News

Actor Sandra Hüller could be the critical darling of awards season with two acclaimed performances in two high-profile international feature contenders, France’s “Anatomy of a Fall” from Justine Triet and United Kingdom’s “The Zone of Interest” from Jonathan Glazer.

The German performer has opted to campaign her work in Glazer’s Holocaust-era drama for best supporting actress, Variety can reveal exclusively, greatly increasing her chances for possible double acting recognition this year. Her work in Triet’s French Oscar hopeful will be submitted for lead actress consideration.

Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Both “Anatomy” and “Zone” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where the former won the prestigious Palme d’Or prize, marking the third time a woman director has won the award. The two films are coming off screening at the Telluride Film Festival and will stop...

Sandra Hüller doesn’t stand on protocol.

“Oh, it’s you,” she says, slipping quickly into the informal German “Du” when she recognizes me. “Can you give me five minutes? I just have to dump my shopping and make sure the dog’s Ok.”

We’re meeting early at a designer hotel in Cologne, Germany, a spot favored by visiting film crews for its proximity to the train station — just across the street — and its relative anonymity. Hüller, dressed in bell-bottoms and sneakers, a jean jacket thrown over a plain white T-shirt and with no makeup, has the morning off after an outdoor shoot for her next film was canceled due to a thunderstorm. She gets her dog sorted with a walker — more on the dog later — and sits down to talk.

“You have to take me as I am. With my groceries, my dog,” says the 45-year-old German actress,...

The film is Picturehouse Entertainment’s fourth acquisition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Justine Triet’s Cannes Competition title Anatomy Of A Fall from France’s mk2 films.

Described as a Hitchockian drama, the film stars Sandra Hüller as a woman on trial following her husband’s mysterious death in the Alps. The cast also includes Swann Arlaud and musician/actress Jehnny Beth.

‘Anatomy Of A Fall’: Cannes Review

It marks the fourth feature from French writer/director Triet, who has been a regular since her fiction debut Age Of...

The drama is inspired by real events surrounding the kidnapping of a German author and multi-millionaire

Screen can reveal the first trailer for Hans-Christian Schmid’s We Are Next Of Kin which is screening at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Limelight strand.

Inspired by real events surrounding the kidnapping of German author and multi-millionaire Jan Philipp Reemtsma, the drama is told through the perspective of Reemtsma’s son who was 13 at the time – his autobiography of which the film is based on.

We Are Next Of Kin is produced by Germany’s 23/5 Filmproduktion. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

New titles include ‘Seven Winters In Tehran’, ‘Lonely Oaks’.

The Berlinale has unveiled the programme for the Perspektive Deutches Kino strand at its 2023 festival, with 16 films of which seven are feature world premieres.

The section will open with the world premiere of Steffi Niederzoll’s feature debut documentary Seven Winters In Tehran, analysing the case of Reyhaneh Jabbari, a female student in Iran who was hanged for murder having acted in self-defence against her rapist.

Scroll down for the Perspektive Deutches Kino features list

Titles also include Engin Kundag’s debut feature Ararat, in which a woman causes a traffic accident in Berlin,...

The India programme explores the socio-political development of the country over the past 30 years.

US producer Christine Vachon and Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz are among the competition jury members for the 52nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Joining Vachon and Diaz is the director of Udine Far East Film Festival Sabrina Baracetti, Neptune Frost director Anisia Uzeyman and Mexican film critic Alonso Díaz de la Vega.

The jury are responsible for choosing the winner of the Tiger Award worth €40,000 as well as the Special Jury Awards worth €10,000. The competition line-up will be announced later this month.

India in...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled its competition juries for its 52nd edition. U.S. producer Christine Vachon, whose credits include “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Far From Heaven” and “Carol,” and Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz, who won Venice’s Golden Lion for “The Woman Who Left,” are among the Tiger Competition jurors. The first titles in the Short and Mid-Length strand have been revealed as well as a program that looks at the socio-political development of India over the past 30 years.

Festival director Vanja Kaludjercic said the announcements are “testament of the broadening and deepening of our program, from the delights of the Short and Mid-Length program, to a vital delve into contemporary India – surprising our audiences with great films that underline relevant and pressing issues.”

In the non-competitive short and mid-length work lineup is “Goodbye Words,” in which Finnish filmmaker Laura Rantanen reflects on the end of life through...

New German titles, festival favourites and a Ukrainian competition,

Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness heads the festival favourites that will screen at the 30th anniversary edition of Filmfest Hamburg later this month.

