Quarterly 4 · 2006 - German Cinema

Scene from “Rien ne va plus”
(photo © Katja Pratschke/Gusztáv Hámos)
Successful supporters: G. Linder, H. Kuch and M. Burger
(BayerischeBankenFonds), Dr. K. Schaefer and N. Prediger
(FFF) with D. Hoffman, T. Tykwer, producer B. Eichinger and
B. Whishaw on the set of “The Perfume” in Munich
The Double Woman by Carla B. Guttmann. There was also a special
screening of the omnibus film Paris je t’aime with contributions by Tom
Tykwer and Oliver Schmitz.
Kristall also took part in the International Competition of the Cork
International Film Festival along with Cousins by Maria Mohr, Motodrom
by Joerg Wagner and Rabbit and Luck by Daniel Begun. The Slow Food
section screened The Measure of Things by Sven Bohse and Cork’s
Free Radicals section invited Corridors No. 2 by Tessa Knapp.
FROM INDEPENDENT TO BIG BUDGET
In summer and fall 2006, many supported films provided positive
news for FFF Bayern: A “small”, explicitly Bavarian film called Grave
Decisions won the prestigious Young German Cinema Award, sponsored
by the HypoVereinsbank, Bavaria Film and Bayerischer Rundfunk, and
is the current sensation in the cinemas – nearly 500,000 admissions in
Bavaria alone!
In contrast to this surprise hit, a big production is also drawing in the
masses: On its opening weekend, 1.04 million cinemagoers went to
see Tom Tykwer’s adaptation of The Perfume, a Bernd Eichinger pro-
duction for Constantin Film. The €50 million budgeted period film has
already been sold to territories all over the world. And last but certainly
not least, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s acclaimed debut
film The Lives of Others, winner of four Bavarian Film Awards, seven
German Film Awards and the Audience Award at Locarno, was selected
to represent Germany in the 2007 OSCAR-race for Best Foreign
Language Film. This of course has been a tradition in FFF’s ten year
history, in which eight FFF-funded films were nominated and altogether
five Academy Awards were won.
MFG FILMFOERDERUNG BADEN-
WUERTTEMBERG – WWW.MFG.DE/FILM
Since October 1995, the MFG Filmfoerderung has been supporting
the development and realization of culturally significant film projects,
as well as the cinema scene in south-western Germany. The funder’s
annual budget of some €10 million goes into the areas of screenplay
development, pre-production planning, production, incentive
funding, distribution and sales, film theater support and numerous
structural measures.
Particular concentration is given to the support of up-and-coming
filmmakers. But the support of international co-productions is also
high on the list of priorities at MFG Filmfoerderung. For example,
Christian Wagner’s Warchild, which was shot in Bosnia, Slovenia, Ulm
and areas around the Swabian Alb and was screened In Competition
in Montreal, and Didi Danquart’s Offset (shot in Romania), which premiered
in the official program of the 1st Rome Film Fest.
FIRST SUPPORT FROM THE
GERMAN-POLISH CO-DEVELOPMENT FUND
During the Polish film festival in Gdynia, the first meeting of the
German-Polish Co-Development Fund took place on 13 September
2006. The co-development fund was called to life by the Polish Film
Institute, Mitteldeutsche Medienfoerderung (MDM), and
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
First recipients for support funds for the mutual development of
German-Polish film projects were Andreas Knaup and Jolanten
Makosa with the producers Saxonia Media Filmproduction/Leipzig
and BoMedia/Warsaw for the feature film project August der Starke
german films quarterly news
4 · 2006 21
Labina Mitevska in Christian Wagner’s “Warchild”
(photo courtesy of MFG Filmfoerderung)