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Oscar contenders September 5 and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Andreas Dresen’s historic drama From Hilde, With Love are the frontrunners for this year’s German Film Awards, also called the Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscars.

September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s real-life thriller based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up 10 nominations, including for best film and best director, as well as a supporting actress nom for Leonie Benesch, who plays a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world.

Second and third in the running are Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love, which picked up seven Lola nominations, including for best film and best director, with Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig right behind with six.

Rasoulof’s depiction of an Iranian family torn apart by conflicting loyalties to an increasingly oppressive Tehran regime,...

Exclusive: Bankside has inked a slew of sales on Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 following its Special Gala premiere at the Berlinale this month.

The largely well-received film has sold to Bulgaria (Beta), Canada (Level Film), Czech/Slovak (Aqs), Eastern Europe excluding Poland (HBO), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery), France (Metopolitan), Hungary (Budapest Film), Israel (Naschon/Red Cape), Italy (Lucky Red), Middle East (Front Row), Scandinavia (Sf Studios), South Korea (The Coup) and Spain (Selecta Vision).

Alamode Film holds distribution rights for German-speaking Europe and will be releasing the film in March on more than 200 screens, September Film for Benelux and Madness for Poland. Discussions are ongoing for distribution in both UK and U.S.

The English and German-language pic tells the story behind one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, how it almost didn’t happen, and how one formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes,...

Keith Jarrett’s 1975 double album, The Köln Concert, recorded at the Cologne Opera House earlier that year, sold over four million copies. If you flipped through the album stacks of just about anyone who considered themselves a collector of cool vinyl in the ‘70s, you were likely to come across the famous black-and-white cover shot of the American jazz pianist, eyes closed, hunched over the keys. The live recording of improvised solo piano composition is music to lose yourself in, swirling and transporting, spiritual and transcendent. Jarrett plays with intense feeling, which makes his free-flowing keyboard magic unexpectedly moving.

Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 tells the story of how the landmark concert threatened to fall apart, right up until a half-hour before the 11 p.m. show was scheduled to start. John Magaro is terrific as Jarrett, a once-in-a-generation talent who was sleep-deprived, suffering from acute back pain and disdainful of the...

Fifty years ago today, 18-year-old Vera Brandes organized a concert for jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in Cologne, West Germany, which went on to make music history: a recording of the concert became the best-selling solo jazz album ever as well as the best-selling piano recording ever. Now director Ido Fluk and producers Sol Bondy and Fred Burle from One Two Films have made a film, titled “Köln 75,” that dramatizes the events leading up to the concert, with its world premiere to be held at the Berlinale next month. Variety spoke to Brandes about her memories of the night. Bankside is handling the international sales on the film, whose poster is exclusively revealed below.

“Köln 75” starts with Brandes meeting Ronnie Scott, a British jazz musician and owner of a London jazz club. Scott asks Brandes to arrange some concerts for him in Germany and so, from that chance encounter,...

Ahead of the Berlinale 2025 taking place February 13-23, they’ve unveiled their lineups for Berlinale Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum sections. Highlights include confirmation of Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 alongside Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day, Ancestral Visions of the Future from This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, a documentary on the making of Shoah, a new Jacob Elordi-led series from Justin Kurzel, and more.

See the lineup below via Deadline and check back for the competition lineup next week.

Berlinale Special

Ancestral Visions of the Future

by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese | with Siphiwe Nzima, Sobo Bernard, Zaman Mathejane, Mochesane Edwin Kotsoane, Rehauhetsoe Ernest Kotsoane

France / Lesotho / Germany / Saudi Arabia 2025

Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary form

A poetic allegory of the filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery,...

Aussie filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi, will screen at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was among several titles added to Berlin’s lineup this morning.

The festival describes the series as a “riveting new Australian drama” about a WWII hero haunted by his past. The show will screen as a Berlinale Special Gala. Also in Specials strand is The Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The pic screens at Berlin following a debut bow at Sundance and is from filmmaker Dylan Southern. The pic is an adaption of Max Porter’s novel about a grieving father wrestling with the sudden death of his wife while also raising their young children. As previously reported, Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 will also screen. Scroll down...

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired international rights to Leonora Carrington biopic LeonoraIn TheMorning Light about the English surrealist artist who died in 2011

Directed by filmmaking duo Lena Vurma and Thor Klein, the 1930s-set film follows Carrington as she rebels against society’s expectations, mingles with iconic figures including André Breton and Salvador Dalí in Paris and has a whirlwind love affair with Max Ernst before fleeing to Mexico during the war.