It will be joined by Cannes title Cristian Mungiu’s R.M.N., as well as local Hamburg filmmaker Helena Wittmann’s Human Flowers Of Flesh , Kilian Riedhof’s You Will Not Have My Hate and Ann Oren’s Piaffe, which all premiered at Locarno, and Venice titles Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees Of Inisherin, Jafar Panahi’s No Bears, Houman Seyedi’s World War III,...

Hans-Christian Schmid’s ’We Are Next of Kin’ to open German festival.

Filmfest Hamburg has lined up world premieres of films by Fatih Akin, Hans-Christian Schmid and Alrun Goette for its 30th anniversary edition, which runs from September 29 to October 8.

Golden Bear-winner Akin’s biopic of the German rapper and label boss Xatar, Rheingold, starring this year’s European Shooting Star Emilio Sakraya, will have its first screening on the director’s home turf in Hamburg.

Schmid’s adaptation of Johann Scheerer’s autobiographical novel We Are Next Of Kin, which chronicles the kidnapping of Scheerer’s literary scholar and...

Festivals

A trio of global festival favorites — Pan Nalin‘s “Last Film Show,” Mostofa Sarwar Farooki‘s “No Land’s Man” and Gurvinder Singh‘s “Crescent Night” (“Adh Chanani Raat”) — will open the 11th edition of the Bmo International Film Festival of South Asia (Iffsa), Toronto (Aug. 11-21). The festival is in-person at venues across the Greater Toronto area, featuring 120 features and shorts in 22 languages and some 40 masterclasses, workshops and special events.

Program highlights include “The Orphanage,” “Pedro,” “Once Upon A Time In Calcutta,” “Dug Dug,” “Palyad,” “Shoebox,” “No Ground Beneath the Feet,” “Deep6,” “Gandhi & Company” and “Invisible Demons” and there are world premieres for “Range Road 290” and “Anatomy of a Warrior.” Guests of honor this year are “Halo” actor Shabana Azmi and eminent screenwriter, poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar (“Silsila”) and well-known South Asian industry figures present at the festival include opening film directors Farooki and Singh, filmmakers Anup Singh...

The new film by the German director will star actors Justus von Dohnányi and Hans Löw alongside newcomer Claude Heinrich as the main protagonist. The shoot for the adaptation of the novel Wir sind dann wohl die Angehörigen (lit. “We Are the Relatives”), written in 2018 by young German musician and first-time author Johann Scheerer, has started, helmed by director Hans-Christian Schmid, who wrote the script for this family drama together with Michael Gutmann. Schmid, best known for films such as Crazy (starring Robert Stadlober and Tom Schilling) and Requiem (starring Sandra Hüller), is producing the film together with Britta Knöller and their production company, 23/5 Filmproduktion. Through the unusual and enthralling perspective of a 13-year-old, the film tells the story of the abduction of Jan Philipp Reemtsma, which actually took place in 1996. Johann Scheerer, Reemtsma's son, converted his experience into a novel. He paints the portrait of a...

German cinema looks set for a major boost this year from some of the country’s most commercially successful and critically acclaimed directors tackling such eclectic subject matter as U.S. torture in Guantánamo, the impact of bipolar disorder on family, and a folkloric love story about the Grim Reaper.

The pandemic postponed a number of scheduled 2020 productions, which will likely make 2021 a busy year as production companies make up lost time.

Andreas Dresen, Til Schweiger, Michael Bully Herbig, Hans-Christian Schmid, Sönke Wortmann and the late Joseph Vilsmaier all have high-profile projects in the works or set to hit theaters (when they reopen) this year.

Dresen explores the injustice of America’s war on terror in the tentatively titled “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush.” Dresen, who enjoyed a major hit with the award-winning 2018 biopic “Gundermann,” reteamed with writer Laila Stieler on the fact-based pic about Rabiye Kurnaz (Meltem Kaptan), a Turkish housewife in Bremen,...

Filmmakers Dominik Graf, Emily Atef, Sol Bondy among many who signed petition calling for executive to resign.

Frankfurt-based regional film fund HessenFilm has fired CEO Hans Joachim Mendig over a controversial meeting pictured in an Instagram post in which the businessman is seen sitting down with far-right politician Jörg Meuthen.

The fund’s supervisory board voted unanimously at an extraordinary meeting on Tuesday (24) to terminate Mendig’s employment with immediate effect.

