Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who won Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or for “The Square” and “Triangle of Sadness,” was among the guests at the German Films and Medienboard Reception on May 18 in the garden of the Mondrian Hotel in Cannes.
Östlund, who is in the Riviera resort to promote his latest production, “The Entertainment System Is Down,” was accompanied by Philippe Bober of Coproduction Office, one of the film’s producers, and Erik Hemmendorf of Plattform Produktion, Östlund’s Swedish producer. (They are pictured above.)
German Films, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, was represented at the event by managing director Simone Baumann, and Medienboard, which is a film fund for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, was represented by its CEO Kirsten Niehuus. Variety was the media partner for the reception.
Among the other guests attending were Karim Aïnouz, director of “Motel Destino,” which plays in this year’s Competition section at Cannes.
Östlund, who is in the Riviera resort to promote his latest production, “The Entertainment System Is Down,” was accompanied by Philippe Bober of Coproduction Office, one of the film’s producers, and Erik Hemmendorf of Plattform Produktion, Östlund’s Swedish producer. (They are pictured above.)
German Films, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, was represented at the event by managing director Simone Baumann, and Medienboard, which is a film fund for the Berlin-Brandenburg region, was represented by its CEO Kirsten Niehuus. Variety was the media partner for the reception.
Among the other guests attending were Karim Aïnouz, director of “Motel Destino,” which plays in this year’s Competition section at Cannes.
- 5/21/2024
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
It’s a story — the attempted genocide of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis and their willing executioners — that has been told many times before. But, say the creators of the new German TV drama The Interpreter of Silence, it’s a story that needs to be told again and again.
The five-part limited series, which bowed on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ worldwide Nov. 15, is up for this year’s Critics Choice Awards in the best foreign-language TV series category. The period drama will go up against the South Korean series Bargain, The Glory, Mask Girl and Moving, the French crime series Lupin, and the Italian mafia drama The Good Mothers.
Set in Frankfurt in 1963, The Interpreter of Silence follows the events of Eva Bruhns, a 24-year-old German woman, played by Katharina Stark, who gets a job as a Polish-to-German interpreter in the Auschwitz trials, the...
The five-part limited series, which bowed on Hulu in the U.S. and on Disney+ worldwide Nov. 15, is up for this year’s Critics Choice Awards in the best foreign-language TV series category. The period drama will go up against the South Korean series Bargain, The Glory, Mask Girl and Moving, the French crime series Lupin, and the Italian mafia drama The Good Mothers.
Set in Frankfurt in 1963, The Interpreter of Silence follows the events of Eva Bruhns, a 24-year-old German woman, played by Katharina Stark, who gets a job as a Polish-to-German interpreter in the Auschwitz trials, the...
- 1/12/2024
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Picture Tree Intl. has taken global sales rights for “The Peacock” by Lutz Heineking Jr. The black comedy is based on the best-selling novel of the same title by German author Isabel Bogdan, which has been published in key European territories. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer (below).
The film’s cast is filled with German stars including Lavinia Wilson, Tom Schilling, David Kross and Jürgen Vogel. Tobis Film releases the film in Germany on March 9.
When investment banker Linda Bachmann and her team arrive at the country estate of Lord and Lady McIntosh for a team building seminar, the prospects for having a relaxing weekend in Scotland are not good: the annual balance sheet is lousy, the team is keeping a suspicious eye on each other and their boss, and there are rumors that a compliance officer will soon be restructuring the department.
To make matters worse,...
The film’s cast is filled with German stars including Lavinia Wilson, Tom Schilling, David Kross and Jürgen Vogel. Tobis Film releases the film in Germany on March 9.
When investment banker Linda Bachmann and her team arrive at the country estate of Lord and Lady McIntosh for a team building seminar, the prospects for having a relaxing weekend in Scotland are not good: the annual balance sheet is lousy, the team is keeping a suspicious eye on each other and their boss, and there are rumors that a compliance officer will soon be restructuring the department.
To make matters worse,...
- 1/31/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Urban love story is the debut feature of the Austrian director.
Screen can reveal the first trailer of Chris Raiber’s First Snow Of Summer, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).
The urban love story world premieres on Tuesday (January 31) at the Göteborg Film Festival and is the debut feature of the Austrian director.