Indie Sales will launch the film at Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris later this month.

The film is based on Elena Poniatowska’s best-selling book Leonora and...

Paris-based Indie Sales has acquired international rights to Leonora Carrington biopic LeonoraIn TheMorning Light about the English surrealist artist who died in 2011

Directed by German filmmaking duo Lena Vurma and Thorsten Klein, the 1930s-set film follows Carrington as she rebels against society’s expectations, mingles with iconic figures including André Breton and Salvador Dalí in Paris and has a whirlwind love affair with Max Ernst before fleeing to Mexico during the war.

Indie Sales will launch the film at Unifrance Rendez-Vous with French Cinema in Paris later this month.

The film is based on Elena Poniatowska’s best-selling book Leonora...

Michel Gondry and Ira Sachs are among the headline filmmakers set to debut new feature works within the sidebar competitions at next year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The German festival announced the pair this afternoon as part of its first crop of confirmed titles.

Gondry will screen Maya, Give Me a Title in Berlin’s Generation sidebar. The festival’s website describes the film as Gondry’s “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.”

Also set for the Generation competition is Our Wildest Days (I Agries Meres Mas) by Greek filmmaker Vasilis Kekatos who is best known for his 2019 short film The Distance Between Us and the Sky, which won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. He also created the popular Greek series Milky Way.

Related:...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

John Magaro, Kate Dickie and Jason Isaacs will be heading to the chilly streets of Berlin. The Berlin Film Festival unveiled the first gala screenings for its 2025 edition, which runs Feb. 13-23.

Islands, the new feature from German director Jan-Ole Gerster (Lara, A Coffee in Berlin), is among the gala highlights. The thriller stars British actor Sam Riley (Control, Maleficent) as a once-promising tennis professional now working as a tennis coach for holidaymakers on a resort island, filling his time with alcohol and brief affairs. Stacy Martin, Jack Farthing, and Dylan Torrell co-star.

Köln 75 from director Ido Fluk, follows the true story of Vera Brandes, teenage patron saint of the 1970s Cologne music scene, who risked everything to organize Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert, considered by many to be the greatest solo concert in music history. German actress Mala Emde play Fluk with John Magaro, Michael Chernus and Alexander Scheer co-starring.

‘After the Party’ in the U.K.

Channel 4 has acquired U.K. rights to the acclaimed New Zealand drama “After the Party” from Lingo Pictures.

The six-part series, co-created by and starring Robyn Malcolm (“Black Bird”), follows Penny Wilding, a mother, teacher and environmental activist, whose life imploded five years earlier after she accused her husband Phil, played by Peter Mullan, of a sex crime and nobody believed her.

When Penny’s now ex-husband returns to town, her daughter pressures her to let go of her accusations and move on. As her old furies rise to the surface, Penny must decide what’s more important – the truth or rebuilding her relationships with the people around her.

Co-created by Dianne Taylor, “After the Party” was produced by Australia’s Lingo Pictures and Luminous Beast in New Zealand as an original commission for New Zealand’s Tvnz in association with and distributed by ITV Studios.

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Andreas Dresen’s Berlinale competition film From Hilde, With Love from Beta Cinema.

The biopic stars Babylon Berlin’s Liv Lisa Fries as real-life German resistance fighter Hilde Coppi. The film depicts her relationship with Communist activist Hans Coppi, who brought her into the anti-Nazi resistance, and her subsequent arrest and imprisonment by the Gestapo while pregnant.

From Hilde With Love is written by Laila Stieler and produced by Claudia Steffen and Christoph Friedel.

Johannes Hegemann, Lisa Wagner and Alexander Scheer also star.

From Hilde, With Love is produced by Pandora Film Produktion,...

Kirsten Niehuus, head of German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is confident that the changes to film funding proposed by the German government recently will have a “very positive effect on the production scene in Berlin-Brandenburg.”

The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here).

Kirsten Niehuus, Martin Moszkowicz

Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.”

Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions,...

Andreas Dresen’s favorite Berlinale memory, as you’d expect, involves Currywurst.