The decision came after growing calls from the German film community for Mendig to step down after a local Frankfurt newspaper reported on the Instagram post dated July 24 by Meuthen,...

Actress-director Trudie Styler and Chilean helmer Sebastián Lelio are among those tapped for jury duty at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.

The Berlinale announced the full lineup of the main competition jury Tuesday for its 69th edition. U.S. film critic Justin Chang, German actress Sandra Hüller and American museum curator Rajendra Roy will join Lelio and Styler, as well as jury president Juliette Binoche, in deciding the winner of the Golden and Silver Bear awards out of the 17 films in competition.

Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman” took home the Oscar for best foreign-language film last year, the first Chilean movie to do so. The film had screened in competition in Berlin in 2017, with lead performer Paulina Garcia winning the Silver Bear for best actress. Lelio’s latest film, “Disobedience,” stars Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams.

Styler is a British actress, director and producer whose directorial debut, “Freak Show,” premiered...

The Berlin International Film Festival, which gets underway next week, has revealed the competition jury for its 2019 edition. Oscar-winning Chilean director Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman), German actress Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann) and producer-director Trudie Styler (Freak Show) are among those joining jury president Juliette Binoche to decide winners of the Golden and Silver Bears.

Rounding out the jury are La Times critic Justin Chang and Rajendra Roy, the Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Hüller made her film debut here in 2006 with Requiem from director Hans-Christian Schmid, winning Berlin’s Silver Bear award for best actress. Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman premiered at the festival in 2017 on its way to winning the 2018 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Binoche is a Berlinale regular, having appeared in several competition films, including Lasse Hallstrom’s Chocolat in 2001 and Isabel Coixet’s Endless Night,...

The final announcement will be made tomorrow (22 June).

With Locarno chief Carlo Chatrian’s appointment as successor to Dieter Kosslick as the artistic director of the Berlinale considered a done deal by the German media after a leak from the decision-making body to a tabloid journalist, attention is now focused at who will be the festival manager.

This person will be responsible for finances, organisation and sponsors as part of a new dual leadership for the festival from May 2019.

Monika Grütters, Germany’s state minister for culture and media, has long made it clear she wanted to appoint a woman...

The final announcement will be made tomorrow (22 June).

With Locarno chief Carlo Chatrian’s appointment as successor to Dieter Kosslick at the Berlinale considered a done deal by the German media after a leak from the decision-making body to a tabloid journalist, attention is now focused at who might be selected as the festival manager responsible for finances, organisation and sponsors as part of a new dual leadership for the festival from May 2019.

According to German press reports, it is being presumed that a woman from the local film industry will be proposed to fill the post of festival manager.

Eight new drama series projects among co-pro line-up.

Source: X-Filme

Babylon Berlin

For the fourth time, the Berlinale Co-Production Market will invite producers, commissioning editors, distributors, and other drama series financiers to the Zoo Palast for the pitch event CoPro Series, mounted as part of the Drama Series Days 2018 (February 19 – 21).

Scroll down for line-up

In previous years, CoPro Series has hosted drama series projects looking for partners that have since become successful series, such as Babylon Berlin created by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Henk Handloegten, as well as Das Verschwinden (The Disappearance) by Hans-Christian Schmid, or Norway’s Valkyrien by Erik Richter Strand.

This year, eight new series projects have the chance to find co-production and financing partners. The creators will present a short pitch, followed by an opportunity to meet both at an informal get-together and in one-on-one meetings with interested partners to talk in concrete terms about a possible collaboration.

Two German projects...

Seven international series projects have been selected to pitch at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

The Berlinale Co-Production Market is to host the second edition of its CoPro Series event on Feb 16, featuring seven high-end TV projects that are looking for co-production and financing partners.

Among the selection are The Illegal from Canada, a dystopian story by author and director Clement Virgo (The Book Of Negroes) and the Danish miniseries Lucky Per, which will be directed by Oscar-winner Bille August (Night Train To Lisbon).

These are joined by German project The Disappearance by Hans-Christian Schmid (Home for the Weekend), Norwegian crime series Brotherhood, Dutch family drama Avrupa and Israeli newsroom-based drama Wars Inc.

One project will be presented in cooperation with series festival and co-production forum Séries Mania Paris, which is organised by Forum des Images, headed by Laurence Herszberg.

From its 2015 edition, the series DNA by author and creator Torleif Hoppe (The Killing) is invited to Berlin...

