of Berlinale Talents. They both co-produced Icelandic films The County and Under The Tree previously.
Jarek, who went to the National Film School of Denmark with Abbasi and was one of the producers of his debut feature Shelley, says the director “had this story in his mind for a long time but we officially started developing it in 2016”. After Abbasi’s second feature Border was an international success at Cannes and beyond in 2018, the filmmaker was in demand. He told Jarek, “Now’s our chance to make Holy Spider,” a project always close to his heart.
An Interview with Sol Bondy by Marina Dalarossa
Marina: So the first question is just about you and the producer Jakob Jarek. Could you talk a bit about how you actually came to work together?
Sol: We didn’t do the Berlinale Talents the same year. I did it relatively late in my career, and truthfully, mainly because of the woman who runs the program, she urged me to do it. I had worked for the talents for many, many years and quite a few of my friends had done it during film school and by the time I did it, I’d been out of film school running my company for 6 years already.
But we didn’t meet there. Jakob and I were both minor coproducers on an Icelandic film called Under the Tree. That’s how we met. And then we also were both minor coproducers on another Icelandic film called The County.
We knew of each other before, I knew some people that he worked with and thought they were doing really interesting films. And then in Cannes 2018, Border had just premiered a couple of days before, everybody was talking about it and Jakob asked me if I wanted to join the next film of Ali? I didn’t read a script or ask any questions; I also didn’t know what I was getting myself into but I said yes immediately. I sensed this could be a great opportunity.
And that instinct was right. The film was financed relatively quickly and within a year we had most of the budget together. But then Covid came. I’m sure we’ll get into that later!
Marina: Yes thanks. I want to know if you think being in Talents helped your career at all?
Sol: Well, given the very specific timing of it, I think it would have helped my career much more if I had done it earlier. But there are also other great intiatives out there, postgraduate training for producers. Before Talents, I did a program called Transatlantic Partners in 2013. That was really helpful and actually generated two big projects for me. One was Angry Indian Goddessesand the other was The Tale.
A couple of years later I did a program called Inside Pictures. It was also extremely valuable and really helped me make some really important business decisions going forward. Jacob also did this program but again, in another year. There are many great initiatives. Also I’ve always loved going to festivals. They make your network bigger and stronger.
Marina: You talked about how you came on board to produce Holy Spider, but what do you think made Jakob decide you should come in at that point?
Sol: He had a hard task producing and financing a film set in the Middle East without any Middle Eastern money. Also, with this topic it was clear you can’t just roll into Iran and make a film there.
On top of that, there had been a shift in the Danish government. Suddenly, to reach a certain amount of financing from the Danish Film Institute, the film had to be culturally relevant to Denmark. So I believe that halved the financing opportunities for Jacob in Denmark. He needed money from outside Denmark to make this film; he needed coproducers.
He’s well versed in international coproductions, so he knew when is a good time to attach coproducing partners and also how much time it can take. For instance, we often get approached with projects and they tell us they will be shooting in three months. We have to tell them that when we coproduce in Germany, we have deadlines and a lot of bureaucracy, so while we can do a lot — we’re very lucky with that — it still takes time.
To get back to the first question: We were ready to go, we had the budget we thought we needed to make the film and when Covid came and then Jakob found himself in a situation where two of his projects, a series and a feature film, were hit by Covid. And it was unclear how these massive losses were going to be covered. The world was in turmoil and Jakob’s projects in limbo.
It became clear, he could currently not commit to the project — such a challenging production by a very demanding director. Ali (the director) on the other hand, who could have chosen any project after his widely successful and much loved Border, was saying, “Guys, I get it, but I don’t care about circumstances. If you guys can’t figure out how we can make this film now, then it’s over, I’m out.”
And that put me under maximum pressure because making films is squarey our only source of income. I had three employees to pay, was expecting my second child, and at that pont, we didn’t know that the German government would be helping out companies like ours. Without this film, it seemed I would have to close my shop. So Jacob and I looked at what options we had and decided I would go for it. I didn’t know how, I didn’t know when, but I said, Ok, I’ll do it.
What was unfortunate at that time is that Jordan, during the first wave, basically closed the borders and would not let anyone in. So the country that we had scouted and wanted to shoot in was essentially shut down. We couldn’t really plan a production there because nobody knew when the borders would open again or if they might close again at some point.
So it was decided to go to Turkey. It didn’t look like Erdogan was going to close Turkey. So we went into Turkey and we scouted for weeks with a big crew, the cinematographer, the production designer, the line producers from Germany, the Turkish line producer who we hired to service the production. There was a big gang scouting different cities in Turkey. And although it was harder to match Iran, we found the right locations a couple of weeks later.
The crew was growing; we were exploring how to bring period cars over the border. Pre-production was basically in full swing, at the same time, we were waiting for a shooting permit, and this shooting permit never came. So I decided to do some more digging because this was making me very uncomfortable. I knew I couldn’t shoot without the permit. I was about to spend a significant amount of more money and I’d already spent around €50,000. Not being able to shoot the film in Turkey would mean that money would just be down the drain. Plus the entire production plan. You can imagine, with everything there, where we came from, the delays that we had already encountered, it was nerve-wracking.
We then basically found out behind the scenes that our application had gone from the Ministry of Culture to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Turkish Ambassador and he got the feedback that this film should not be supported.
I then took Ali and my two line producers and we flew to Ankara to meet with the Ministry of Culture. And they told us to speak to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told us that to get shooting permits we hd to speak with the Ministry of Culture. They basically used us like a pinball. We realiaed that we had been censored in Turkey. And it was a huge blow. I fet so hepless. Everyone was upset. Ali was furious.
It took some time to get the whole demoralized team back into the mental state to give it another go back in Jordan, where the borders had re-opened but which was logistically much more complicated.
And we went for it. We found new locations, hired local crews, got visas for our Iranian players and even managed to import Iranian cars to Jordan. You could make a documentary feature about just this aspect of the production of importing these cars. They arrived after a huge delay, when we were already shooting, but we managed to make it work.
Marina: This sounds intense. Were there other significant issues?
One of the most challenging aspects of the film was the casting, which was very complex, as we were mainly looking for Iranians who didn’t live in Iran. We knew participating in this film would be challenging for their future in the country. But Ali was adamant that his two main roles needed to be perfect in terms of their body language and the dialect. So we essentially needed people from Iran. We had found two who were willing to take the risk with all the consequences even potentially relocating after the shoot. The lead actress finally came for the makeup and hair test about 10 days before shooting. Couple days later she came to my hotel room crying and said, “I can’t do it. It’s too much.”
So we were a week before shooting and we didn’t have a lead actress. It was another massive blow. And this is when it was decided after bit of back and forth and deliberation that our casting director Zar Amir-Ebrahimi would step in and play the role. And she was rewarded in Cannes with the Best Actress Golden Palm. It’s a pretty crazy story.
And then, just two days before we were Finally going to shoot the film, Covid hit us in a way where couldn’t start shooting. I felt like I didn’t know if I was making a film or if I was in “Lost in La Mancha — Part 2”. My wife for months kept telling me I should have a documentary crew filming all this madness. I told her I was going to murder someone if I had a documentary crew around.
Marina: Wow! And after the film was completed, Denmark’s decided to submit your film to the Academy Awards. Do you know what went into their decision?
Sol: Well, the Danes may have one of the best track records in recent years when it comes to choosing the film and then being nominated or even winning. I think in the last 11 years they won twice. They got 7 nominations and I think 9 made the shortlist.
So this speaks to two things: First of all, the quality of the films they make in this small country. And then, they really look carefully at which films has the biggest chances. In our case: no other Danish film had been to Cannes competition. No other film had US distribution and played Telluride and TIFF. And already in Cannes, we had the fantastic PR of past successes like Drive My Car and Flee, so it made a lot of sense for them to choose Holy Spider. It’s still a very brave choice because it’s not a very Danish film on the outside. On the inside it looks different, you know the composer is Danish, the editor is Danish, the production designer, ok she’s Swedish, but Ali also has a Danish passport. Jakob is like me, a delegate producer and is Danish. So it has a strong Danish footprint.
Many outlets, like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter included the film in their predictions to get the nomination. So I guess all this helped the Danes come to this decision.
Marina: How does it feel to be chosen by the Danes and also to be chosen for Cannes and have gotten so many prizes already?
Sol: What can I say? It feels great! At the same time, it’s also a lot of hard work. And it’s something that we always had our eyes upon, also because Border won the Un Certain Regard. So after that, the next step is to be in Cannes Competition. Now I’ve seen this go both ways, The Icelandic film where Jacob and I were minority producers together: the filmmaker had previously done the film Rams, which had also won Un Certain Regard. We all hoped to go to Cannes Competition with this new film, The County. But we didn’t get into Cannes at all. We premiered in Toronto, which is good, but it’s not the same So looking coldly at that, you could say we failed.
Another example would be a finished film, that I was happy to be a coproducer on, called The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki . It won Un Certain Regard the year after Rams did. And so the director wanted his next film, Compartment No. 6, to go to Cannes Competition — and it did. It even won the Jury Prize! Sadly, I wasn’t involved in that production.
This is something we were discussing throughout this entire production. We were always saying the film was our chance to show the world Ali was not a one-hit wonder. You know, many people refer to Border as Ali’s first film, which it’s not. It’s his second film, his first film Shelley did well, but it wasn’t a massive breakout hit like Border was. It’s hard to follow up on a success like that.
So that fact that we succeeded in following up the Certain Regard win with getting into Competition was very exciting and rewarding. I also have to give credit to our French co-producers Wild Bunch and Why Not Productions. While they didn’t really have a lot to do with the physical production, they really helped in securing the world premiere. They gave us invaluable advice in the last stretch.
I can say that until now, we have achieved every goal that we had, and there are a few exciting steps ahead. The US release had a great limited opening weekend, the nominations at the European Film Awards are coming up and then there’s of course the Oscar shortlist of 15 films just before Christmas. We’re crossing our fingers!
Marina: I also have to ask, with the recent events in Iran, was this something you were thinking of making the film?
Sol: Well no, of course not! But the fact that our film is based on a 20 year old case — and has become so shockingly timely is incredible. Showing the film at festivals where many Iranians attend has been such an intense experience. People have thanked us for our courage to finally make a film that shows a (big) portion of their reality, one they don’t get to see in Iranian cinema. And of course the film’s main theme, misogyny, is squarely what is firing up this revolution in Iran. It really feels like the days of the Islamic Republic will be over, the different groups withing the Iranian society are more united then ever before, men are supporting women on the street and the next generation isn’t willing to give up. It’s insane what is happening there and honestly, more people should be talking about this. They are killing teenagers in the street.