“I was on the jury one year, And it was clear I was the local guy among all these big names,” he recalls. “Now the festival had a vegan menu already then, and at the awards dinner, we had great food but they were quite small portions and [jury president] Wong Kar Wai turns to me and says ‘Andreas, can’t we get some real food?’ So I took them all, Susanne Bier, Shirin Neshat, Tim Robbins, everyone in tuxes and evening gowns, to [legendary Berlin snack bar] Curry 36 for a Currywurst. Even Tim Robbins, who actually is vegetarian, tucked in. I personally saw him gobble up three Currywursts. It was the most Berlin moment ever.”

Dresen has had a few. The 60-year-old director has been a regular at Germany’s top film festival since 1991 when his student film So schnell es geht nach...

UK sales outfit Bankside Films has unveiled a first look image of Mala Emde in the role of Vera Brandes in Ido Fluk’s The Girl From Köln, as well as a slew of key deals on the film as the company heads into the European Film Market (EFM).

The feature, currently in post-production, tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes, was instrumental in its creation. Bankside will be showing a sales promo to buyers at the EFM.

Pictures: Netflix

What a year it has been for the biggest streamer in the world.

While the first half of the year was largely known for its widely seen star-studded critical failures, the second half of the year brought many successes. From a hit franchise blockbuster to multiple awards season contenders, Netflix’s year in films was turned around completely and may help them garner some hardware as we march towards the Oscars in March.

While this list may not represent the most-watched films of the year, I believe these to be the best Netflix had to offer over the past 12 months.

So, without further ado, here are my Top 5 Netflix Original Movies of 2023.

Please note that this author has not seen Best International Feature contender, Society of the Snow, as it will not be on Netflix until 1/4/24. This list will also not consider the Wes Anderson/Roald Dahl short...

Blood & Gold is a movie directed by Peter Thorwarth starring Alexander Scheer, Robert Maaser and Florian Schmidtke.

Blood & Gold is a hilarious Pulp-style action movie.

Plot

A German soldier is looking for his daughter while some of Himmler’s SS boys are desperately looking for a treasure.

Blood & Gold (2023) Movie review

This movie is a great parody that not only tells a story, but also incorporates cinematic elements that make it interesting to watch. The film is well-balanced and attractive, and can only be criticized based on personal preferences. It’s a good movie that has intention, background, and form.

It’s not an action movie like Sisu, nor does it have a “comic book” style. Instead, it draws attention through metafiction and irony, which make the script reflexive and deep. The setting and photography are very good, and while it’s not a blockbuster, it’s magnificently lit.

Exclusive: New indie film financier Mizzel Media is launching in Cannes with what we understand to be a healthy six-figure investment in feature The Girl From Köln, the next film from Holy Spider and The Tale outfit One Two Films.

The movie, which is due to shoot later this year, will star Mala Emde (And Tomorrow The Entire World) and John Magaro (Past Lives) in the lead roles.

Bankside is handling world sales in Cannes on the project, which will tell the little-known backstory of how a maverick German teenager named Vera Brandes was instrumental in the creation of the best-selling solo piano record of all time, U.S. pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert. Ido Fluk (The Ticket) directs from his own script.

The investment is U.S. outfit Mizzel’s first to date. The New York-based company is run by producer and veteran manager Lillian Lasalle, whose clients...

World War II movies have always been a great source of entertainment for viewers, whether it's Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, which tells the story of soldiers attempting to flee before enemy troops arrive, or Brad Pitt's Fury, in which a five-man crew takes on the entire army to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. Despite having similar concepts, most of these films deserve the attention they receive. Perhaps something new will be found in the forthcoming Netflix World War II film Blood & Gold.

Blood & Gold is an upcoming action comedy film set near the end of World War II. Peter Thorwarth, who previously directed Blood Red Sky for Netflix, directs the movie, which stars Robert Maaser and Marie Hacke. The film, shot in the Czech Republic, is now one of the most anticipated Netflix movies and possibly the most anticipated war film in the coming month.

"An unlikely group of outcasts taking on the entire Nazi empire." Netflix has unveiled another new "special trailer" for the WWII action thrille Blood & Gold, the latest from German filmmaker Peter Throwarth. It will be streaming on Netflix at the end of May. This is his second film with Netflix recently after his vampire thriller Blood Red Sky. Desperate to return home to his daughter during the final days of World War II, a German deserter finds himself caught in a battle against SS troops on a mission to uncover hidden gold. On his way to find his daughter, deserter Henrich is stopped by SS troops and hanged from a tree. Courageous farmer Elsa saves him just in time. United by their common enemy, the two fight for justice and for their families. A thrilling and bloody search for stolen gold treasure begins, revealing bitter secrets along the way.

