KODAK VISION3 250D Color Negative Film 5207/7207 - German Film

Otto Alexander Jahrreiss’ screwball comedy Pigeons on the
Roof.
Given that cinema audiences are growing older and becoming more
demanding, the company has also given itself the task of identifying
subject matter to appeal to this age group. “There is much more political
cinema made in France, for example, and I see that we have some
way to catch up,” Friedl argues. Two projects fitting this category of
sophisticated political cinema would be the adaptation of Robert
Harris’ controversial novel Vaterland and the political thriller It’s
God’s Will based on the novel of the same name by Christian
Schoenborn.
Finally, UFA Cinema’s fifth project category will be seeing the company
paying particular attention to the young generation of filmmakers,
which is a natural progression from Friedl and Hofmann’s
involvement in the annual First Steps Award in Berlin as well as
Hofmann’s role as a professor at the film academy in Ludwigsburg.
One of the first projects will be Student Oscar ® -winner Toke
Constantin Hebbeln’s feature debut, the East-West love story
Niemandsland, with up-and-coming, Berlin-based Frisbeefilms.
The fourth project to go before the camera this year will be Roland
Suso Richter’s Jungle Child based on Sabine Kuegler’s best-selling
book Dschungelkind in the autumn.
According to UFA Cinema’s managing director Juergen Schuster, this
project is particularly fascinating “because, when also looking at it
from the production logistics, it marks a completely new challenge for
us on this scale. I became aware of this ’at close range’ last year when
I was on a research trip deep in the rain forest for this project and
made the first contact with the archaic world described in Sabine
Kuegler’s novel.”
“But the exciting description of her childhood experiences in the
deepest jungle of West Papua where she grew up with her parents
and two siblings in the midst of the Fayu People and far away from any
kind of ’civilization’, also contains all the components which I think
will make for an exciting, highly emotional feature film set against a
terrific backdrop.”
STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
Meanwhile, this April a strategic partnership was unveiled with
Universal Pictures International (UPI) and Focus Features
International (FFI), which sees UPI becoming the exclusive theatrical
and home entertainment distributor for UFA Cinema productions in
German-speaking territories. In addition, FFI may partner UFA on key
co-productions aimed for the international market and have an option
to handle international sales on selected UFA Cinema titles.
Given his background at Constantin, many industry observers had
expected Friedl to want to set up his own in-house distribution arm.
But he counters: "In addition to our annual production output of 8-10
films, we would have had to acquire 10 movies. I don’t see this product
available on the independent market at the moment. That’s why
we chose the option of entering into a partnership with an existing
distributor."
“We looked at the kinds of partnership that were possible and how
one could complement one another,” he continues. “From the outset,
Universal and Focus Features are our dream partners since a number
of important elements came together: it was extremely important for
us to have a distribution partner who also produces and has a strong
focus on international markets.”
“Although our focus is on German-language projects, we now have
quite a number of English ones in development and so we were keen
to have a partner who has experience of production, sales and distribution
in the global markets,” Friedl says. “It is a strategic partnership
which functions in both directions: i.e. we will work together in all
those areas where it makes sense. Thus, we could also be involved in
projects which Focus or Universal plan to do here in Germany, where
we can bring in our know-how.”
“I have realized a dream I had for the past 20 years, including during
the time when I was at Constantin – the idea of gathering strong studio
product with strong local titles into one distribution structure,” he
says. “Nobody had managed to do this consistently up until now.
There were always successful periods with local productions at US
studios or independent companies like Constantin with US product,
but it was never both at the same time. The market is constantly
demanding strong studio and local product from one source, and
that’s what we aim to provide.”
THE NEXT CHAPTER
Meanwhile, the appearance of UFA Cinema in Germany as a new
player may only be the beginning of the story. “The idea of taking this
UFA Cinema model to other territories is the third step in our strategy,”
Bauer explains. “It was agreed with our shareholder to begin
with production and then a distribution structure. Once this is
successful, we could think about exporting the model to key markets
in Europe like France, Spain, Italy and the UK.”
Martin Blaney spoke with Thomas Peter Friedl, Wolf Bauer,
Nico Hofmann and Juergen Schuster
german films quarterly producers’ portrait
3 · 2009 10