Marina: The next couple questions I want to ask you are more general about your career. What did you think when you chose your career?
Sol: My parents are both filmmakers, but I never really cared too much about their work. I was quite oblivious to what was what was going on right in front of me.
But through my parents connections, I was cast as a child actor and did quite a bit of acting, so I always thought that after high school I would become an actor. But then I realized maybe I should also look for something behind the camera, because I remembered as a child actor, people were so nice and the jobs seemed fun and interesting and so I did an internship. And it became clear to me that I needed to become a director! I thought this would be the perfect way to combine all my talents.
It took three or four years and a lot of failed applications for directing to realize that I would not be studying film directing at any film school. But Reinhad Hauff, the head of the dffb, the Berlin Film School, said at some point after my second failed application that he thought I might be good for his producing class. And that’s how I got into producing after never having given it a thought before.
And I really came to terms with my profession the end of my second year while working with this one director, Grzegorz Muskala, I realized if I could find people like him, with an exceptional level of talent and tenacity and foresight I could be the right person to support them. I just needed to be very picky about who I chose to work with.
On the other hand, I also realized I have a real knack for distribution, because many producing students in my film school would just produce a film and then they would just produce the next film. And this was always crazy for me, because when the film is finished, finding distribution for your film is the most exciting moment. Like now we can do something, even for shorts! We can take the film to festivals, we can sell it to TV, this is the fun part. Of course you need to have the right film.
But I quickly earned a reputation of being somebody who took very good care of his films. All my films went to many festivals and won awards and did well. So at the end of my studies I graduated with a 1.2 million feature, which was a big achievement at that time, this was 2010. I also launched my company more or less at the same time. Since then we’ve produced or coproduced 16 films.
Marina: What do you think drives you now to continue?
Sol: There was a moment, a couple of years ago where I realized I needed to shift gears. I separated from my previous business partner with whom I had had set up the company. We built the company together, but I realized our visions weren’t really aligned anymore. I had this urge to do slightly bigger films and my little family was growing and I simply needed to make more money — while staying true to the films that I love.
So rather than diversifying with many small projects, I wanted to make fewer films but larger ones. That is also a bigger risk in a way. I wanted to take it a bit slower than the previous 10 years. Maybe also because my wife is a filmmaker. We’ve had two kids, and now it’s also her turn to go to the forefront and make more films.
Marina: And so now I guess one could say you’ve kind of made it to the top or at least you’ve checked off all those goals that you wanted to reach.
Sol: Everything that has happened with Holy Spider is really great. And having a film in Cannes Competition is quite special — who knows if it’s going to happen again? So maybe, maybe this is the top.
Marina: Do you have different kinds of goals now?
Sol: No I think I have similar goals. I like to aim high. I’m ambitious. But I also know what’s within reach. I wouldn’t set goals that are completely unrealistic in that sense.
Marina: And can you talk about what you are working on right now, so that we can start tracking it?
Sol: Yeah, so Northern Comfort is a is a fear of flying comedy by Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson, the same Icelandic director of Under the Tree. And this is his English language debut because his previous films have been remade in the US. We thought, why not just shoot in English language in the first place?
A diverse group of people with a chronic fear of flying are stranded in the wintry north. That film is a lot of fun for a change! And I know there’s appetite in the market for comedies. We’re in the final stages of postproduction and hoping to show the film sometime early next year.
Köln 75 is our real passion project. It’s set in Germany. The story came to us through Oren Moverman who approached us because we had worked on The Tale together. He felt that we would be the right people to be producing this. It’s a beautiful and inspiring great true story about a 17 year old school girl who organizes one of the the world’s most famous concerts on German soil, the Cologne concert from Keith Jarrett in 1975 which is widely regarded as his masterpiece and sold nearly 5 mil. copies worldwide. It really was the soundtrack of an entire generation. So it’s really exciting. An uplifting and fun story with a fantastic script by Ido Fluk. We already have amazing partners to work on this film.
Marina: Is it different now working on German soil?
Sol: Well it’s not the first time, but it’s the first time in a couple years and it is different, yes. Production has exploded across the world with the arrival of the streamers. In Germany we really feel it. All the actors, all the crews, everybody is just like working like crazy. So you could say of course it’s a great time to be a producer. But for us it’s always hard to make a film. Always has been, always will be, there are really no free rides if you’re producing independent films.
Marina: And last question, what advice do you have for young filmmakers?
Sol: The most simple and striking advice that I received myself at some point, though at first I nearly missed it, was from Katriel Schory who ran the film fund in Israel for a long time.
Sydney knows him well I’m sure.
He gave this one inspirational speech at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2006, when I was a film student. He said the most important thing for a producer is you always have to be nice, open and friendly. And I was like, well yeah… But the way that he explained it got to me. He said that everybody who’s in a certain position of power has a free choice who he wants to work with.
And these people are always going to choose to work with the people who are nice, open and friendly and if you are that person and if you are nice, open and friendly all the time, then you’re just more likely to climb the steps of your career. And at the same time you will make this industry a better place to work in.
I found it very compelling and striking and I’ve realized that that really is what brings you forward. And so I always tried to be that person. I haven’t thought about it in a long time, so I wonder if maybe I’ve lost it a little bit on the way. Producing Holy Spider was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and has surely made me very cynical at times, but that is definitely a good piece of advice for young filmmaker, I think.
Holy Spider, 115 minutes
Germany, Denmark, France, Sweden
Directed by: Ali Abbasi
Screenplay: Ali Abbasi, Afshin Kamran Bahrami
Cast: Zar Amir Ebrahimi, Mehdi Bajestani, Arash Ashtiani, Forouzan Jamshidnejad, Nima Akbarpour, Sara Fazilat, Sina Parvaneh, Alice Rahimi, Mesbah Taleb
Cinematography by: Nadim Carlsen
Film Editing: Olivia Neergaard-Holm
Production Designer: Lina Nordqvist
Costumes Cesigner: Hanadi Khurma
Music: Martin Dirkov
Produced by: Sol Bondy, Jacob Jarek
Co-producers: Fred Burle, Eva Åkergren, Vincent Maraval, Calle Marthin, Peter Possne, Olivier Père, Rémi Burah
Production Cos: Profile Pictures, One Two Films, Why Not Productions, Nordisk Film Production Ab
Backing: Danish Film Institute, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Moin Filmförderung, Dfff, Ffa, Nordisk Film + TV Fund, Swedish Film Institute, Eurimages, Film I Väst, Zdf, Arte, Arte France Cinéma
Isa Wild Bunch has thus far sold Holy Spider to Utopia for U.S., Cinéart for Benelux, A-One Films Baltic for Baltics, Academy 2 ror Italy, Alamode Filmsfor Germany, BTeam Pictures for Spain, Bir Film for Turkey, Camera Film for Denmark, Canibal for Mexico, Cinobo for Greece, Edko Films for Hong Kong, Falcon Pictures for Indonesia, Film Europe for Czechia and Slovakia, Fivia/Cenex for Yugoslavia, Gaga for Japan, Gutek Film for Poland, Independenta Film for Romania, Karma for Spain, Metropolitan Filmexportfor France, Mubi for UK Ireland, Malaysia, India; Nordisk and Mer for Norway, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, Pancinema for South Korea, United King Films for Israel, Vertigo for Hungary, Xenix for Switzerland, Front Row for Mena.
- 12/18/2022
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
The influence of streaming companies was a central topic of the Women in Leadership panel at the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival this past weekend.
The lengthy and wide-ranging session was hosted by journalist and Deadline critic Anna Smith of the Girls On Film Podcast with executives Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg), Lee Broda (Vice Lb Entertainment), Teresa Fernández-Valdés (Bambú Producciones), and Uzma Hasan (Little House Production) digging into their experiences as women in the industry and finding new opportunities to create.
During the discussion, Niehuus dug into some of the personal barriers she has faced in the industry, saying she had “never been a feminist until they made me one.” Niehuus also said she believes that the proliferation of global streaming companies has carved out new opportunities for women working in the film industry.
“The biggest effect now comes from the demand for products in the industry. Let’s say,...
The lengthy and wide-ranging session was hosted by journalist and Deadline critic Anna Smith of the Girls On Film Podcast with executives Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg), Lee Broda (Vice Lb Entertainment), Teresa Fernández-Valdés (Bambú Producciones), and Uzma Hasan (Little House Production) digging into their experiences as women in the industry and finding new opportunities to create.
During the discussion, Niehuus dug into some of the personal barriers she has faced in the industry, saying she had “never been a feminist until they made me one.” Niehuus also said she believes that the proliferation of global streaming companies has carved out new opportunities for women working in the film industry.
“The biggest effect now comes from the demand for products in the industry. Let’s say,...
- 11/9/2022
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: The Ukrainian Institute has lambasted the organizers of a prestigious German filmmaker residency program for inviting Russians and Belarusians to take part as well as Ukrainians, slamming the emergency program for the “perpetuation of both an outdated Soviet perspective and Russia’s colonial logic.”
In a letter sent by Ukrainian Institute Director General Volodymyr Sheiko in July, Sheiko urged Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb), the organizer of the emergency program for “refugee and endangered filmmakers,” to “frame the residency program in a different way and instead recognize that Ukrainians feel much more affinity with their neighbours across Eastern and Central Europe.”
The letter was sent twice to Mbb but Mbb didn’t respond to the Ukrainian Institute, Deadline understands.
Several Ukrainian filmmakers subsequently refused to apply to the program in protest, according to a spokesman for the Institute, who said it was “not the only initiative which was framed in this way,...
In a letter sent by Ukrainian Institute Director General Volodymyr Sheiko in July, Sheiko urged Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb), the organizer of the emergency program for “refugee and endangered filmmakers,” to “frame the residency program in a different way and instead recognize that Ukrainians feel much more affinity with their neighbours across Eastern and Central Europe.”
The letter was sent twice to Mbb but Mbb didn’t respond to the Ukrainian Institute, Deadline understands.
Several Ukrainian filmmakers subsequently refused to apply to the program in protest, according to a spokesman for the Institute, who said it was “not the only initiative which was framed in this way,...