Netflix is getting into the "let's kill Nazis violently" sub-genre of World War II films with the upcoming "Blood & Gold." This movie may not be on your radar just yet, but it seems like the kind of title that is destined to build up some buzz once it arrives on the streaming service next month. To that end, a new trailer for the German war flick has been released online that offers an extremely fun look at what promises to be a murder-heavy tale of revenge.

What's particularly entertaining about this "special trailer" is that it gives the film an old-school, grindhouse makeover that gives us a little bit of a Quentin Tarantino flavor, with "Inglorious Basterds" being the obvious touchstone. But it feels more at home with the fake trailers that were attached to 2007's "Grindhouse," even though this is a very real movie that you can watch in just a few weeks.

"I'm done with this madness. Where is the gold?!" Netflix has revealed an official trailer for a WWII action thriller titled Blood & Gold, the latest from German filmmaker Peter Throwarth. This is his second film with Netflix recently (and the second with "Blood" in the title), following his vampire thriller Blood Red Sky a few years ago. Desperate to return home to his daughter during the final days of World War II, a German deserter finds himself caught in a battle against SS troops on a mission to uncover hidden gold. On his way to find his daughter, deserter Henrich is stopped by SS troops and hanged from a tree. Courageous farmer Elsa saves him just in time. United by their common enemy, the two fight for justice and for their families. A thrilling and bloody search for stolen gold treasure begins, revealing bitter secrets along the way. This stars Robert Maaser,...

If you’re already experiencing The Last of Us withdrawals after the finale, let Screambox fill the post-apocalyptic void in your life with The Island.

Known internationally as Sløborn, the series combines elements of disaster thriller, coming-of-age drama, dystopian sci-fi, and survival horror. The German-Danish co-production was created by filmmaker Christian Alvart, who directed the genre films Pandorum, Case 39, and Antibodies before creating Netflix’s Dogs of Berlin.

It’s never been easy to be a teenager, but it’s particularly difficult for Gen Z, who are doomed to reckon with fears of the future — or lack thereof. As 15-year-old Evelin Kern (Emily Kusche) puts it in The Island‘s opening voice over, “Ever since I can remember, the world has been ending. Species extinction, deforestation, economic crises, environmental pollution, terrorism, and climate change. Happy days. Somewhere there is always the next crisis, the next war, and mankind has...

I have been tracking producer Sol Bondy since 2016 when co-production The Happiest Day in the Life of Ölli Mäki won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prize and the European Film Award for Best Debut. He and Fred Burle have been developing The Girl from Köln (aka Köln 75) with writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection The Ticket since 2019. "This project has been very close to our hearts in the last few years and we're very excited with the way it's been shaped so far," said Bondy, a Variety Producer to Watch in 2018. "It's been such a joy working with Ido on this exciting story and we're thrilled to have put an amazing team together," added Burle, Brazilian born producer who was just made a partner in One Two Films, alongside co-founders Sol Bondy and Christoph Lange. Burle joined One Two in January 2017, having graduated from the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) the previous year. He has previously worked as a film critic, at The Match Factory, and as curator of the inaugural dffb film festival. One Two Films has produced and co-produced award-winning films such as Holy Spider (Read my blog about it here), Vadim Perelman's Persian Lessons (Read my blog about it here), Jennifer Fox's Sundance breakout The Tale, Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop and Juho Kuosmanen's The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.Other titles in the pipeline include Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson's dark comedy Northern Comfort, which premieres in SXSW later this month, Annemarie Jacir's survival drama The Oblivion Theory, Sarah Arnold's debut feature Wild Encounters and Michiel ten Horn's romantic comedy Any Other Night. In Berlin this year it was announced that Bankside would be The Girl from Köln's international sales agent and was launching sales. Alamode Film already has German-speaking territories and is a coproducer, who have very recently secured funding through the Fff, the local fund in Bavaria. It is in early pre-production and will shoot this year in Poland and Germany. The Girl from Köln tells the little-known story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975, at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. With Polish Film Institute backing, Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska (Ida, Cold War) of Extreme Emotions is co-producing along with Annegret Weitkämper-Krug of Germany's Gretchenfilm (Seneca). Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy, Bad Education) serves as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk's previous feature, The Ticket. The Tale writer-director Jennifer Fox also serves as executive producer. Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green executive produce for Bankside. It stars Mala Emde (Skin Deep, And Tomorrow the Entire World) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (Past Lives) as Jarrett. Magaro was also in Cannes last year with Kelly Reichardt's competition title Showing Up.Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush), Ulrich Tukur (The Life of Others), Susanne Wolff (Sisi & I, Styx), Jördis Triebel (Dark), Jan Bülow (Lindenberg) and Marie-Lou Sellem (Tar, Exit Marrakesh). The NYU-graduate Fluk was dubbed "a talent to watch" by Variety following his feature debut Never Too Late, the first crowd-sourced Israeli film ever made. His American debut, the Tribeca competition selection, The Ticket, starred Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman. Upcoming projects include 24 Hours in June, a retelling of the final day in the life of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, to be produced by Academy Award winner James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and Joe Pirro (Driveways). Fluk is repped by Amotz Zakai, Amy Schiffman, and Kegan Schell at Echo Lake Entertainment. He is also created the recently-announced HBO series Empty Mansions for Fremantle with director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour) attached to direct the pilot. "From the moment I heard Vera's story, about how as a high school teenager she organized one of the greatest concerts in history, I knew her story had to be told," said Fluk. "We were immediately exhilarated by Vera Brandes' remarkable female empowerment story. Her strength, courage and sheer belief in herself and the music of Keith Jarrett will entertain and inspire audiences around the world," added Kelliher.