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov has been sentenced to 20 years in a verdict passed today (Aug 25) by a military court in Russia’s Rostov-on-Don.

His co-defendant, the activist and anti-fascist Alexander Kolchenko, was sentenced to 10 years.

The judge found Sentsov guilty of setting up a terrorist organisation and committing two terrorist acts.

When asked by the presiding judge Sergei Mikhailyuk whether they understood the verdicts, Sentsov and Kolchenko responded by defiantly singing the Ukrainian national anthem Ukraine Has Not Yet Died.

Sentsov, best known for his 2011 film Gamer, was arrested in May 2014 during a protest against Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula two months earlier.

The 39-year-old director was accused of plotting to blow up a monument to Lenin in Crimea and set fire to the Crimean offices of pro-Moscow political organisations.

The Ukrainian government said he is being punished for being a Crimea-based pro-Ukrainian activist. Russia denies claims he is a political prisoner.

Sentsov denies...

Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov’s detention by the Russian authorities has been extended by yet another two months to July 11.

This decision was made by Nikolai Tkachuk, a judge of the Moscow City Court, claiming that the charged offence poses a particular hazard to the public.

Initially, it had been expected that Sentsov’s trial would start yesterday (May 11), the first anniversary after his arrest on the Crimean peninsula in May 2014.

However, Sentsov’s case will be kept in the public eye by the Ukrainian Pavilion at the International Village in Cannes’ Marché du Film in the next two weeks.

Visitors to the Pavilion will be invited to add their names to a petition calling for the 38-year-old director’s release.

This comes after the European Parliament passed a resolution in its plenary session in Strasbourg calling for the ¨immediate release¨ of all Ukrainian citizens illegally detained in Russia, including Sentsov and the Ukrainian pilot and MP...

Wroclaw New Horizons roundup: works in progress include Close Ups and I, Olga Hepnarova.

Wide Management has begun presales on the Polish-German co-production Summer Solstice by Michal Rogalski which was one of 10 Polish films featuring in this year’s works in progress showcase at the Polish Days during Wroclaw’s New Horizons International Film Festival.

Producer Maria Golos of Prasa Film said that German theatrical distribution for the €2.5m film, which is set in Poland after the Nazi defeat during the Second World War, will be handled by Farbfilm.

Separately, Leszek Budzak of the young production company Aurum Film revealed that Jacek Lusinski’s second feature Carte Blanche will be released early next year by Kino Swiat in Poland.

Based on the true story of a history teacher who is losing his sight, the lead part of the teacher is cast with the ubiquitous Polish actor Andrzej Chyra.

Magdalena Piekorz’s third feature psychological drama Close Ups was...

Wroclaw New Horizons roundup: works in progress include Close Ups and I, Olga Hepnarova.

Wide Management has begun presales on the Polish-German co-production Summer Solstice by Michal Rogalski which was one of 10 Polish films featuring in this year’s works in progress showcase at the Polish Days during Wroclaw’s New Horizons International Film Festival.

Producer Maria Golos of Prasa Film said that German theatrical distribution for the €2.5m film, which is set in Poland after the Nazi defeat during the Second World War, will be handled by Farbfilm.

Separately, Leszek Budzak of the young production company Aurum Film revealed that Jacek Lusinski’s second feature Carte Blanche will be released early next year by Kino Swiat in Poland.

Based on the true story of a history teacher who is losing his sight, the lead part of the teacher is cast with the ubiquitous Polish actor Andrzej Chyra.

Magdalena Piekorz’s third feature psychological drama Close Ups was...

Berlinale Paula and Perspektive prizes confirmed.

Berlin’s European Film Market (Efm) is expanding its number of screening venues by setting up shop at the recently refurbished Zoo Palast [pictured] cinema complex.

Exhibitors will be able to choose from five exclusive screening facilities with state-of-the-art projection technology, ranging from Cinemas 3-5 (with seating for 159, 161 and 157, respectively) to Club A and B with seating for 36 and 39.

Two of the cinemas can project 3D DCPs and one of the Club cinemas has its own bar, while all of the venues are kitted out with comfortable armchairs and extra space between the rows.

The Efm will be organising a free bus shuttle service from outside of the Gropius Mirror Restaurant and the Marriott Hotel to the Zoo Palast, but an alternative would be take the U2 underground which stops right outside of the cinema.