- 8/15/2022
- by Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenberg will increase the amount it invests in production and VFX companies.
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenberg (Mbb) is to receive a cash injection of €15m from Berlin’s state government to boost the amount it invests in film and TV productions over the next two years, Berlin’s VFX companies and the creation of a new office to administer permits.
This brings Berlin’s total funding for Mbb to €17.2m for 2022 and €17.9m for 2023.
Among the projects now shooting in Berlin and the neighbouring state of Brandenburg are German films Christian Petzold’s Roter Himmel, Barbara Albert’s Mittagsfrau, Simon Verhoeven...
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenberg (Mbb) is to receive a cash injection of €15m from Berlin’s state government to boost the amount it invests in film and TV productions over the next two years, Berlin’s VFX companies and the creation of a new office to administer permits.
This brings Berlin’s total funding for Mbb to €17.2m for 2022 and €17.9m for 2023.
Among the projects now shooting in Berlin and the neighbouring state of Brandenburg are German films Christian Petzold’s Roter Himmel, Barbara Albert’s Mittagsfrau, Simon Verhoeven...
- 7/6/2022
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
On Saturday, film and TV funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg celebrated the six films that it funded running in the official program of the Cannes Film Festival.
These were Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” in Competition, Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” in Competition, Emily Atef’s “More Than Ever,” in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Un beau matin,” in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” in Special Screening, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ “Mariupolis 2,” in Special Screening.
Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding the films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
Speaking about the type of films Medienboard likes to fund, she said: “Not very original but true – we prefer films that bring something original to an audience.
These were Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” in Competition, Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” in Competition, Emily Atef’s “More Than Ever,” in Un Certain Regard, Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Un beau matin,” in Directors’ Fortnight, Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” in Special Screening, and Mantas Kvedaravicius’ “Mariupolis 2,” in Special Screening.
Commenting on the role Medienboard played in funding the films in Cannes, the organization’s chief Kirsten Niehuus said: “Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and other film funds play an important role in sustaining high quality cinema in Europe and in international co-productions around the world.”
Speaking about the type of films Medienboard likes to fund, she said: “Not very original but true – we prefer films that bring something original to an audience.
- 5/25/2022
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Tighter national measures mean cinemagoers must be vaccinated or have proof of recovery from Covid-19.
As the Berlinale and European Film Market organisers continue to plan for physical events in February 2022, some German distributors are rearranging their schedules in reaction to further measures being brought in nationally to help curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
Constantin Film has postponed the release of three of its major upcoming titles: Caveman, starring Moritz Bleibtreu, due to open on December 23; Sönke Wortmann’s comedy sequel Der Nachname on January 20, and Anika Decker’s romantic Liebesdings, with Elyas M’Barek and Lucie Heinze,...
As the Berlinale and European Film Market organisers continue to plan for physical events in February 2022, some German distributors are rearranging their schedules in reaction to further measures being brought in nationally to help curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country.
Constantin Film has postponed the release of three of its major upcoming titles: Caveman, starring Moritz Bleibtreu, due to open on December 23; Sönke Wortmann’s comedy sequel Der Nachname on January 20, and Anika Decker’s romantic Liebesdings, with Elyas M’Barek and Lucie Heinze,...
- 12/3/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke join as managing director and artistic director, respectively.
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) has appointed Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke as its new executive management team, the first time in the institution’s 55-year history that it will be headed up by two women.
Berger joins as managing director and Wilke as artistic director, with their five-year contracts starting on August 1.
The Dffb’s advisory board, whose members include Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg CEO Kirsten Niehuus and DETAiLFILM’s Fabian Gasmia, co-producer of Cannes opener Annette, signed off on the duo last...
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) has appointed Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke as its new executive management team, the first time in the institution’s 55-year history that it will be headed up by two women.
Berger joins as managing director and Wilke as artistic director, with their five-year contracts starting on August 1.
The Dffb’s advisory board, whose members include Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg CEO Kirsten Niehuus and DETAiLFILM’s Fabian Gasmia, co-producer of Cannes opener Annette, signed off on the duo last...
- 6/7/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke join as managing director and artistic director, respectively.
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) has appointed Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke as its new executive management team, the first time in the institution’s 55-year history that it will be headed up by two women.
Berger joins as managing director and Wilke as artistic director, with their five-year contracts starting on August 1.
The Dffb’s Advisory Board, whose members include Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg CEO Kirsten Niehuus and DETAiLFILM’s Fabian Gasmia, co-producer of Cannes opener Annette, signed off on the duo last...
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) has appointed Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke as its new executive management team, the first time in the institution’s 55-year history that it will be headed up by two women.
Berger joins as managing director and Wilke as artistic director, with their five-year contracts starting on August 1.
The Dffb’s Advisory Board, whose members include Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg CEO Kirsten Niehuus and DETAiLFILM’s Fabian Gasmia, co-producer of Cannes opener Annette, signed off on the duo last...
- 6/7/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke join as managing director and artistic director, respectively.
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) has appointed Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke as its new executive management team, the first time in the institution’s 55-year history that it will be headed up by two women.
Berger joins as managing director and Wilke as artistic director, with their five-year contracts starting on August 1.
The Dffb’s Advisory Board, whose members include Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg CEO Kirsten Niehuus and DETAiLFILM’s Fabian Gasmia, co-producer of Cannes opener Annette, signed off on the duo last...
The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (Dffb) has appointed Catherine Ann Berger and Marie Wilke as its new executive management team, the first time in the institution’s 55-year history that it will be headed up by two women.
Berger joins as managing director and Wilke as artistic director, with their five-year contracts starting on August 1.
The Dffb’s Advisory Board, whose members include Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg CEO Kirsten Niehuus and DETAiLFILM’s Fabian Gasmia, co-producer of Cannes opener Annette, signed off on the duo last...
- 6/7/2021
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Agnieszka Holland, Mark Cousins, Kirsten Niehuus and Thomas Vinterberg gathered online to kickstart “The EFAs at Eight”. During a panel on 8 December – organised as part of “The EFAs at Eight”online celebrations and called, rather optimistically, “From Survival to Revival: Building the Post-covid Future” (see the news) – former European Film Awards chairwoman Agnieszka Holland, CEO of film funding at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Kirsten Niehuus, Danish director Thomas Vinterberg and Mark Cousins, the recipient of the new Efa Award for Innovative Storytelling, discussed this year's biggest struggles. “For the first time, I don't have any plans except for Zoom meetings that I am starting to get allergic to,” admitted Holland. “I was following several reality shows, and by that I mean the news, and for me, reality is winning over fiction right now.” But even in such trying times, there were several success stories to share, including Cousins' documentary Women...
Film and TV productions in Germany have come back with gusto following the three-month Covid-19 lockdown earlier this year, albeit under stringent health protection requirements.
Despite a second lockdown in November due to the rise in coronavirus cases, shooting continues around the country, both in studios and on location. Warners’ “Matrix 4,” Sony’s “Uncharted,” Apple TV Plus’ “Foundation” and the Netflix pic “Munich” are among the big international productions that have recently shot in Germany.
At Studio Babelsberg, “Matrix 4” and “Uncharted” recently wrapped after being initially shut down in March. “We are happy that we were able to carry out both productions without any major incidents in the very difficult period after the lockdown and that everything went wonderfully,” says Studio Babelsberg COO Christoph Fisser.
Peter Dinges, CEO of the German Federal Film Board (Ffa), notes that “Matrix 4” in particular was “an absolutely major project for us,...
Despite a second lockdown in November due to the rise in coronavirus cases, shooting continues around the country, both in studios and on location. Warners’ “Matrix 4,” Sony’s “Uncharted,” Apple TV Plus’ “Foundation” and the Netflix pic “Munich” are among the big international productions that have recently shot in Germany.
At Studio Babelsberg, “Matrix 4” and “Uncharted” recently wrapped after being initially shut down in March. “We are happy that we were able to carry out both productions without any major incidents in the very difficult period after the lockdown and that everything went wonderfully,” says Studio Babelsberg COO Christoph Fisser.
Peter Dinges, CEO of the German Federal Film Board (Ffa), notes that “Matrix 4” in particular was “an absolutely major project for us,...
- 12/9/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
This year's European Film Awards are being presented as a series of virtual events from 8-12 December, streaming live from Berlin. Owing to the pandemic, this year's European Film Awards will not take place as planned in Reykjavik, but will instead be presented as a series of virtual events — "the EFAs at Eight" – from 8 to 12 December, streaming live from Berlin. Celebrations kick off on Tuesday 8 December with the panel "From Survival to Revival: Building the Post-Covid Future", bringing together speakers including British director Mark Cousins, recipient of the new Efa Award for Innovative Storytelling for his ground-breaking documentary Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema; Polish director and former Efa chairwoman Agnieszka Holland; Kirsten Niehuus, CEO Film Funding Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg; and Danish director Thomas Vinterberg, nominated with his film Another Round. The first awards are handed out on Wednesday 9 December. Starting from...
Winners to be announced at separate online events.
The European Film Awards is to take place virtually over five consecutive nights as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Organisers had previously taken the decision to cancel the 33rd edition of the annual ceremony, which was due to take place in Reykjavik, Iceland, and instead host a virtual event from the European Film Academy’s base in Berlin on December 12.
But it will now extend the awards from December 8-12 under the banner The EFAs at Eight, reflecting the 8pm (Cet) start time.
The first night will feature a discussion...
The European Film Awards is to take place virtually over five consecutive nights as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Organisers had previously taken the decision to cancel the 33rd edition of the annual ceremony, which was due to take place in Reykjavik, Iceland, and instead host a virtual event from the European Film Academy’s base in Berlin on December 12.
But it will now extend the awards from December 8-12 under the banner The EFAs at Eight, reflecting the 8pm (Cet) start time.
The first night will feature a discussion...
- 11/4/2020
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Grants of up to €500,000 per project will be awarded to cover 20% of the production costs
The Berlin Senate has allocated €2m ($2.2m) in funding for 2020 to enhance the competitiveness of the capital’s VFX sector.
Applications to the Digital Film Production programme, to be launched on August 3, will be administered by the regional film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).
Berlin-based VFX companies have recently worked on films such as biopic Gundermann; Dani Levy’s hit comedy The Kangaroo Chronicles; and Fox Searchlight’s The French Dispatch, as well as home-grown series’ Babylon Berlin and Dark.
Grants of up to €500,000 per project...
