B_Cards, neu - german films

photo © MFG Filmförderung Baden-Württemberg
NEWS
SCREENPLAY AWARD CELEBRATES 15TH YEARS
The Thomas Strittmatter Prize, endowed with €25,000, will be
presented by MFG Baden-Württemberg for the 15th time in
2013 to an outstanding screenwriter. Prerequisite to receive the
award is residence of the writer or the establishment of the
story line in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The award money
is bound to the development of a new screenplay, congruent to
the regulations of the MFG Film Fund. Even a nomination for
the award bestows the nominees with prize money.
A prominent jury reads the anonymous screenplays and all
nominees are invited to Berlin for the awards ceremony which
takes place during the Berlinale. The Secretary for the Arts
Jürgen Walter, together with MFG’s managing director Gabriele
Röthemeyer, will present the Thomas Strittmatter Prize at the
permanent representational offices of the state of Baden-
Württem berg in Berlin. A list of previous, successful winners –
including FOUR MINUTES by Chris Kraus, 5 YEARS by Stefan
Schaller or HABIB RHAPSODY by Michael Baumann – and
further information can be found at: www.thomas-strittmatterpreis.de.
WIM WENDERS FOUNDATION IN DÜSSELDORF
His works should belong to everyone, at least that’s how Wim
Wenders sees it. And so for this reason, the Wim Wenders
Foundation has been established in his hometown of Düsseldorf.
The foundation intends to reacquire the rights to all of the
director’s films in order to make them available to the general
public. The foundation was called to life by Wim Wenders and
his wife Donata Wenders and is set out to make a valuable
contri bution to the cultural life in the German state of North
Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The foundation’s goal is, among other
things, to support and promote innovative narrative art. To -
gether with the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, a Wim Wenders
Scholarship will be awarded in 2013. Financial support will be
provided by the state of NRW, the city of Düsseldorf and the
Cultural Foundation of Federal States as well as by private
donators. The Film- und Medienstiftung NRW was instrumental
in bringing all the partners together for the collaboration in this
unique foundation.
FIRST SHORT FILM DAY CELEBRATED IN GERMANY
On 21 December 2012, the shortest day of the year, Germany
successfully celebrated its first ever SHORT FILM DAY. Being an
initiative of the French CNC, Le jour le plus court was already a
tremendous success in France in 2011. In cooperation with the
French-German TV broadcaster ARTE and with financial support
from the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the German
Short Film Association was able to coordinate a similar event
in Germany in 2012. In spite of the usual pre-Christmas rush
and the Mayan predictions of the world’s demise on that day,
155 event organizers and cinemas in 70 towns and cities
through out Germany joined in this celebration of short film,
screening short films not only on the silver screen but also at
the most unusual places such as backyards, trams and kindergartens.
The association hopes that over the coming years,
many more European countries will join in this amazing event
and the idea behind it. And which utopia could be more beautiful
than having a SHORT FILM DAY as a shared event throughout
Europe? More information is available at: www.kurzfilmtag.com
GERMAN SHORTS: CLERMONT-FERRAND & BERLIN
The German Short Film Association (AG Kurzfilm) and German
Films have established a constant platform for German short
films at the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand.
At the 35th edition of the festival, there were four German
shorts competing for the Grand Prix: AUSGLEICH (Matthias
Zuder), STOLZ DES OSTENS (Christoph Wermke) and the coproductions
FATHER (Ivan Bogdanov, Veljko Popovic, Moritz
Mayerhofer, Asparuh Petrov, Rositsa Raleva, Dmitry Yagodin)
and LIVING STILL LIFE (Bertrand Mandico). Another two were
selected for the Lab Competition: REALITY 2.0 (Victor Orozco)
and SONNTAG 3 (Jochen Kuhn).
Furthermore, the 8th edition of the “Soirée Allemande · Coup
de cœur - Le court métrage allemande”, a French-German
cooperation between the AG Kurzfilm, German Films, the International
Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand, the Goethe-
Institute Lyon as well as the KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg
celebrated its premiere at the festival. Afterwards, the program
will be touring the Goethe-Institutes and festivals worldwide as
a French, German and English subtitled DVD. From more than
450 German festival entries in Clermont-Ferrand, ten films
from various genres were selected for the program: NOBODY’S
FOOL (Alexandra Kardinar, Volker Schlecht), THE CONFE-
RENCE: OR SHOOTING FOR THE MOON (Franz Winzentsen),
RUNNER (Carolina Hellsgård), SNAIL TRAIL (Philipp Artus),
FATHER (Ivan Bogdanov, Veljko Popovic, Moritz Mayerhofer,
GFQ 1-2013 12
photo © Benjamin Schindler