The Zoo Palast cinemas replace the screening venues at the Cubix cinema near Alexanderplatz, which had also...

Requiem

Written by Bernd Lange

Directed by Hans-Christian Schmid

Germany, 2006

Twisting, turning, and contorting are the stuff of a common exorcism film. Ever since the debut of The Exorcist the focus in just about every exorcism film to hit the market has been on the effects of the possession. Requiem is different in that while there is some contorting, screaming, and eerie mannerisms present they are by no means the focus. Excuses are the main course in Requiem, the excuses we make to ourselves and the excuses that others make for us. This has an interesting effect on the film a

s it removes most of the traditional horror elements of an exorcism film. The horror in requiem is based in ignorance, selfishness, and lack of action/too much action. There’s no real way to decipher which approach to an exorcism film is more effective, but Requiem certainly found...

Still from Your Name is Justine

The 18th European Union Film Festival hosted by the Entertainment Society of Goa will be held at Maquinez Palace from April 19-30,2013.

The festival will be inaugurated by Fredrika Ornbrant, Consul General of Sweden on 19th April 2013 at 5:00pm, Maquinez Palace- Audi I.

The theme of the 18th edition of the festival is ”Celebrating Women” and 24 films each from a different EU member state will be screened.

Some of the films being screened are “Altiplano”, a Belgium film by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, “Lora from Morning till Evening”, a Bulgarian film by Dimitar Kotsev, “Little Girl Blue”, a film from Czech Republic by Alice Nellis, “Applause” a film from Denmark by Martin Pieter Zandvliet, “After Five in the Forest Primeval”, a film from Germany by Hans-Christian Schmid, “Graveyard Keeper’s Daughter” a film from Estonia by Katrin Laur, “Your name is Justine...

The Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its opening today, on February 7, 2013 at 7.30 pm. After a few words of greeting from Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann and Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, the Festival will be officially opened by Jury President Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, China) and Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick. The International Jury – whose other members are Susanne Bier (Denmark), Andreas Dresen (Germany), Ellen Kuras (USA), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Tim Robbins (USA) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece) – will also be introduced during the gala. Anke Engelke will again host the evening. This year’s music will be provided by Ulrich Tukur & Die Rhythmus Boys. 3sat will be broadcasting the opening live. Ziyi Zhang in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Wong Kar Wai Following the gala, Wong Kar Wai’s epic martial-arts drama The Grandmaster will have its international premiere. The director and his leading actors,...

Experts in auteur cinema, German sales company The Match Factory have quite the sampling this year with names such as Thai Joe (Mekong Hotel – see pic above), Fatih Akin (Polluting Paradise) and Directors’ Fortnight invited The Dream and the Silence by Jamie Rosales proudly making us say ich liebe dich the label, and let us not forget Loznitsa’s In the Fog which is being featured in the Main Comp category.

In The Fog (V Tumane) by Sergei Loznitsa

Mekong Hotel by Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Polluting Paradise (MÜLL Im Garten Eden) by Fatih Akin

The Dream And The Silence (SUEÑO Y Silencio) by Jaime Rosales

And If We All Lived Together (Et Si On Vivait Tous Ensemble) by Stéphane Robelin

Barbara by Christian Petzold

Home For The Weekend (Was Bleibt) by Hans-Christian Schmid

In The Name Of The Girl (En El Nombre De La Hija) by Tania Hermida

Just The Wind...

Revision

There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):

Outstanding

1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).

2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).

3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.

Very Good

4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).

Good

5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.

6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.

7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.

8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.

9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.

10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.

11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.

Just Above The Middle Line

12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.

13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).

14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.

In 2009, the best film in Competition at the Berlinale was Maren Ade's Everyone Else (Fwiw, it came away with 1.5 Silver Bears, the 1 for Best Actress Birgit Minichmayr, the .5 for tying with Adrián Biniez's Gigante for the Jury Grand Prix; the Golden Bear that year went to Claudia Llosa's The Milk of Sorrow). Three years on (!), the trio that made Everyone Else worth talking up to this day (see, for example, Kevin B Lee's new video essay on a key scene at Fandor; see, too, Mike D'Angelo on the same scene a year ago at the Av Club) is back in Competition, albeit in three different films. Lars Eidinger has drawn the shortest straw, taking on the lead in Hans-Christian Schmid's rather dismal Home for the Weekend. Minichmayr's fared better opposite Jürgen Vogel in Matthias Glasner's new film, though I seriously doubt many of us will...