The Berlin Senate has allocated €2m ($2.2m) in funding for 2020 to enhance the competitiveness of the capital’s VFX sector.
Applications to the Digital Film Production programme, to be launched on August 3, will be administered by the regional film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).
Berlin-based VFX companies have recently worked on films such as biopic Gundermann; Dani Levy’s hit comedy The Kangaroo Chronicles; and Fox Searchlight’s The French Dispatch, as well as home-grown series’ Babylon Berlin and Dark.
Grants of up to €500,000 per project...
- 7/9/2020
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Grants of up to €500,000 per project will be awarded to cover 20% of the production costs incurred in Berlin by VFX studios.
The Berlin Senate has allocated €2m ($2.2m) in funding for 2020 to enhance the competitiveness of the capital’s VFX sector.
Applications to the Digital Film Production programme, to be launched on August 3, will be administered by the regional film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).
Grants of up to €500,000 per project will be awarded to cover 20% of the production costs incurred in Berlin by VFX studios working on contracts for feature films, animated films or high-end TV productions.
Eligible production costs...
The Berlin Senate has allocated €2m ($2.2m) in funding for 2020 to enhance the competitiveness of the capital’s VFX sector.
Applications to the Digital Film Production programme, to be launched on August 3, will be administered by the regional film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).
Grants of up to €500,000 per project will be awarded to cover 20% of the production costs incurred in Berlin by VFX studios working on contracts for feature films, animated films or high-end TV productions.
Eligible production costs...
- 7/9/2020
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Move follows complaint by female student.
Ben Gibson has been formally “relieved of his duties“ as director of Berlin’s German Film and Television Academy (Dffb) with immediate effect.
The decision was taken by the film school’s board of trustees at a sitting last Friday in response to an incident involving a student from Babelsberg’s University of Film & Television following a “mooning“ incident during the Berlinale.
Christian Gaebler, head of the Berlin Senate’s Chancellery and chairman of the board of trustees, confirmed the employment contract with Gibson had been “terminated by mutual agreement”.
Gibson had served as...
Ben Gibson has been formally “relieved of his duties“ as director of Berlin’s German Film and Television Academy (Dffb) with immediate effect.
The decision was taken by the film school’s board of trustees at a sitting last Friday in response to an incident involving a student from Babelsberg’s University of Film & Television following a “mooning“ incident during the Berlinale.
Christian Gaebler, head of the Berlin Senate’s Chancellery and chairman of the board of trustees, confirmed the employment contract with Gibson had been “terminated by mutual agreement”.
Gibson had served as...
- 3/10/2020
- by 158¦Martin Blaney¦40¦
- ScreenDaily
Actors Gerard Butler (pictured above with Soho House’s Dominic Hofer and Studio Babelsberg’s Christoph Fisser), Daniel Brühl and Tom Wlaschiha, who played Jaqen H’ghar in “Game of Thrones,” were among the guests at the Studio Babelsberg Night Friday at Berlin’s Soho House.
Other actors at the party included Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Schuele, Elyas M’Barek, Iris Berben, Max von der Groeben, Sebastian Koch, Sabin Tambrea, Sonja Gerhardt, David Schuetter, and Hannah Herzsprung.
The directors at the event were Tom Tykwer, Ruben Fleischer, Baran bo Odar, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Lars Kraume, Marco Kreuzpaintner, and Jan-Ole Gerster.
Among the politicians and business execs were Michael Mueller, Mayor of Berlin, Monika Gruetters, Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Motion Picture Assn., David Goldman, VP, original series at Netflix, Martin Bachmann, managing director at Sony Pictures Releasing in Germany, and Kirsten Niehuus, M.D. at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Other actors at the party included Thomas Kretschmann, Emilia Schuele, Elyas M’Barek, Iris Berben, Max von der Groeben, Sebastian Koch, Sabin Tambrea, Sonja Gerhardt, David Schuetter, and Hannah Herzsprung.
The directors at the event were Tom Tykwer, Ruben Fleischer, Baran bo Odar, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Lars Kraume, Marco Kreuzpaintner, and Jan-Ole Gerster.
Among the politicians and business execs were Michael Mueller, Mayor of Berlin, Monika Gruetters, Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Charles Rivkin, chairman of the Motion Picture Assn., David Goldman, VP, original series at Netflix, Martin Bachmann, managing director at Sony Pictures Releasing in Germany, and Kirsten Niehuus, M.D. at Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
- 2/25/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Variety’s “10 Europeans to Watch” were feted Saturday night at a party held by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at Berlin’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel. Co-hosting the evening were Kirsten Niehuus and Helge Jürgens, managing directors of Medienboard, the regional film, TV and digital-media funding body.
Pictured above are U.K. filmmaker and rapper Andrew Onwubolu, known by his alias Rapman, Irish producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Italian director Carlo Sironi (“Sole”), German director Leonie Krippendorff (“Cocoon”), Estonian director Tanel Toom, Germany-based Kosovan director Visar Morina (“Exile”), and Hungarian actor Abigél Szõke (“Those Who Remained”).
Before welcoming to the stage some of Europe’s most promising stars of tomorrow, Variety executive VP of content Steven Gaydos noted: “Variety is celebrating our 115th year covering international entertainment, before people were watching movies.”
He also shared the story of local producer Sol Bondy, who met Russian producers Ilya Stewart and Murad Osmann at Variety’s “10 Producers to...
Pictured above are U.K. filmmaker and rapper Andrew Onwubolu, known by his alias Rapman, Irish producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Italian director Carlo Sironi (“Sole”), German director Leonie Krippendorff (“Cocoon”), Estonian director Tanel Toom, Germany-based Kosovan director Visar Morina (“Exile”), and Hungarian actor Abigél Szõke (“Those Who Remained”).
Before welcoming to the stage some of Europe’s most promising stars of tomorrow, Variety executive VP of content Steven Gaydos noted: “Variety is celebrating our 115th year covering international entertainment, before people were watching movies.”
He also shared the story of local producer Sol Bondy, who met Russian producers Ilya Stewart and Murad Osmann at Variety’s “10 Producers to...
- 2/23/2020
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
Pictured: “Little Joe” director Jessica Hausner, Martin Gschlacht, one of the film’s producers, Kirsten Niehuus, with director-producer Cordula Kablitz-Post.
Berlin funding agency Medienboard’s managing director Kirsten Niehuus hosted a cocktail reception on Saturday at Grand Hotel in Cannes to celebrate the five films it funded that feature in the festival program.
The five films are competition titles “A Hidden Life” and “Little Joe”; Un Certain Regard films “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao” and “Liberté”; and Critics’ Week film “The Trap”.
Among the 350 guests were August Diehl, an actor in Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”; Jessica Hausner, director of “Little Joe”; Albert Serra, director of “Liberté”; Karim Aïnouz, director of “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao”; and Carlo Chatrian, newly assigned artistic director of the Berlinale.
Other guests include Edward Berger, director of “Patrick Melrose,” “Deutschland 83” and “Jack”; Nurhan Sekerci-Porst, producer of Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade...
Berlin funding agency Medienboard’s managing director Kirsten Niehuus hosted a cocktail reception on Saturday at Grand Hotel in Cannes to celebrate the five films it funded that feature in the festival program.
The five films are competition titles “A Hidden Life” and “Little Joe”; Un Certain Regard films “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao” and “Liberté”; and Critics’ Week film “The Trap”.
Among the 350 guests were August Diehl, an actor in Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life”; Jessica Hausner, director of “Little Joe”; Albert Serra, director of “Liberté”; Karim Aïnouz, director of “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao”; and Carlo Chatrian, newly assigned artistic director of the Berlinale.
Other guests include Edward Berger, director of “Patrick Melrose,” “Deutschland 83” and “Jack”; Nurhan Sekerci-Porst, producer of Fatih Akin’s “In the Fade...
- 5/19/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
With more international co-productions in cinemas than ever before and a new crop of high-profile titles this year, Germany’s renown as fertile ground for foreign filmmakers continues to soar.
The number of German-backed cross-border titles in local theaters rose 30% last year to 98 — the most ever — and the trend looks set to continue. This year a slew of German co-productions are vying for Cannes’ Palme d’Or, among them Terrence Malick’s historical drama “A Hidden Life”; Jessica Hausner’s sci-fi thriller “Little Joe”; Marco Bellocchio’s mafia pic “The Traitor”; Corneliu Porumboiu’s “The Whistlers”; and Elia Suleiman’s “It Must Be Heaven.”
Key to the country’s filmmaking allure is a generous system of federal and regional funding sources and a dynamic film industry geared toward international co-production.
Leading companies include Pallas Films, whose credits include “It Must Be Heaven” and Sergey Dvortsevoy’s “Ayka”; Pandora Film, co-producer...
The number of German-backed cross-border titles in local theaters rose 30% last year to 98 — the most ever — and the trend looks set to continue. This year a slew of German co-productions are vying for Cannes’ Palme d’Or, among them Terrence Malick’s historical drama “A Hidden Life”; Jessica Hausner’s sci-fi thriller “Little Joe”; Marco Bellocchio’s mafia pic “The Traitor”; Corneliu Porumboiu’s “The Whistlers”; and Elia Suleiman’s “It Must Be Heaven.”
Key to the country’s filmmaking allure is a generous system of federal and regional funding sources and a dynamic film industry geared toward international co-production.
Leading companies include Pallas Films, whose credits include “It Must Be Heaven” and Sergey Dvortsevoy’s “Ayka”; Pandora Film, co-producer...
- 5/14/2019
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Nuestra voz de tierra, memoria y futureThat was it: The last Berlinale under the leadership of Dieter Kosslick. Just a few more weeks and he’ll also be out of his office that will then be occupied by…whom, actually? 99% of folks would say: Carlo Chatrian, who else? Well, the correct answer might actually be: Mariette Rissenbeek, who’s the one signing the bills—Chatrian is, technically speaking, the festival’s artistic director; as such, he may be more of a glorified replacement of so-far Festival Curator Thomas Hailer but with greater visibility and more executive power, while Rissenbeek does most of Kosslick’s “industry” job while probably remaining otherwise in the shadows. Rissenbeek is career-wise certainly more in line with Kosslick: Both are professionals one could describe as party soldiers. Kosslick, as most people tend to forget, is originally not a movie person at all but a politician who...