It’s the story of a young man, Alexander, who is determined never to fall in love until he meets the beautiful and vivacious Caro in her small subway hatter store.
The film’s Austrian cast includes Verena Altenberger...
Screen can reveal the first trailer of Chris Raiber’s First Snow Of Summer, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).
The urban love story world premieres on Tuesday (January 31) at the Göteborg Film Festival and is the debut feature of the Austrian director.
It’s the story of a young man, Alexander, who is determined never to fall in love until he meets the beautiful and vivacious Caro in her small subway hatter store.
The film’s Austrian cast includes Verena Altenberger...
- 1/30/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Urban love story is the debut feature of the Austrian director.
Screen can reveal the first trailer of Chris Raiber’s Snow Of Summer, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).
The urban love story world premieres on Tuesday (January 31) at the Göteborg Film Festival and is the debut feature of the Austrian director.
It’s the story of a young man, Alexander, who is determined never to fall in love until he meets the beautiful and vivacious Caro in her small subway hatter store.
The film’s Austrian cast includes Verena Altenberger (The...
Screen can reveal the first trailer of Chris Raiber’s Snow Of Summer, which has just been boarded for international sales by Picture Tree International (Pti).
The urban love story world premieres on Tuesday (January 31) at the Göteborg Film Festival and is the debut feature of the Austrian director.
It’s the story of a young man, Alexander, who is determined never to fall in love until he meets the beautiful and vivacious Caro in her small subway hatter store.
The film’s Austrian cast includes Verena Altenberger (The...
- 1/30/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
German actor Franz Rogowski is typically intense as recidivist Hans who finds a form of freedom while incarcerated
Grosse Freiheit (Great Freedom) is the name of the Fassbinder-ish gay bar in this film with a dungeon-style sex club beneath: director and co-writer Sebastian Meise leaves it to us to gauge the exact level of irony in his title. It is visited by Hans, to whom 36-year-old German actor Franz Rogowski brings his typically intense, coiled and opaque personality. It is 1969, just after the West German government has decriminalised gay sex. Hans, recently out of jail for this crime, wanders the subterranean sex-filled corridors with an unfathomable smile. Perhaps he sees their resemblance to prison, whose interiors themselves resemble the public lavatories where Hans broke the law, that prison to which lifer Hans had an institutionalised loyalty, part of the lost generations of gay men whose entire lives were pointlessly consumed.
Grosse Freiheit (Great Freedom) is the name of the Fassbinder-ish gay bar in this film with a dungeon-style sex club beneath: director and co-writer Sebastian Meise leaves it to us to gauge the exact level of irony in his title. It is visited by Hans, to whom 36-year-old German actor Franz Rogowski brings his typically intense, coiled and opaque personality. It is 1969, just after the West German government has decriminalised gay sex. Hans, recently out of jail for this crime, wanders the subterranean sex-filled corridors with an unfathomable smile. Perhaps he sees their resemblance to prison, whose interiors themselves resemble the public lavatories where Hans broke the law, that prison to which lifer Hans had an institutionalised loyalty, part of the lost generations of gay men whose entire lives were pointlessly consumed.
- 3/9/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Watching director Sebastian Meise’s “Great Freedom” is a process of watching the main character, Hans Hoffmann (Franz Rogowski), get brutalized and dehumanized. The narrative takes place almost entirely in prison over a period of around 25 years, with Hans repeatedly put into the dark of solitary confinement, and this return to solitary acts as a linking device for Meise, whose screenplay with co-writer Thomas Reider is intricately structured.
“Great Freedom” begins with grainy color footage of Hans in a public lavatory as he hooks up with a series of men, and the furtive vibe is erotic until we are made to realize that what we are seeing is film being used against Hans in court. It is 1968 in Germany, and Hans is being prosecuted under Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexuality. He is sentenced to 24 months in prison.
The style of “Great Freedom” is cool, measured and austere, with near-invisible editing and barely any score.
“Great Freedom” begins with grainy color footage of Hans in a public lavatory as he hooks up with a series of men, and the furtive vibe is erotic until we are made to realize that what we are seeing is film being used against Hans in court. It is 1968 in Germany, and Hans is being prosecuted under Paragraph 175, which criminalized homosexuality. He is sentenced to 24 months in prison.
The style of “Great Freedom” is cool, measured and austere, with near-invisible editing and barely any score.
