German Films

165 Flags for the AUDI Festival of German Films in Sydney
(photo © Tom Koprowski)
INCREASED ATTENDANCE AT AUDI
FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS IN AUSTRALIA
This year’s AUDI Festival of German Films in Australia (24
April – 9 May 2010), which was jointly organized by German Films and
the Goethe-Institut Australia and mainly sponsored by AUDI
Australia, posted around 26,000 admissions in Sydney, Melbourne,
Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The comedies and large-scale pro -
ductions, in particular, made for full cinemas and a 30% increase in
attendance. A total of 30 feature films, TV movies and five shorts
were shown.
Fatih Akin’s comedy Soul Kitchen had already become the front-runner
during advance ticket sales and was presented with the Golden
Gnome Audience Award. The film was launched in Australian cinemas
after the festival.
Other favorites at the festival included: The White Ribbon by Michael
Haneke, Men in the City by Simon Verhoeven, The Crocodiles 1 + 2 by
Christian Ditter as well as My Words, My Lies – My Love by Alain
Gsponer, John Rabe by Florian Gallenberger, Whisky With Vodka by
Andreas Dresen, Wedding Fever in Campobello by Neele Leana
Vollmar, The Door by Anno Saul, and Berlin 36 by Kaspar Heidelbach,
which attracted an enthusiastic audience and received very good feedback
in the media.
Festival guest Soenke Wortmann, who was honored with three films
in the festival program, was on hand to answer the audience’s ques -
tions and sign posters after the packed screenings of Pope Joan. The
writer Erica Fischer, who penned the literary original, experienced a
very interested and open-minded audience during the conversations
about Aimee & Jaguar by Max Faerberboeck, and an intense panel discussion
followed after the sold-out performances of Storm by Hans-
Christian Schmid in Melbourne and Sydney.
KNIGHTLEY, BINOCHE & BERGER:
FILM STARS IN NRW
Summer in North Rhine-Westphalia offers not only the highlights of
the European Cultural Capital RUHR.2010, but also numerous film
shoots with international film stars. Keira Knightley, under the direction
of David Cronenberg, was in Cologne shooting A Dangerous Mind
about the tense relationship between psychiatrists Carl Gustav Jung
and Sigmund Freund, played by Michael Fassbender and Viggo
Mortensen. This international co-production was supported by the
Filmstiftung NRW, as was the new film by Polish director
Malgoska Szumowska. Juliette Binoche is in the leading role of this film
– about a journalist doing research on the topic of student prosti tution
– which is being co-produced by Cologne-based Zentropa Int. and has
been shooting in NRW and Paris since July. The German director
Isabel Kleefeld is also working on her first feature film for the cinemas,
entitled Ruhm, an adaptation of the bestselling work by Daniel
Kehlmann (Die Vermessung der Welt). Senta Berger is in one of the
lead ing roles of this Filmstiftung NRW-supported co-production being
produced by Soenke Wortmann's Little Shark Entertainment based in
Cologne.
WELCOME TO GERMANY, EURIMAGES!
For the first time in over 18 years, a session of the Board of
Management of the Council of Europe’s EURIMAGES Fund took place
in Germany. On the initiative of the new President, Jobst Plog, and
follow ing the invitation of the Federal Government Commissioner for
Culture & the Media (BKM), 65 participants from 34 member states of
the Council of Europe met from 14 – 17 June 2010 in Hamburg.
A total of 4.78 million Euros were awarded to 14 projects, in cluding
German co-productions such as Emir Kusturica’s Cool Water (Brave
New Work Film Productions) and Lars von Trier’s Melancholia
(Zentropa International Cologne).
In addition to the committee sessions, the Board of Management also
took part in various official events, such as a reception at the Hamburg
City Hall, the “President’s Dinner” with Dr. Ingeborg Berggreen-
Merkel (BKM), Peter Dinges (German Federal Film Board), Eva
Hubert (Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein) and the director
of the local public broadcaster NDR, Lutz Marmor, as well as a
summer boat trip on the river Elbe.
german films quarterly news
3 · 2010 13
The EURIMAGES Board with President Jobst Plog at the
Hamburg City Hall (photo © Dirk Uhlenbrock)