- 4/8/2019
- MUBI
Variety’s “10 Europeans to Watch” were feted at a party held by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at Berlin’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel Saturday. Kirsten Niehuus and Helge Jürgens, managing directors of Medienboard, the regional film, TV and digital-media funding body, were the co-hosts for the evening, which attracted 2,000 party-goers.
Pictured above are Henry Chu, Variety‘s international editor (left), with six of the Europeans to Watch – (from left) Belgian director Bas Devos (“Hellhole”), German actress Maria Dragus (“Mary Queen of Scots”), German director Aron Lehmann (“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”), Austrian actress Valerie Pachner (“The Ground Beneath My Feet”), Dutch director Steven Wouterlood (“My Extraordinary Summer With Tess”), and German actor Fahri Yardim (“Dogs of Berlin”), with Niehuus (right).
Among the guests at the event were producers Martin Moszkowicz (“Resident Evil”) and Stefan Arndt (“Babylon Berlin”), and Tom Schilling, the lead actor in the Oscar nominated German film “Never Look Away,...
Pictured above are Henry Chu, Variety‘s international editor (left), with six of the Europeans to Watch – (from left) Belgian director Bas Devos (“Hellhole”), German actress Maria Dragus (“Mary Queen of Scots”), German director Aron Lehmann (“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”), Austrian actress Valerie Pachner (“The Ground Beneath My Feet”), Dutch director Steven Wouterlood (“My Extraordinary Summer With Tess”), and German actor Fahri Yardim (“Dogs of Berlin”), with Niehuus (right).
Among the guests at the event were producers Martin Moszkowicz (“Resident Evil”) and Stefan Arndt (“Babylon Berlin”), and Tom Schilling, the lead actor in the Oscar nominated German film “Never Look Away,...
- 2/12/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Berlin — Attendees of Berlinale’s Drama Series Days followed a busy and wide-ranging program on Monday with a packed opening reception, supported by Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and the Norwegian Film Institute, and with Variety as a media partner.
After a lively day of panel discussions and sessions focused on the future of television, guests partied at the chic Super Concept Space just steps from the red carpet of Zoo Palast. Among those in attendance were Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw CEO Petra Müller, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg managing director Kirsten Niehuus, Efm director Matthijs Wouter Knol, and Berlinale Series program manager Solmaz Azizi.
The growing excitement around the Berlin Film Festival’s popular TV strand, which moved to Zoo Palast last year to concentrate both screenings and industry activities in a single hub, is part of a natural evolution in the industry, according to Knol.
The Efm topper said that five years ago,...
After a lively day of panel discussions and sessions focused on the future of television, guests partied at the chic Super Concept Space just steps from the red carpet of Zoo Palast. Among those in attendance were Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw CEO Petra Müller, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg managing director Kirsten Niehuus, Efm director Matthijs Wouter Knol, and Berlinale Series program manager Solmaz Azizi.
The growing excitement around the Berlin Film Festival’s popular TV strand, which moved to Zoo Palast last year to concentrate both screenings and industry activities in a single hub, is part of a natural evolution in the industry, according to Knol.
The Efm topper said that five years ago,...
- 2/12/2019
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
“Dark” creators Baran bo Odar (left) and Jantje Friese (right), “Berlin Station” actress Emilia Schuele and actor Nikolai Kinski, and Michael Mueller, Mayor of Berlin, were among the guests at the Studio Babelsberg Night Friday at Berlin’s Soho House. Hosting the event were Studio Babelsberg’s president and CEO, Charlie Woebcken, and its COO, Christoph Fisser. Canada Goose was event partner.
Speaking about Babelsberg’s year ahead, Fisser said: “We are in talks for several international and German productions, including feature films and high-end drama series, like the third season of Netflix’s ‘Dark.'”
He added: “We hope that Germany’s film production support system will continue to improve in order to meet the demands of a variety of productions.”
Other guests included actresses Franka Potente, Lea van Acken, Antje Traue, Claudia Michelsen, Iris Berben, Heike Makatsch, Nora von Waldstaetten, Christiane Paul and Jessica Schwarz.
The actors present included Mark Waschke,...
Speaking about Babelsberg’s year ahead, Fisser said: “We are in talks for several international and German productions, including feature films and high-end drama series, like the third season of Netflix’s ‘Dark.'”
He added: “We hope that Germany’s film production support system will continue to improve in order to meet the demands of a variety of productions.”
Other guests included actresses Franka Potente, Lea van Acken, Antje Traue, Claudia Michelsen, Iris Berben, Heike Makatsch, Nora von Waldstaetten, Christiane Paul and Jessica Schwarz.
The actors present included Mark Waschke,...
- 2/10/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
German industry agency German Films, whose Managing Director Mariette Rissenbeek is leaving to become the co-head of the Berlin Film Festival, has appointed producer Simone Baumann to the role. The independent producer, whose credits include documentaries Under The Sun and Khodorkovsky, has been representative of German Films in Central and Eastern Europe since 2003. She will assume the role from February 1, 2019 and will be based in Munich.
The promotion body’s board met in Munich yesterday to agree to a business plan of €4.9M. The 2019 plan includes one-off activities such as a German Focus at the Sunny Side Of The Docs documentary market. The board also decided to increase the distribution support for German films abroad by 15% due to what they said was “an above-average increase in the demand for funding in the past two years.” The group also elected the six-person supervisory board for the two years from January 2019 to...
The promotion body’s board met in Munich yesterday to agree to a business plan of €4.9M. The 2019 plan includes one-off activities such as a German Focus at the Sunny Side Of The Docs documentary market. The board also decided to increase the distribution support for German films abroad by 15% due to what they said was “an above-average increase in the demand for funding in the past two years.” The group also elected the six-person supervisory board for the two years from January 2019 to...
- 12/4/2018
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Simone Baumann has been chosen to take over as managing director of movie promotion agency German Films, replacing Mariette Rissenbeek, who has been appointed as executive director of the Berlin Film Festival.
Baumann, who starts her new role Feb. 1, has been German Films’ representative in Central and Eastern Europe since 2003; she is also an independent producer. The decision was made at a meeting on Monday in Munich by German Films’ supervisory board, which is chaired by Peter Herrmann.
“[Baumann] has not only produced award-winning, courageous and controversial documentaries, but also tirelessly championed international cooperation,” Herrmann said. “In her work on behalf of German Films in Central and Eastern Europe, she has created and maintained a closely knit and efficient network with all of the relevant representatives of the film industry.”
Baumann said: “I have been representing the interests of German cinema in Eastern Europe for the past 16 years and have come...
Baumann, who starts her new role Feb. 1, has been German Films’ representative in Central and Eastern Europe since 2003; she is also an independent producer. The decision was made at a meeting on Monday in Munich by German Films’ supervisory board, which is chaired by Peter Herrmann.
“[Baumann] has not only produced award-winning, courageous and controversial documentaries, but also tirelessly championed international cooperation,” Herrmann said. “In her work on behalf of German Films in Central and Eastern Europe, she has created and maintained a closely knit and efficient network with all of the relevant representatives of the film industry.”
Baumann said: “I have been representing the interests of German cinema in Eastern Europe for the past 16 years and have come...
- 12/4/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Avishai Sivan’s “Lot’s Wife” won the inaugural Goralska Award at the 13th edition of Pitch Point, the Israeli projects showcase which runs alongside the Jerusalem Film Festival.
Set up at Ronen Ben Tal at Plan b Productions, the fantasy-filled “Lot’s Wife” follows a religious couple who has a child born with two heads, named Noah and Lot. Lot is wicked, Noah good-hearted. After Noah dies and his head is detached, Lot sets on a challenge to overcome his nature.
The Goralska Award came with a cash prize of €20,000. Now in production, “Lot’s Wife” marks Sivan’s follow-up to “Tikkun,” which won the top prize at the Jerusalem festival in 2015 and was released in the U.S. by Kino Lorber.
The jury, composed of Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg), Cedomir Kolar (Asap Films), Dominique Welinski (Dw), Tamara Tatishvili (Eurimages) and Gabor Greiner (Films Boutique), praised “Lot’s...
Set up at Ronen Ben Tal at Plan b Productions, the fantasy-filled “Lot’s Wife” follows a religious couple who has a child born with two heads, named Noah and Lot. Lot is wicked, Noah good-hearted. After Noah dies and his head is detached, Lot sets on a challenge to overcome his nature.
The Goralska Award came with a cash prize of €20,000. Now in production, “Lot’s Wife” marks Sivan’s follow-up to “Tikkun,” which won the top prize at the Jerusalem festival in 2015 and was released in the U.S. by Kino Lorber.
The jury, composed of Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg), Cedomir Kolar (Asap Films), Dominique Welinski (Dw), Tamara Tatishvili (Eurimages) and Gabor Greiner (Films Boutique), praised “Lot’s...
- 7/30/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Avishai Sivan’s Lot’s Wife scoops top award.
Avishai Sivan’s film project Lot’s Wife has clinched the new $23,200 Goralska Award prize at the 13th edition of Jerusalem Film Festival’s (Jff) Pitch Point event, which is aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners.
Described by the director as a cross-genre horror, fantasy, freak-show work, the picture revolves around a Hasidic couple’s two-headed baby. Going by the names of Noah and Lot, the two heads have opposite good and evil natures. When the virtuous Noah dies and his head is detached, Lot tries to mend his ways.
Avishai Sivan’s film project Lot’s Wife has clinched the new $23,200 Goralska Award prize at the 13th edition of Jerusalem Film Festival’s (Jff) Pitch Point event, which is aimed at connecting Israeli filmmakers with international partners.
Described by the director as a cross-genre horror, fantasy, freak-show work, the picture revolves around a Hasidic couple’s two-headed baby. Going by the names of Noah and Lot, the two heads have opposite good and evil natures. When the virtuous Noah dies and his head is detached, Lot tries to mend his ways.
- 7/29/2018
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Jerusalem Film Festival’s industry sidebar, Pitch Point, has unveiled its selection of projects, including new works from Avishai Sivan, Shira Geffen (“Jellyfish”), Keren Yedaya (“My Treasure”), and Tawfik Abu Wael (“Atash”).
Among the 10 projects selected for Pitch Point is “Lot’s Wife,” Sivan’s follow-up to “Tikkun,” which won the top prize at the Jerusalem fest in 2015. Set up at Ronen Ben Tal at Plan b Productions, “Lot’s Wife” centers on a religious couple who, after 10 years of childlessness, has a child born with two heads, named Noah and Lot. Lot is wicked, Noah good-hearted. After Noah dies and his head is detached, Lot sets on a challenge to overcome his nature.