Berlin -- Six nations and six very different styles of filmmaking were on display at The Hollywood Reporter’s Berlinale Directors Roundtable, from the down-home Americana of Billy Bob Thornton, 56, here with Jayne Mansfield’s Car; the grand spectacle of The Flowers of War from China's Zhang Yimou, 60; the hand-held realism in Captive from Pilipino auteur Brillante Mendoza, 51; the quiet precision of German Hans-Christian Schmid, 46, and his family drama Home for the Weekend; the Englishman James Marsh, 48, with his low-budget, tightly plotted thriller Shadow Dancer; and Scotsman Kevin Macdonald, 44, in Berlin with the music documentary Marley. But when they met at the SoHo House in Berlin for a

read more...

Meryl Streep talks about what it was like playing the former British prime minister in The Iron Lady and whether she's nervous about Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. European Comedies Enjoying Pan-European Success: Local-language laffers such as Untouchables and The Inbetweeners fill a gap left by fewer Hollywood comedies. Directors Roundtable: Six nations and six very different styles of filmmaking were on display at The Hollywood Reporter’s Berlinale Directors Roundtable featuring Billy Bob Thornton, Zhang Yimou, Brillante Mendoza, Hans-Christian Schmid, James Marsh and Kevin Macdonald. Read it here (pdf download)

read more...

Berlin – An absorbingly detailed snapshot of a troubled family, Home For the Weekend (Was Bleibt) is distinguished by the smart psychological observation of Bernd Lange’s screenplay and the precision and restraint of Hans-Christian Schmid’s direction, which keeps the histrionics on a low flame even at points of maximum anxiety. Melancholy, affecting and tender without being sentimental, the German chamber piece benefits from sterling ensemble work and characters that are both specific to their European middle-class milieu and utterly relatable. Photos: 7 Hot Films to Watch at Berlin Film Festival 2012 The film is probably a little small

read more...

These are the trailers I've been able to find for films screening in competition at the Berlinale, which opens tomorrow and runs through February 19. If you know of others, please point us to them in a comment below. Trailers for films screening in other sections will appear in their individual entries — if they're to be found!

Barbara, Christian Petzold

(German, no subtitles)

Caesar Must Die, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

(Italian, no subtitles)

Childish Games, Antonio Chavarrías

(Spanish, English subtitles)

Home for the Weekend, Hans-Christian Schmid

(German, no subtitles)

White Deer Plain, Wang Quanan

(Mandarin, no subtitles)

For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....

Shadow Dancer

It's been a good week for festival news junkies. Sundance has opened, Rotterdam's full schedule is now online, Cannes has named Nanni Moretti as President of the Jury for the 65th edition in May, and the Berlinale's been rolling out lineup after lineup. Today's addition: "With seven more films, the Competition program of the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival is nearing completion. To date it includes 22 films, of which 17 are vying for the Golden and Silver Bears. 18 films will celebrate their world premieres in the Competition of the Berlinale 2012."

So, the story so far:

À moi seule (Coming Home). France. By Frédéric Videau (Le fils de Jean-Claude Videau, Variéte Francaise). With Agathe Bonitzer and Reda Kateb. World premiere.

Bel Ami. Great Britain. By Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod (feature debut). With Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci. World premiere / Out of Competition.

En kongelig affære...

Andrea Riseborough in James Marsh's Shadow Dancer Robert Pattinson/Bel Ami, Michael Fassbender/Haywire: Berlin Film Festival 2012 Below is the list of the latest movie additions to the Berlin Film Festival's Official Competition line-up: À moi seule (Coming Home). France. By Frédéric Videau (Le fils de Jean-Claude Videau, Varieté Française). With Agathe Bonitzer, Reda Kateb. World premiere. Bel Ami, Great Britain. By Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod (feature debut). With Robert Pattinson (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Breaking Dawn Part 2, Eclipse, New Moon, Twilight, Remember Me, Water for Elephants, Cosmopolis), Uma Thurman (Henry & June, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, Gattaca, Playing the Field), Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Dans la maison, Sarah's Key, Love Crime, Nowhere Boy, Tell No One, Gosford Park, The Horse Whisperer, Mission: Impossible), Christina Ricci (Speed Racer, Fear and the Loathing in Las Vegas, The Opposite of Sex,...