Germany’s Mala Emde and US actor John Magaro are set to star.

UK sales outfit Bankside Films has boarded worldwide sales on director Ido Fluk’s feature Köln 75, that tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one maverick German teenager was instrumental in its creation.

The film meets teenager Vera Brandes while she is still in high school and starts producing and promoting music concerts in Cologne, and risks everything to put on what will become Jarrett’s legendary show.

German star of...

Fans of weird and eerie German movies, rejoice! Your Halloween spooky viewing has arrived, and it's carved out a steady spot in Netflix's Top 10 trending watches. "Old People" is German-Romanian filmmaker Andy Fetscher's horror thriller wherein the old eat the young, bludgeon them, and sometimes vomit on them. It's the sort of concept that M. Night Shyamalan would have a field day with, but Fetscher adds more chaos and a cadre of monsters at the door.

A title card at the opening reads:

In times of yore, an avenging spirit was thought to inhabit old people. A dark power that took possession of the frailest members of the clan and drive them into a seemingly blind rage.

That's right – this is functionally an elderly rage-zombie movie. What a time to be alive.

At its core, the story focuses on generational disconnect by observing lonely elders, excluded from local festivities,...

Alamode to co-produce Ido Fluk’s jazz feature ’Köln 75’

Munich-based distributor Alamode Film is set to make its first foray into production as a co-producer of Köln 75 with Holy Spider’s German producer One Two Films.

The feature by New-York-based Israeli filmmaker Ido Fluk centres on Vera Brandes who staged jazz musician Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert in 1975 at the tender age of 17.

She has subsequently run her own record label and become an award-winning music producer as well as one of the world’s leading authorities on music medicine research.

Speaking exclusively to Screen Daily at Holy Spider...

Alamode to co-produce Ido Fluk’s jazz feature ’Köln 75’

Munich-based distributor Alamode Film is set to make its first foray into production as a co-producer of Köln 75 with Holy Spider’s German producer One Two Films.

The feature, by New-York-based Israeli filmmaker Ido Fluk, centres on Vera Brandes who staged jazz musician Keith Jarrett’s legendary Köln Concert in 1975 at the tender age of 17.

Since then, she has subsequently run her own record label and become an award-winning music producer as well as one of the world’s leading authorities on music medicine research.

Speaking exclusively to Screen Daily at...

Black-and-white biopic of Thomas Brasch won best film, director and actor Albrecht Schuch

Andreas Kleinert’s Dear Thomas has swept the German Film Awards with nine wins including best film, director and actor Albrecht Schuch.

The awards, known as the Lolas, were handed out during a gala ceremony attended by 1,700 guests at Berlin’s Palais am Funkturm on Friday (June 24).