Geffen will present “A Responsible Adult,” which is being produced by Elad Gavish at Marker Films.The project follows Maya, a 13-year-old girl who goes on a school trip and whose father joins the group as...
Among the 10 projects selected for Pitch Point is “Lot’s Wife,” Sivan’s follow-up to “Tikkun,” which won the top prize at the Jerusalem fest in 2015. Set up at Ronen Ben Tal at Plan b Productions, “Lot’s Wife” centers on a religious couple who, after 10 years of childlessness, has a child born with two heads, named Noah and Lot. Lot is wicked, Noah good-hearted. After Noah dies and his head is detached, Lot sets on a challenge to overcome his nature.
Geffen will present “A Responsible Adult,” which is being produced by Elad Gavish at Marker Films.The project follows Maya, a 13-year-old girl who goes on a school trip and whose father joins the group as...
- 7/2/2018
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Tikkun director among Israeli filmmakers presenting at 13th edition of showcase.
Ahead of the 2018 Jerusalem Film Festival (July 26 – Aug 5), the projects for the annual Pitch Point competition have been unveiled.
Held on July 27 and 28, the initiative, now in its 13th year, is an opportunity for Israeli filmmakers to showcase in-progress projects to attending international film industry, with a view to forging co-production ties.
The 2018 showcase includes new works from Avishai Sivan, Shira Geffen, Keren Yedaya, That Lovely Girl), and Tawfik Abu Wael (Cannes 2004 Fipresci prize winner Atash).
The Pitch Point jury this year is comprised of Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin...
Ahead of the 2018 Jerusalem Film Festival (July 26 – Aug 5), the projects for the annual Pitch Point competition have been unveiled.
Held on July 27 and 28, the initiative, now in its 13th year, is an opportunity for Israeli filmmakers to showcase in-progress projects to attending international film industry, with a view to forging co-production ties.
The 2018 showcase includes new works from Avishai Sivan, Shira Geffen, Keren Yedaya, That Lovely Girl), and Tawfik Abu Wael (Cannes 2004 Fipresci prize winner Atash).
The Pitch Point jury this year is comprised of Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin...
- 6/29/2018
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Chatrian is the artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival.
Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of the Locarno film festival since 2012, has been named in German media reports as the new artistic director of the Berlinale from 2020.
The news was neither confirmed nor denied by Monika Grütters, the German state minister for culture and media, who had been planning to announce the new director at a press conference in Berlin on Friday June 22.
Chatrian would replace Dieter Kosslick who has headed the Berlinale since 2001.
If the handover procedure follows the same pattern as when Kosslick succeeded Moritz de Hadeln, Chatrian would...
Carlo Chatrian, artistic director of the Locarno film festival since 2012, has been named in German media reports as the new artistic director of the Berlinale from 2020.
The news was neither confirmed nor denied by Monika Grütters, the German state minister for culture and media, who had been planning to announce the new director at a press conference in Berlin on Friday June 22.
Chatrian would replace Dieter Kosslick who has headed the Berlinale since 2001.
If the handover procedure follows the same pattern as when Kosslick succeeded Moritz de Hadeln, Chatrian would...
- 6/20/2018
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin Film Festival appears set to hire Locarno fest chief Carlo Chatrian as its new artistic director, replacing outgoing director Dieter Kosslick.
The decision to hire Chatrian comes after a protracted search for a replacement for Kosslick, whose mandate expires on May 31, 2019. Though Chatrian has been selected as Kosslick’s successor, his appointment still needs to be ratified by a Berlinale board meeting which will take place Friday, according to several sources.
Chatrian, 46, is an Italian film critic and curator who has served as artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival since 2013.
He has been selected by the supervisory board of the German Federal Cultural Events Agency (Kbb), overseen by Germany’s commissioner for culture and media, Monika Gruetters.
If his appointment is ratified, Chatrian will be under pressure to give the Berlin fest some new luster. Kosslick, after running the event for 17 years, has recently come under some criticism.
The decision to hire Chatrian comes after a protracted search for a replacement for Kosslick, whose mandate expires on May 31, 2019. Though Chatrian has been selected as Kosslick’s successor, his appointment still needs to be ratified by a Berlinale board meeting which will take place Friday, according to several sources.
Chatrian, 46, is an Italian film critic and curator who has served as artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival since 2013.
He has been selected by the supervisory board of the German Federal Cultural Events Agency (Kbb), overseen by Germany’s commissioner for culture and media, Monika Gruetters.
If his appointment is ratified, Chatrian will be under pressure to give the Berlin fest some new luster. Kosslick, after running the event for 17 years, has recently come under some criticism.
- 6/19/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Kirsten Niehuus, managing director of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, hosted a reception in Cannes on Saturday to celebrate the inclusion in the festival lineup of several films backed by the fund.
Among those pictures being feted in the garden of the Grand Hotel were two competition entries, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “The Wild Pear Tree” and Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro,” and Ulrich Koehler’s “In My Room” and Sergei Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” both in Un Certain Regard.
Among the producers attending the event were Benny Drechsel, Regina Ziegler, Fabian Gasmia, Stefan Arndt, Christoph Friedel, Claudia Steffen, Martin Moszkowicz and Fabian Massah, who was selected by European Film Promotion as one of its Producers on the Move.
Also attending was South Africa’s Sibs Shongwe-la Mer, who is one of 15 filmmakers selected to take part in Cannes’ Cinefondation Workshop. Medienboard is backing his latest film, “The Sound of Animals Fighting,” through its German co-producer Rohfilm Productions.
Among those pictures being feted in the garden of the Grand Hotel were two competition entries, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s “The Wild Pear Tree” and Alice Rohrwacher’s “Happy as Lazzaro,” and Ulrich Koehler’s “In My Room” and Sergei Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” both in Un Certain Regard.
Among the producers attending the event were Benny Drechsel, Regina Ziegler, Fabian Gasmia, Stefan Arndt, Christoph Friedel, Claudia Steffen, Martin Moszkowicz and Fabian Massah, who was selected by European Film Promotion as one of its Producers on the Move.
Also attending was South Africa’s Sibs Shongwe-la Mer, who is one of 15 filmmakers selected to take part in Cannes’ Cinefondation Workshop. Medienboard is backing his latest film, “The Sound of Animals Fighting,” through its German co-producer Rohfilm Productions.
- 5/13/2018
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Current Berlin director Dieter Kosslick will step down next year.
Torsten Neumann, co-founder and director of the Oldenburg International Film Festival since 1994, has become the latest name to be connected with the ongoing quest for a successor to Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick from May 2019.
Neumann, who is currently planning the 25th anniversary edition of his festival for this September, has hosted such international guests as Nicolas Cage, Mira Sorvino, Jim McBride, Matthew Modine, Alexandre Rockwell and Lou Diamond Phillips as well as leading lights from the local German industry – from Nicolette Krebitz through Jürgen Vogel and Oskar Roehler to Corinna Harfouch...
Torsten Neumann, co-founder and director of the Oldenburg International Film Festival since 1994, has become the latest name to be connected with the ongoing quest for a successor to Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick from May 2019.
Neumann, who is currently planning the 25th anniversary edition of his festival for this September, has hosted such international guests as Nicolas Cage, Mira Sorvino, Jim McBride, Matthew Modine, Alexandre Rockwell and Lou Diamond Phillips as well as leading lights from the local German industry – from Nicolette Krebitz through Jürgen Vogel and Oskar Roehler to Corinna Harfouch...
- 5/2/2018
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The Berlin International Film Festival will open its 68th edition Thursday night with a grand premiere for Wes Anderson’s “Isle of Dogs.” However, the more defining event may come several days later when the autonomous screening series Berlin Critics’ Week will host a “pub debate” at a local bar, the Anna Koschke, to discuss the future of this major European festival. It’s longtime artistic director Dieter Kosslick’s last year in the role, and he’s been assailed for years as the Berlinale’s mixed bag of programming strikes many as a missed opportunity. “The fundamental questions remain unanswered,” reads the invite to the debate. “Can the Berlinale become a different festival than it is now? What would that entail? And would that be desirable?”
These inquiries aren’t academic. Few major festivals are run by women, or by people of color; several key positions held by white men have now been vacated,...
These inquiries aren’t academic. Few major festivals are run by women, or by people of color; several key positions held by white men have now been vacated,...
- 2/14/2018
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
“Germany doesn’t exist on the map – at least for Us producers,” says Studio Babelsberg CEO Christoph Fisser.
German film studios and producers have stepped up calls for an automatic tax incentive scheme to be introduced to put Germany on an equal footing with such countries as the UK, Belgium and Croatia in attracting foreign film productions.
Studio Babelsberg CEO Christoph Fisser didn’t mince his words about the difficulties being faced when he declared that “Germany doesn’t exist on the map – at least for Us producers” and pointed that his studio hadn’t been able to win any new project to come to shoot in Babelsberg since May 2015 because of the lack of attractive incentives on the scale offered in other territories.
The fact that Peter Segal’s $130m film Inversion – the first production by the Hong Kong/Beijing-based company Facing East – is now set to begin shooting at the studios in the spring was the...
German film studios and producers have stepped up calls for an automatic tax incentive scheme to be introduced to put Germany on an equal footing with such countries as the UK, Belgium and Croatia in attracting foreign film productions.
Studio Babelsberg CEO Christoph Fisser didn’t mince his words about the difficulties being faced when he declared that “Germany doesn’t exist on the map – at least for Us producers” and pointed that his studio hadn’t been able to win any new project to come to shoot in Babelsberg since May 2015 because of the lack of attractive incentives on the scale offered in other territories.
The fact that Peter Segal’s $130m film Inversion – the first production by the Hong Kong/Beijing-based company Facing East – is now set to begin shooting at the studios in the spring was the...
- 2/10/2017
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
A total of 11 projects were presented at the closing pitching event of fifth edition.
Israeli director Yona Rozenkier and producer Kobi Mizrahi have clinched the $50,000 top prize at the final pitching event of the fifth Sam Spiegel International Film Lab for their road-trip tale of an elderly father and son, Decompression.
Described as “a sad, late coming-of-age comedy”, it revolves around a journey from the north to the south of Israel on a tractor by 35-year-old Ben and his truculent, larger-than-life father.