Nina Hoss in Christian Petzold's Barbara

"An additional ten world premieres will be screening in the Competition program of the Berlinale 2012," the festival's announced today:

Aujourd'hui

France/Senegal

By Alain Gomis (L'Afrance, Andalucia)

With Saül Williams, Aïssa Maïga, Djolof M'bengue

"What goes on inside the head of a man who knows he has only 24 hours to live?" begins a report from the Afp. "Franco-Senegalese director Alain Gomis takes viewers through this final day."

Barbara

Germany

By Christian Petzold (Yella, Jerichow, Dreileben)

With Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld

The synopsis from The Match Factory: "East Germany. Barbara has requested a departure permit. It is the summer of 1978. She is a physician and is transferred, for disciplinary reasons, to a small hospital far away from everything in a provincial backwater. Her lover, a foreign trade employee at Mannesmann that she met on a spring night in East Berlin, is working on her escape.

For the fifth year running, we tally up the Other Year's Best -- the films that made it to DVD (or onto U.S. home video in any format) but not to theatrical, which generally meant they posed too much of a marketing challenge. As in, the films were either too odd, too original, too archival, too subtle, too something. DVDs still stand as our go-to B-movie-distribution stream of choice, although as I've barked every year, video debuts are still not eligible for any year-end toasts or trophies. Except ours.

10. "Parking" (Chung Mong-hong, Taiwan) At first blush a Taiwanese riff on "After Hours," this measured little odyssey is more realistic, evoking those all-night odysseys we've all had, when time evaporates and tiny logistical dilemmas drive us insane and eventually it's morning and something about our lives is different. Chung doesn't spring for laughs when you think he will -- he holds back,...

Cologne, Germany -- Monika Willi, the editor of Michael Haneke's Oscar-nominated "The White Ribbon," Stefan Essl, editor of action comedy "Jerry Cotton;" and Hansjorg Weissbrich, who cut Hans-Christian Schmid's war-crimes drama "Storm" are among the nominees for this year's Schnitt Prize, Germany's premiere film editing award.

Also nominated in the feature film category are Mona Brauer and Heike Gnida for their work on Matthias Glasner's disturbing pedophilia drama "This is Love" and Wolfgang Weigl, nominated for "The Two Lives of Daniel Shore," the feature debut of director Michael Dreher.

In the documentary category, nominated editors include Thomas Riedelsheimer, who directed and cut his latest, "Soul Birds;" Gisela Castronari-Jaensch and Vadim Jendreyko for "The Woman with the 5 Elephants;" Marc Haenecke for "Jagdzeit;" Thomas Grube and Barbara Toennieshen for "To Fight For" and Stephan Krumbiegel for "Wiegenlieder."

The 12th Schnitt Film Prize will be awarded Nov. 29 in Cologne.

The Darwin International Film Festival premiered last night with special guest Shirley Barrett’s South Solitary.

Barrett – who won the prestigious Camera D’Or for Best First Film at Cannes for Love Serenade - introduced the film and then held an audience question and answer session after the screening.

The festival, which runs until Sunday, will screen nine films in total including the Australian premiere of Hans-Christian Schmid’s Storm and Jacques Audiard’s Academy Award nominated The Prophet.

A full list of films being screened at the festival can be found here...

receving awards for Inglourious Basterds, is now giving them out. There he is (left) giving Best Actress to barefoot Sibel Kekilli at Germany's Oscars "The Lolas". I've never seen anyone accepting a Best Actress trophy while barefoot before but I hope to see someone do so sometime real soon.

If you've never heard the name Sibel Kekilli before, please do yourself a favor and rent Fatih Akin's erotic drama Head On (aka Gegen die Wand) She's got thunderclap force in that movie.

The Winners

Picture (Silver), Editing & Score: Hans-Christian Schmid's Storm, a war crime drama

Picture (Bronze) & Actress: When We Leave starring Sibel Kekilli

Supporting Actor: Justus von Dohnnanyi in Men in the City.

Children's Film: Lena Olbrich & Christian Becker's Vorstadtkrokodile which translates to something like Suburban Crocodiles

Documentary: Ernst Ludwig Ganzert and Ulli Pfau's The Heart of Jenin about a Palestinian father who donates his...

By the Hollywood Reporter 

"The White Ribbon" crowned a phenomenal year with a near-sweep of the 60th German Film Awards on Friday.

Michael Haneke's film took home 10 Lolas including best film, best director and best actor for Burghart Klaussner.