Dear Thomas, a black-and-white historical biopic of East German author and filmmaker Thomas Brasch, picked up the Golden Lola for best film and won further awards for best director, screenplay, actor, production design, costume design, supporting actress, cinematography and editing.

Click here to read the full article.

Dear Thomas, Andreas Kleinert’s black-and-white artistic biopic of the late poet, writer, and film director Thomas Brasch, has won the Lola for best film at the 2022 German Film Awards.

Kleinert also won best director and Albrecht Schuch took the 2022 best acting prize for his starring role as Brasch. It’s the third acting Lola in three years for Schuch, who won two Lolas in 2020, both for best actor (for System Crasher) and best-supporting actor (for Berlin Alexanderplatz). His Dear Thomas co-star Jella Haase won best supporting actress, and Thomas Wendrich took the best screenplay Lola for his script. Dear Thomas also won the Lola for best editing for Gisela Zick, best costume design for Anne-Gret Oehme, and best cinematography for Johann Feind.

Keeping Dear Thomas from a clean sweep at the 2022 Lolas in Berlin Friday night was Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush,...

Berlin-based One Two Films, in Cannes this week with Ali Abbasi’s competition title “Holy Spider,” is prepping a new feature from writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection “The Ticket.”

“Köln 75” tells the true story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 and at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. It stars Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (“First Cow”) as Jarrett. Magaro is also in Cannes with Kelly Reichardt’s competition title “Showing Up.”

Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska of Extreme Emotions will co-produce, with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman serving as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk’s previous feature, “The Ticket.”

Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”), Ulrich Tukur (“The Life of Others”), Susanne Wolff...

Following the international acclaim of “Babylon Berlin,” XFilme Creative Pool, in partnership with Beta Film, debuted excerpts from its newest drama series, “House of Promises,” scoring on Sunday MipDrama’s prestigious Buyers’ Coup de Couer Award.

The 12-part drama, directed by the reputed Sherry Hormann (“Desert Flower”) and Umut Dag (“Vienna Blood”) for bullishly growing SVOD service Rtl Plus, centers on its female protagonists, giving breath to their histories and the tide-shift taking place in the ‘20s that allowed them to chase their passions and ambitions fiercely.

“House of Promises” is the female perspective of the Golden 20s. The center of our series isn’t only a love story, it’s about love on all levels. Romantic love, love within a family. It’s about the failure of love, about friendship and love between women,” Hormann notes.

“Our vision is to dive into daily life at this time. Telling facts...

The 7th MipDrama – an industry centrepiece at Cannes MipTV trade fair – wrapped with Germany’s “House of Promises” scooping the prestigious Buyers’ Coup de Coeur award.

The romantic drama proved the clear favorite among the MipDrama audience gathered in the Debussy Theatre at Cannes’ Palais des Festivals, receiving the most rapturous applause of the day following its presentation.

The 12-episode series stars Naemi Feitisch, Ludwig Simon – also seen in Amazon’s Prime Video series “Beat” – Alexander Scheer and Nina Kunzendorf, fresh off hit Viaplay Original “Furia.”

Set in Berlin, “House of Promises” explores the eventful story behind the legendary credit department store Jonass, founded in the 1920s in a building which has now become Berlin’s Soho House.

While the times are hard, marked by poverty and hardship, the protagonists of “House of Promises” still dream of a better future. Including Vicky (Feitisch), a headstrong young woman desperate to earn...

"Do you think Murat is guilty?" The Match Factory has debuted the promo trailer for the German political comedy Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush, which premiered at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival earlier this month. It won two awards: Best Screenplay and Best Lead Performance for actress / comedian Meltem Kaptan. Desperate to help her son, Rabiye Kurnaz, a housewife and loving mother from Bremen, goes to the police, notifies authorities and almost despairs at their impotence and in the end, against all the odds, something truly remarkable happens. She learns her son has been sent to Guantanamo, and spends years fighting to free him, taking her all the way to the Supreme Court in the US. Kaptan stars as Rabiye Kurnaz, joined by Alexander Scheer, Charly Hübner, Nazmi Kirik, Sevda Polat, Abdullah Emre Öztürk, and Safak Sengül. This is one of the only good films from the Berlin Film Festival...