“The jury was impressed by the genuine and emotional father-and-son story from north of Israel to south,” said jury president Slawomir Idzak. “The mix between drama and humour is very well balanced. The very visual metaphoric ending is so powerful, you will not forget it.”
Argentinian film-maker Gonzalo Tobal took the second prize of $20,000 for Dolores, a psychological drama about a young woman from a comfortable background awaiting trial on charges of killing her best...
Israeli director Yona Rozenkier and producer Kobi Mizrahi have clinched the $50,000 top prize at the final pitching event of the fifth Sam Spiegel International Film Lab for their road-trip tale of an elderly father and son, Decompression.
Described as “a sad, late coming-of-age comedy”, it revolves around a journey from the north to the south of Israel on a tractor by 35-year-old Ben and his truculent, larger-than-life father.
“The jury was impressed by the genuine and emotional father-and-son story from north of Israel to south,” said jury president Slawomir Idzak. “The mix between drama and humour is very well balanced. The very visual metaphoric ending is so powerful, you will not forget it.”
Argentinian film-maker Gonzalo Tobal took the second prize of $20,000 for Dolores, a psychological drama about a young woman from a comfortable background awaiting trial on charges of killing her best...
- 7/9/2016
- ScreenDaily
Film about female empowement in a conservative Bedouin community wins showcase.
Elite Zexer’s first feature Sand Storm and Eitan Anner’s A Quiet Heart have won the First Look Award in Locarno’s showcase, which was dedicated this year to selected Israeli films in post-production.
Jury member Karel Och, director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, presented the first prize of $66,000 (€60,000) worth of picture post-production services sponsored by Rotor Film to Sand Storm’s producers Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yacov-Mecklberg for its “mature, deeply observant storytelling and courageous depiction of the layered struggles of several generations of women”.
Sand Storm centres on a Bedouin mother and daughter testing the limits of their conservative community.
Fellow jury member, Sundance programming director John Nein handed over the second prize - $6,000 (€5,500) worth of advertising donated by the French trade magazine Le Film Francais - to A Quiet Heart’s producer Gal Greenspan of Green Productions for its “urgency...
Elite Zexer’s first feature Sand Storm and Eitan Anner’s A Quiet Heart have won the First Look Award in Locarno’s showcase, which was dedicated this year to selected Israeli films in post-production.
Jury member Karel Och, director of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, presented the first prize of $66,000 (€60,000) worth of picture post-production services sponsored by Rotor Film to Sand Storm’s producers Haim Mecklberg and Estee Yacov-Mecklberg for its “mature, deeply observant storytelling and courageous depiction of the layered struggles of several generations of women”.
Sand Storm centres on a Bedouin mother and daughter testing the limits of their conservative community.
Fellow jury member, Sundance programming director John Nein handed over the second prize - $6,000 (€5,500) worth of advertising donated by the French trade magazine Le Film Francais - to A Quiet Heart’s producer Gal Greenspan of Green Productions for its “urgency...
- 8/11/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Israeli film-maker Itamar Alcalay’s Darkroom, revolving around a young gay Armenian man forced into an arranged marriage, has won the top $50,000 prize at the Sam Spiegel International Film Lab’s pitching event.
The Death Of Black Horses by Kurdistan’s Ferit Karahan, a story of family intrigue in a Kurdish village during the First World War, clinched the second prize of $20,000.
The two prizes were donated by the Beracha Foundation.
Darkroom, produced by Amir Harel and Ayelet Kait of Tel Aviv-based Lama Films, is Alcalay’s debut feature, after a number of documentary shorts.
Set in a down-at-heel neighbourhood near the central bus station in Tel Aviv, it revolves around the relationship between hot-blooded Armenian Artium, his lover Amir and a free-spirited girl to whom Artium is married-off by his family.
The Death Of Black Horses is Karahan’s second film after The Fall From Heaven, which premiered at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and won...
The Death Of Black Horses by Kurdistan’s Ferit Karahan, a story of family intrigue in a Kurdish village during the First World War, clinched the second prize of $20,000.
The two prizes were donated by the Beracha Foundation.
Darkroom, produced by Amir Harel and Ayelet Kait of Tel Aviv-based Lama Films, is Alcalay’s debut feature, after a number of documentary shorts.
Set in a down-at-heel neighbourhood near the central bus station in Tel Aviv, it revolves around the relationship between hot-blooded Armenian Artium, his lover Amir and a free-spirited girl to whom Artium is married-off by his family.
The Death Of Black Horses is Karahan’s second film after The Fall From Heaven, which premiered at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and won...
- 7/13/2015
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The trial of the detained Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov is expected “not before the end of July”, according to his cousin Natalja Kaplan.
Speaking at the opening of Berlin’s first Ukrainian Film Days held in solidarity with the director, Kaplan said that Sentsov has been moved from the prison in Moscow to await his trial in Rostov on the Don, more than 14 months after his arrest by the Russian security services in Crimea in May 2014.
The trial date had been postponed on several occasions, most recently in May when it was said that the trial proceedings would begin by July 11 at the latest, two days before Sentsov’s birthday on July 13.
Kaplan, who is regularly in contact with her cousin and has attended his previous court appearances, said that Sentsov has “prepared himself for the fact that he will receive a sentence of 20 years, but this system will not survive the 20 years.”
She told an...
Speaking at the opening of Berlin’s first Ukrainian Film Days held in solidarity with the director, Kaplan said that Sentsov has been moved from the prison in Moscow to await his trial in Rostov on the Don, more than 14 months after his arrest by the Russian security services in Crimea in May 2014.
The trial date had been postponed on several occasions, most recently in May when it was said that the trial proceedings would begin by July 11 at the latest, two days before Sentsov’s birthday on July 13.
Kaplan, who is regularly in contact with her cousin and has attended his previous court appearances, said that Sentsov has “prepared himself for the fact that he will receive a sentence of 20 years, but this system will not survive the 20 years.”
She told an...
- 6/30/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria was the big winner at this year’s German Film Awards, taking home six statuettes from its seven nominations including the Golden Lolas for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Lead Actor.
Schipper’s one-shot thriller set during a breathless night on the streets of Berlin also picked up Lolas for the Spanish actress Laia Costa, the title character, and the Danish cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.
Victoria premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition last February where Grøvlen received a Silver Bear, was released in German cinemas on 11 June and is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.
The Silver Lola for Best Film was awarded by the members of the German Film Academy to Edward Berger’s social-realist drama Jack, with the Bronze Lola going to Johannes Naber’s black comedy Age Of Cannibals which deservedly also received the Lola for Best Screenplay for the searing dialogues by the author Stefan Weigl.
Both...
Schipper’s one-shot thriller set during a breathless night on the streets of Berlin also picked up Lolas for the Spanish actress Laia Costa, the title character, and the Danish cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen.
Victoria premiered in the Berlinale’s main competition last February where Grøvlen received a Silver Bear, was released in German cinemas on 11 June and is being handled internationally by The Match Factory.
The Silver Lola for Best Film was awarded by the members of the German Film Academy to Edward Berger’s social-realist drama Jack, with the Bronze Lola going to Johannes Naber’s black comedy Age Of Cannibals which deservedly also received the Lola for Best Screenplay for the searing dialogues by the author Stefan Weigl.
Both...
- 6/22/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Every year Villa Aurora follows its own long tradition of welcoming the German community and friends to socialize and celebrate the German contribution to American culture.
The German co-production “Citizenfour” by Laura Poitras (De/Us, Praxis Films, Br, Ndr) was awarded the Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature yesterday. “Citizenfour” has also received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” by Wes Anderson (Gb/De, Neunzehnte Babelsberg Film), another German co-production, picked up four Academy Awards® in the categories Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Hair and Make-Up as well as Best Original Score. It had been nominated in nine categories.
A day before the Oscars®, German Films joined forces with the Villa Aurora and the German Consul-General in Los Angeles to hold their traditional reception in honor of the German Oscar® nominees at the garden of the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.
The teams of “Citizenfour” comprising the German producers Dirk Wilutzky and Mathilde Bonnefoy, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” with the producers Carl Woebcken, Henning Molfenter and Christoph Fisser, the representatives of the German regional funders Carl Bergengruen of Mfg Baden-württemberg and Kirsten Niehuus of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as well as the director Wim Wenders, who was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for “The Salt Of The Earth," celebrated there with guests from the German and international film industry.
The beautiful Spanish Deco home at 520 Paseo Miramar in the Pacific Palisades was bought by the famed author, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta in 1943 the same year that he published The Devil in France, the account of his imprisonment by the Nazis in the South of France before he fled to the U.S.
In September of 1940, with the support of Varian Fry and the U.S. Vice Consul in Marseille, Hiram Bingham, Lion and Marta were able to join another group of exiles in crossing the Pyrenees on foot. They made their journey from Lisbon to New York on different ships. From there, they traveled to Los Angeles, and in 1943 moved into the Villa Aurora, which soon became a focal point in the lives of many intellectuals and artists who had fled from Germany including Bertold Brecht, Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich Mann, Marlene Dietrich.
Their German passports had been confiscated by the Nazis. In the McCarthy era, Feuchtwanger was scrutinized as a “premature antifascist” by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Fearing that he would not be allowed to return, he never traveled outside the U.S. again. After years of immigration hearings, Feuchtwangers application for American citizenship was finally granted, but the letter informing Feuchtwanger of the fact was not received until a day after his death.
Marta bequeathed to the University of Southern California the library and the house in exchange for the life-long right to live in the Villa. She was appointed curator of the Villa and was politically and culturally active. The Villa remained a social destination in Los Angeles. In 1987 she died at the age of 96.
"So, in my fiftieth year, I literally arrived in the U.S. on foot. Has that made me a U.S. citizen? Can a piece of paper change half a century of my life? I don’t believe it. Now, that I have only 10 years to complete the second half of the century, I feel, it is good to have the citizenship of a country that unites my German routes with the ones of many other nations. Being American is very close to being a citizen of the world."
Source: Marta Feuchtwanger: Only a Woman, Years Days Hours, Aufbau Verlag Berlin Leipzig, 1984
Celebrating the Academy Award Nominees at the same time as 20 years of present ownership of the Villa Aurora and at the same time as 25 years after German reunification, restoration of the famed Babelsberg Studios made this year especially notable.
At the party, I had the chance to speak with Mariette Rissenbeek, Managing Director or German Films.