- 3/3/2022
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
"You don't belong here." "And you do?" The Match Factory has debuted an international promo trailer for the Austrian drama Great Freedom, which originally premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival this year to mostly positive reviews. Based on a true story about a prisoner. In post-war Germany, Hans is imprisoned again and again for being homosexual. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long time cell mate, Viktor, a convicted murderer. What starts in revulsion grows to something called love. The film stars award-winning German actor Franz Rogowski (who's everywhere these days) as Hans, Georg Friedrich as Viktor, plus Anton von Lucke and Thomas Prenn. Early reviews of the film praise it in many distinct ways: "While it smoulders with indignation for the injustice that was perpetrated for so many years, Great Freedom is also a love story, a remarkable character study, and an absorbing meditation on what...
- 10/18/2021
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Streamer and theatrical distributor Mubi has closed its first on-the-ground Cannes business, signing a multi-territory deal for Sebastian Meise’s second feature Great Freedom, which premiered here in Un Certain Regard.
The deal was struck with sales outfit The Match Factory and covers North America, UK, Ireland, Latam (excluding Mexico), Turkey and India.
The film, written by Thomas Reider and Meise, is set in post-war Germany and tells the story of Hans (Franz Rogowski) who is imprisoned time and time again for being homosexual. Due to Paragraph 175, which prohibited homosexual acts in Germany, his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long-time cellmate, Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer.
Pic was produced by Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann, and Benny Drechsel. Anton Von Lucke and Thomas Prenn star alongside Rogowski and Fredrich
Mubi is having a busy 2021 Cannes, striking deals for a host of titles pre-market,...
The deal was struck with sales outfit The Match Factory and covers North America, UK, Ireland, Latam (excluding Mexico), Turkey and India.
The film, written by Thomas Reider and Meise, is set in post-war Germany and tells the story of Hans (Franz Rogowski) who is imprisoned time and time again for being homosexual. Due to Paragraph 175, which prohibited homosexual acts in Germany, his desire for freedom is systematically destroyed. The one steady relationship in his life becomes his long-time cellmate, Viktor (Georg Friedrich), a convicted murderer.
Pic was produced by Sabine Moser, Oliver Neumann, and Benny Drechsel. Anton Von Lucke and Thomas Prenn star alongside Rogowski and Fredrich
Mubi is having a busy 2021 Cannes, striking deals for a host of titles pre-market,...
- 7/12/2021
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
An aspiring dancer is devastated by survivor’s guilt after a shooting in a gay bar, in a topical film that takes on too many big issues
Here’s yet another film that falls disappointingly flat when the film-makers are more preoccupied with delivering topical messages than outlining nuanced characters. Why Not You tries hard to comment on a mosaic of issues – homophobia, addiction, Ptsd, religious extremism – yet ends up hollow and emotionally vapid.
The debut feature from Evi Romen, a seasoned film editor, the film’s visual flair sometimes makes up for the jumbled plot, which follows Mario (Thomas Prenn), an aspiring queer dancer at odds with his conservative community in the primarily German-speaking South Tyrol, Italy. With a penchant for wigs and nail polish, he dreams of bigger cities and the personal freedom they promise. Tragedy strikes on a trip to a gay bar in Rome with Lenz...
Here’s yet another film that falls disappointingly flat when the film-makers are more preoccupied with delivering topical messages than outlining nuanced characters. Why Not You tries hard to comment on a mosaic of issues – homophobia, addiction, Ptsd, religious extremism – yet ends up hollow and emotionally vapid.
The debut feature from Evi Romen, a seasoned film editor, the film’s visual flair sometimes makes up for the jumbled plot, which follows Mario (Thomas Prenn), an aspiring queer dancer at odds with his conservative community in the primarily German-speaking South Tyrol, Italy. With a penchant for wigs and nail polish, he dreams of bigger cities and the personal freedom they promise. Tragedy strikes on a trip to a gay bar in Rome with Lenz...