Turning a deeply serious, controversial incident in recent German history into a bouncy, beat-the-odds character comedy is a brave move. Thanks in large part to the extrovert likability of German-Turkish star Meltem Kaptan — well-known in Germany as a comedian and TV presenter — Andreas Dresen’s “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush” just about gets away with it. But that’s as far as its bravery goes. Having expended all its creative energy on that one tonal dice-roll, the film proceeds by the numbers, with the messy, provocative real-life miscarriage of justice it chronicles tamed to march to the merry beat of the inspirational true-story genre.

The action begins one October morning in 2001, in the bustling Bremen household of the Turkish-immigrant Kurnaz family. Brassy matriarch Rabiye (Kaptan) — forever cheerfully cooking, cleaning and washing up for her brood — goes to call her eldest son Murat (Abdullah Emre Öztürk) down for breakfast and...

A determined Turkish mother takes on the authorities in Rabiye Kurnaz Vs. George W. Bush, Andreas Dresen’s drama that takes a light approach to a moving true story.

Dresen’s first Berlin Film Festival competition film since 2015’s As We Were Dreaming, it stars comic actress Meltem Kaptan as Rabiye Kurnaz. She’s a cheerful, effervescent woman living in Germany, whose grown son, Murat, is unexpectedly imprisoned during his travels and sent to Guantanamo. Convinced of Murat’s innocence, Rabiye bulldozes her way into the offices of a local human rights lawyer, Bernhard Docke (Alexander Scheer), who agrees to take the case.

The more Docke investigates, the more they are both aghast at the situation, but even with the press on their side, it’s a long and stressful journey to potential justice.

While Dresen and screenwriter Laila Stieler touch on those stresses in a couple of emotional scenes,...

The Match Factory is selling Andreas Dresen’s feature.

Screen can reveal an exclusive first trailer for Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush, Andreas Dresen’s comedy drama that is debuting in Competition at the Berlinale on Saturday.

The Match Factory is selling the film.

Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush centres on an ordinary woman living in Bremen, Germany whose son is accused of terrorism and shipped off to Guantanamo. As she battles for his release, she sets off on a journey that takes her all the way to the Supreme Court in Washington D.C.

Cologne-based comedienne Meltem Kaptan stars as Rabiye,...

The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.

Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...

International sales company The Match Factory has revealed its Berlin Film Festival lineup, including two titles in Competition: “A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love” by Nicolette Krebitz and “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush” by Andreas Dresen.

The Match Factory, which was acquired by Mubi last week, has three films in the shortlist for the International Feature Film Oscar: “Great Freedom,” “Drive My Car” and “Prayers for the Stolen.”

After the irreverent “Wild,” which premiered at Sundance in 2016, Krebitz is back with a new take on love in “A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love.”

The film follows an actress who is mugged in front of a trendy bar in West Berlin. Barging into her, a young man takes her handbag and runs off into the night. A short while later, they meet again. She is Anna (Sophie Rois) and he is Adrian...

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.

As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.

This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.

South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.

The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...

Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.

Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.

Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.

The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.

The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.

TVNow, Rtl Deutschland’s streaming service, high-flying Berlin-based production house X Filme Creative Pool and production-distribution powerhouse Beta Film are partnering on what looks like one of the biggest German drama series productions of 2021: “House of Promises,” (a working title).

Beta Film is handling world sales and will present first moving images of the series at October’s Mipcom trade fair in Cannes, it said Friday.

Described by Beta Film as a “high-end” and a “visually stunning drama,” the 12-hour series is currently shooting on location in Berlin, Brandenburg and the Saxon city of Görlitz. Set in Berlin in the 1920s, it captures the hopes of a dazzling decade and the dramatic turn of an era from the perspective of a young woman and a Jewish family, owner of a state-of-the-art department store at Berlin’s Torstrasse 1.

Award winning director Sherry Hormann directs episodes 1-6, once again focusing on “complex,...

In the grand tradition of “Deep Rising” and “From Dusk Till Dawn,” Peter Thorwarth’s “Blood Red Sky” is a hijacking thriller that — at just the right moment — is suddenly hijacked itself, as the bad guys realize that they’re in a very different movie than the one for which they signed up. Except that “Blood Red Sky” doesn’t find just the right moment; this undercooked, overlong piece of genre-blurring German schlock hardly even seems to look for it. On the contrary, this midsummer Netflix release drops its big twist with all the panache of an incidental detail, one that requires too much backstory and offers too little excitement in return. And so what could’ve been a fun chimera that someone Frankensteined together from two wildly different films instead becomes

“Blood Red Sky” is an emergency mode from the minute it starts; we know that something went screwy...