How long have you been with German Export?
I started in 2002, 13 years ago. I was in charge of festivals and public relations. The position gave me rewarding insights into festivals and I was able to meet many producers.
What changes have you seen in your time there?
I started a year after “Good Bye Lenin” and “Nowhere in Africa”. In the 2000s, German films became very popular internationally. Since 2011 I have been the Managing Director which involves lots of administration and politics.
How do German films do abroad?
Every year two to three titles work well. “Phoenix” is doing very well in France. “Hannah Arendt” and “The Lives of Others” did well worldwide. This year we have “Elser” (“Thirteen Minutes”) which just premiered in Berlin and of course “Salt of the Earth” and “CitizenFour” (winner of the 2015 Spirit Award for Best Documentary), “Victoria” which Adopt Films acquired for U.S.
Germans have consistently won Academy Awards since 1929 when Emil Jannings won for Best Actor in “The Way of All Flesh” and “ The Last Command”.
I also had the chance to speak with the Director of Villa Aurora, my friend since her days at Goethe Institute.
How long have you been Director of Villa Aurora ?
Three years in May.
You moved over from Goethe Institute and have changed Villa Aurora significantly. Can you tell us what changes it has undergone since you took over as its director?
When I applied for the position, I gave my vision for the Villa in various areas which included increased visibility, and renovations, as the home was in a rather neglected state. I also wanted our guests to network more with the Los Angeles arts community. So now their work appears in galleries, they give master classes and they show their work.
I had support from the Berlin headquarters and the German Foreign office and so we could renovate, landscape and install better lighting. I love creative work and this has been very satisfying.
Similarly as at the Goethe Institute, I still network and organize events, but I am also a “den mother” to the fellows. At this time we have five artists in residence. Four are here for three months and one is here for eight months – a writer in exile who cannot live in the native country of birth. We have had a writer from Syria living in Turkey; last year we had someone from Viet Nam and before, a blogger from Belarus living in Poland.
We also have an agreement with Cal Arts to send an artist to Germany to work and present their work.
Once again the congeniality and milieu brought together Hollywood and Germany, a partnership which goes back to the first days of the Hollywood we know today.
The German co-production “Citizenfour” by Laura Poitras (De/Us, Praxis Films, Br, Ndr) was awarded the Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature yesterday. “Citizenfour” has also received an Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” by Wes Anderson (Gb/De, Neunzehnte Babelsberg Film), another German co-production, picked up four Academy Awards® in the categories Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Hair and Make-Up as well as Best Original Score. It had been nominated in nine categories.
A day before the Oscars®, German Films joined forces with the Villa Aurora and the German Consul-General in Los Angeles to hold their traditional reception in honor of the German Oscar® nominees at the garden of the Villa Aurora in Los Angeles.
The teams of “Citizenfour” comprising the German producers Dirk Wilutzky and Mathilde Bonnefoy, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” with the producers Carl Woebcken, Henning Molfenter and Christoph Fisser, the representatives of the German regional funders Carl Bergengruen of Mfg Baden-württemberg and Kirsten Niehuus of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as well as the director Wim Wenders, who was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for “The Salt Of The Earth," celebrated there with guests from the German and international film industry.
The beautiful Spanish Deco home at 520 Paseo Miramar in the Pacific Palisades was bought by the famed author, Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife Marta in 1943 the same year that he published The Devil in France, the account of his imprisonment by the Nazis in the South of France before he fled to the U.S.
In September of 1940, with the support of Varian Fry and the U.S. Vice Consul in Marseille, Hiram Bingham, Lion and Marta were able to join another group of exiles in crossing the Pyrenees on foot. They made their journey from Lisbon to New York on different ships. From there, they traveled to Los Angeles, and in 1943 moved into the Villa Aurora, which soon became a focal point in the lives of many intellectuals and artists who had fled from Germany including Bertold Brecht, Thomas Mann and his brother Heinrich Mann, Marlene Dietrich.
Their German passports had been confiscated by the Nazis. In the McCarthy era, Feuchtwanger was scrutinized as a “premature antifascist” by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Fearing that he would not be allowed to return, he never traveled outside the U.S. again. After years of immigration hearings, Feuchtwangers application for American citizenship was finally granted, but the letter informing Feuchtwanger of the fact was not received until a day after his death.
Marta bequeathed to the University of Southern California the library and the house in exchange for the life-long right to live in the Villa. She was appointed curator of the Villa and was politically and culturally active. The Villa remained a social destination in Los Angeles. In 1987 she died at the age of 96.
"So, in my fiftieth year, I literally arrived in the U.S. on foot. Has that made me a U.S. citizen? Can a piece of paper change half a century of my life? I don’t believe it. Now, that I have only 10 years to complete the second half of the century, I feel, it is good to have the citizenship of a country that unites my German routes with the ones of many other nations. Being American is very close to being a citizen of the world."
Source: Marta Feuchtwanger: Only a Woman, Years Days Hours, Aufbau Verlag Berlin Leipzig, 1984
Celebrating the Academy Award Nominees at the same time as 20 years of present ownership of the Villa Aurora and at the same time as 25 years after German reunification, restoration of the famed Babelsberg Studios made this year especially notable.
At the party, I had the chance to speak with Mariette Rissenbeek, Managing Director or German Films.
How long have you been with German Export?
I started in 2002, 13 years ago. I was in charge of festivals and public relations. The position gave me rewarding insights into festivals and I was able to meet many producers.
What changes have you seen in your time there?
I started a year after “Good Bye Lenin” and “Nowhere in Africa”. In the 2000s, German films became very popular internationally. Since 2011 I have been the Managing Director which involves lots of administration and politics.
How do German films do abroad?
Every year two to three titles work well. “Phoenix” is doing very well in France. “Hannah Arendt” and “The Lives of Others” did well worldwide. This year we have “Elser” (“Thirteen Minutes”) which just premiered in Berlin and of course “Salt of the Earth” and “CitizenFour” (winner of the 2015 Spirit Award for Best Documentary), “Victoria” which Adopt Films acquired for U.S.
Germans have consistently won Academy Awards since 1929 when Emil Jannings won for Best Actor in “The Way of All Flesh” and “ The Last Command”.
I also had the chance to speak with the Director of Villa Aurora, my friend since her days at Goethe Institute.
How long have you been Director of Villa Aurora ?
Three years in May.
You moved over from Goethe Institute and have changed Villa Aurora significantly. Can you tell us what changes it has undergone since you took over as its director?
When I applied for the position, I gave my vision for the Villa in various areas which included increased visibility, and renovations, as the home was in a rather neglected state. I also wanted our guests to network more with the Los Angeles arts community. So now their work appears in galleries, they give master classes and they show their work.
I had support from the Berlin headquarters and the German Foreign office and so we could renovate, landscape and install better lighting. I love creative work and this has been very satisfying.
Similarly as at the Goethe Institute, I still network and organize events, but I am also a “den mother” to the fellows. At this time we have five artists in residence. Four are here for three months and one is here for eight months – a writer in exile who cannot live in the native country of birth. We have had a writer from Syria living in Turkey; last year we had someone from Viet Nam and before, a blogger from Belarus living in Poland.
We also have an agreement with Cal Arts to send an artist to Germany to work and present their work.
Once again the congeniality and milieu brought together Hollywood and Germany, a partnership which goes back to the first days of the Hollywood we know today.
- 2/26/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Bernd Neumann, Germany’s former State Minister for Culture and Media, has weighed in with his own comments about the discussion on the German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) spend incentive.
Speaking in his current capacity as the president of the German Federal Film Board (Ffa), Neumann said that it was ¨regrettable¨ that, ¨in spite of the Dfff’s outstanding success and the commitment of [his successor] Minister Grütters,¨, finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble could not be persuaded to retain the fund’s budget at least at € 60m for 2015.
It was learnt a week ago that the Angela Merkel administration is likely to cut the Dfff’s budget by € 10m to € 50m as from next year.
Neumann had been the political architect of the ¨German spend¨ initiative which was introduced in 2007 and has been instrumental in making Germany an attractive location for international film productions.
A current example of a major international production benefiting from the Dfff is Steven Spielberg’s untitled...
Speaking in his current capacity as the president of the German Federal Film Board (Ffa), Neumann said that it was ¨regrettable¨ that, ¨in spite of the Dfff’s outstanding success and the commitment of [his successor] Minister Grütters,¨, finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble could not be persuaded to retain the fund’s budget at least at € 60m for 2015.
It was learnt a week ago that the Angela Merkel administration is likely to cut the Dfff’s budget by € 10m to € 50m as from next year.
Neumann had been the political architect of the ¨German spend¨ initiative which was introduced in 2007 and has been instrumental in making Germany an attractive location for international film productions.
A current example of a major international production benefiting from the Dfff is Steven Spielberg’s untitled...
- 11/20/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Film-makers across Europe are “in shock” after learning the news that the Nipkow Programm has not received backing from the EU’s Creative Europe programme for 2015-2016.
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, Nipkow Programm managing director Petra Weisenburger explained that the Berlin-based training initiative had not been successful in the latest round of funding for the next two years and would explore alternative strategies for a survival plan.
In the current financial year, Creative Europe had provided nearly 46% (€180,400) of Nipkow’s overall budget, with the remaining €215,543 coming from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb) and Germany’s State Minister for Culture and the Media (Bkm).
Weisenburger said that Mbb’s CEO Kirsten Niehuus had already indicated a desire to see the Nipkow Programm continue to exist, but the situation remains unclear about the funding from Bkm for 2015 onwards.
She added that the Nipkow Programm jury of experts will meet during the next Berlinale in February to discuss the initiative’s future...
Speaking exclusively to ScreenDaily, Nipkow Programm managing director Petra Weisenburger explained that the Berlin-based training initiative had not been successful in the latest round of funding for the next two years and would explore alternative strategies for a survival plan.
In the current financial year, Creative Europe had provided nearly 46% (€180,400) of Nipkow’s overall budget, with the remaining €215,543 coming from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb) and Germany’s State Minister for Culture and the Media (Bkm).
Weisenburger said that Mbb’s CEO Kirsten Niehuus had already indicated a desire to see the Nipkow Programm continue to exist, but the situation remains unclear about the funding from Bkm for 2015 onwards.
She added that the Nipkow Programm jury of experts will meet during the next Berlinale in February to discuss the initiative’s future...
- 11/12/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
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