- 5/17/2021
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
Female directors have come out on top as Evi Romen’s film was named the winner of the Focus Competition, with Fernanda Valadez’s flick dominating the Feature Film Competition. With Time by Garrett Bradley named Best Documentary, Cry Wolf by Maja Jul Larsen crowned as Best Series and the Children's Jury Prize going to Jonathan Elbers’ The Club of Ugly Children, there were plenty of reasons to celebrate at the closing gala of the 16th – and very much physical – edition of the Zurich Film Festival. “With its variety of topics, Why Not You takes a risk that the main actor, Thomas Prenn, knows how to master at every point,” added the jury, praising the Focus Competition winner. “We follow him through the most dramatic twists and turns that confront us with his role as an outsider and our prejudices. Director Evi Romen convinced us with the choice and staging.
In her debut feature film, “Why Not You,” writer-director Evi Romen explores the tragic consequences of a deadly attack in a gay club in Rome and the ostracization of outsiders in a small South Tyrolean community in northern Italy.
The story follows Mario, a troubled but artistic young man, portrayed by Thomas Prenn (“Biohackers”), who longs to leave his provincial village for the wider world. When the opportunity arises, he takes off to Rome with his best friend Lenz, an aspiring actor, played by Noah Saavedra (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”). Their new life comes to an abrupt end, however, when armed men storm a gay club where they are celebrating and open fire on the unsuspecting crowd, killing Lenz and many others. Forced to return to his village, Mario is racked by survivor guilt and weary of the growing intolerance in his community but finds help from Nadim (Josef Mohamed...
The story follows Mario, a troubled but artistic young man, portrayed by Thomas Prenn (“Biohackers”), who longs to leave his provincial village for the wider world. When the opportunity arises, he takes off to Rome with his best friend Lenz, an aspiring actor, played by Noah Saavedra (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”). Their new life comes to an abrupt end, however, when armed men storm a gay club where they are celebrating and open fire on the unsuspecting crowd, killing Lenz and many others. Forced to return to his village, Mario is racked by survivor guilt and weary of the growing intolerance in his community but finds help from Nadim (Josef Mohamed...
- 9/14/2020
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
The characters of Biohackers are faced with such mystery in situations that are larger than anything they could’ve imagined, that they play God in their own journey of synthetic science. Big stuff.
This six-part German Netflix series is everything but what you would expect of a European sci-fi thriller. Created by Christian Ditter, instead of moving from planet to planet in an unbelievable this-will-never-happen flurry, Biohackers is a fast-paced thriller that touches on lust and young relationships, as well as heartbreak and loss, and it’s the better for it.
The show keeps the topic of modern science at its core, in a way attractive enough to keep even those disinterested with topics of biology engaged. By casting talented, young and diverse actors in the lead roles, Ditter creates a symphony of humour, gripping drama and romance.
Scene one of the first episode opens with a young seem-to-be couple on a train.
This six-part German Netflix series is everything but what you would expect of a European sci-fi thriller. Created by Christian Ditter, instead of moving from planet to planet in an unbelievable this-will-never-happen flurry, Biohackers is a fast-paced thriller that touches on lust and young relationships, as well as heartbreak and loss, and it’s the better for it.
The show keeps the topic of modern science at its core, in a way attractive enough to keep even those disinterested with topics of biology engaged. By casting talented, young and diverse actors in the lead roles, Ditter creates a symphony of humour, gripping drama and romance.
Scene one of the first episode opens with a young seem-to-be couple on a train.
- 8/30/2020
- by Rosie Fletcher
- Den of Geek
The German TV series "Biohackers", following the rivalry of a medical student and a professor, stars Luna Wedler, Jessica Schwarz, Adrian Julius Tillmann, Caro Cult, Thomas Prenn, Sebastian Jakob Doppelbauer, Benno Fürmann and Jing Xiang, streaming August 20, 2020 on Netflix:
"...from 'Thc' chips to genetic enhancements, welcome to the world of 'Biohacking'. When 'Mia' (Wedler) begins her medical degree, she seems like any other student. But when she gains the trust of the brilliant Professor Lorenz (Schwarz), it becomes apparent that she's hiding a secret so big it could change the fate of humanity..."
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Biohackers"...
"...from 'Thc' chips to genetic enhancements, welcome to the world of 'Biohacking'. When 'Mia' (Wedler) begins her medical degree, she seems like any other student. But when she gains the trust of the brilliant Professor Lorenz (Schwarz), it becomes apparent that she's hiding a secret so big it could change the fate of humanity..."
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Biohackers"...
- 7/31/2020
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
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