Blood Red Sky Trailer 2 — Netflix has released the second movie trailer for Blood Red Sky (2021). View her the first Blood Red Sky trailer. Cast and crew Peter Thorwarth‘s Blood Red Sky stars Peri Baumeister, Roland Moller, Dominic Purcell, Chidi Ajufo, Alexander Scheer, Graham McTavish, Sinead Phelps, Rebecca Dyson-Smith, Jim High, Leonie Brill, [...]

Continue reading: Blood Red Sky (2021) Movie Trailer 2: A Vampire is Trapped on a Transatlantic Flight During a Hijacking...

Coming to Netflix on July 23rd, we have the brand new trailer for Blood Red Sky!

"Nadja and her ten-year-old son are on an overnight flight from Germany to New York when a group of terrorists violently take control of the plane and threaten the lives of the passengers. But the terrorists have no idea what they’re in for with Nadja on board – she has the power to protect her son and all the other passengers. But she faces an impossible choice - should she reveal her dark side and the inner monster she has kept hidden from her son for years in order to save him? The hunters become the hunted and everyone on the plane finds themselves in a perilous race against time – a fight for survival because there is one thing nobody knows: Nadja is the last vampire."

Directed by Peter Thorwarth, written by Peter Thorwarth and Stefan Holtz,...

"Evil is within you. You can't control it." Netflix has debuted the full-length official trailer for the German horror thriller Blood Red Sky, which is pretty much Vampire(s) on a Plane (instead of Snakes). A woman with a mysterious illness is forced into action when a group of terrorists attempt to hijack a transatlantic overnight flight. To protect her son she will have to reveal her dark secret, and unleash the inner vampire monster she has fought to hide. The big twist is that she is the "good guy", sort of, not the big bad vampire - it's hijackers versus her. Which is seriously a killer concept. Starring Peri Baumeister as Nadja, joined by Kais Setti, Alexander Scheer, Dominic Purcell, Graham McTavish, Roland Møller, Chidi Ajufo. This looks like wicked cool vampire entertainment, but not sure it's going to be that memorable by the end. Here's the full-length trailer...

It's vampires on a plane in the first trailer for Netflix's upcoming suspense movie, Blood Red Sky, which finds a woman with a mysterious illness who must fight to protect her son when terrorists take over her plane. Of course, because this is a high-concept horror movie, the illness can only be vampirism of zombie-infection, thankfully (?) it's the former, with the woman unleashing the inner monster she has fought to hide.

The deliciously high concept behind Blood Red Sky should help take cinematic vampires to dizzying new heights, with the vampire on a plane no doubt causing all manner of bloodshed and chaos at 30,000 feet. The claustrophobia of the cabin is presented well in the footage, as we feel the walls closing in on the kidnapped passengers. Of course, this will take a violent turn of a different nature when the vampire is released, quickly turning the terrorists from predators into prey.

Blood Red Sky Trailer — Peter Thorwarth‘s Blood Red Sky (2021) teaser trailer has been released by Netflix. The Blood Red Sky trailer stars Peri Baumeister, Roland Moller, Dominic Purcell, Chidi Ajufo, Alexander Scheer, Graham McTavish, Sinead Phelps, Rebecca Dyson-Smith, Jim High, Leonie Brill, Roy McCrerey, Kais Setti, Kai Ivo Baulitz, and Jamie [...]

Continue reading: Blood Red Sky (2021) Teaser Trailer: Hijackers Capture a Plane with a Vampire On-board in Peter Thorwarth’s Horror Movie...

"You have to look after my son." Netflix has revealed the first teaser trailer for a new horror thriller titled Blood Red Sky, pretty much Vampire(s) on a Plane (instead of Snakes). The twist is that the protagonist in here is the vampire, not the bad guy this time around. A woman with a mysterious illness is forced into action when a group of terrorists attempt to hijack a transatlantic overnight flight. To protect her son she will have to reveal a dark secret, and unleash the inner vampire monster she has fought to hide. Starring Peri Baumeister as Nadja; she's joined by Kais Setti, Alexander Scheer, Dominic Purcell, Graham McTavish, Roland Møller, and Chidi Ajufo. This is a good teaser - setting up the stakes and not giving away too much. But from the looks of it, this is either going to be terrible or extra gnarly. Check it out below.