Hans-Christian Schmid's war crimes drama, "Storm," which debuted at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, picked up three Lolas, including the Silver Best Film nod, best editing for Hansjorg Weissbrich and the best score for the film music composed by German alt music stars the Notwist.

Read more at the Hollywood Report...

Berlin -- "The White Ribbon" crowned a phenomenal year with a near-sweep of the 60th German Film Awards on Friday.

Michael Haneke's film took home 10 Lolas including best film, best director and best actor for Burghart Klaussner.

Hans-Christian Schmid's war crimes drama, "Storm," which debuted at the 2009 Berlin International Film Festival, picked up three Lolas, including the Silver Best Film nod, best editing for Hansjorg Weissbrich and the best score for the film music composed by German alt music stars the Notwist.

But the star of the evening was Sibel Kekilli, who won the best actress Lola for Feo Aladag's "When We Leave." Kekilli, who won the Lola for her debut in Fatih Akin's "Head-On" (2004) had nearly vanished from the German film scene. But her standout performance in "When We Leave," playing a German/Turkish woman trying to escape he abusive husband, marks a stunning comeback.

Lourdes (U)

(Jessica Hausner, 2009, Aus/Fra/Ger) Sylvie Testud, Léa Seydoux, Elina Löwensohn. 99 mins

Handsomely photographed and coolly observant, this excursion to the French pilgrimage town manages to be both a penetrating study of the spiritual tourism racket and a genuine mystical inquiry. Testud is our central pilgrim, paralysed from the neck down and, like many others, in search of a miracle. But unlike those others, she gets one. Or does she? We're given much to think about.

No One Knows About Persian Cats (12A)

(Bahman Ghobadi, 2009, Iran) Negar Shaghaghi, Ashkan Khoshanejad. 107 mins

A suitably guerrilla-style tour of Iran's underground (often literally) music scene – a place where even gentle indie rock is considered seditious. Mostly factual and shot illegally, it's eye (and ear)-opening stuff.

The Blind Side (12A)

(John Lee Hancock, 2009, Us) Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron. 128 mins

Bullock might have got her Oscar but that doesn't make it any...

Sibel Kekilli in Feo Aladag’s When We Leave (top); Anamaria Marinca, Kerry Fox in Hans-Christian Schmid’s Storm (upper middle); Lars Eidinger, Birgit Minichmayr in Maren Ade’s Everyone Else (lower middle); Moritz Bleibtreu (right) in Fatih Akin’s Soul Kitchen (bottom) The White Ribbon Leads the 2010 Lola Race Other Best Picture Lola nominees are Feo Aladag’s When We Leave, which earned a total of six Lola nominations, including Best Actress for Sibel Kekilli, the star of Fatih Akin’s 2004 Lola winner Head-On. In When We Leave, Kekilli plays a willful Turkish woman who flees Istanbul for Germany, where she finds herself at odds with her traditional Muslim family. (The latter plot point parallels Kekilli’s real-life experience after German tabloids revealed the actress [...]...

The 2010 German Academy Award winners will be announced on April 23 in Berlin. Best film Everyone Else, dir. Maren Ade When We Leave, dir. Feo Aladag Soul Kitchen dir. Fatih Akin Storm dir. Hans-Christian Schmid The White Ribbon dir. Michael Haneke Desert Flower dir. Sherry Hormann Best documentary The Woman with the 5 Elephants dir. Vadim Jendreyko The Heart of Jenin dir. Marcus Vetter, Leon Geller Best children’s film Lippel’s Dream dir. Lars Buchel The Suburban Crocodiles dir. Christian Ditter Best director Maren Ade for Everyone Else Feo Aladag for When We Leave Michael Haneke for The White Ribbon Hans-Christian Schmid for Storm Best actress Corinna Harfouch for This Is Love Sibel Kekilli for When We Leave Susanne Lothar for The White Ribbon Birgit Minichmayr for Everyone Else Best actor Fabian Hinrichs for Schwerkraft Henry Hubchen for Whiskey [...]...

Berlin -- Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon" may have missed out on the best foreign film Oscar but the Austrian filmmaker is all but certain to sweep the German Film Awards after "The White Ribbon" received 13 nominations for the country's top prize, the Lolas.

"The White Ribbon" picked up Lola noms in all possible categories, including best film, best director and best acting noms for stars Burghart Klaussner and Susanne Lothar.

Cinematographer Christian Berger, whose stark black-and-white images earned him an Oscar nomination, is the favurite to win the Lola for best cinematography at the German Film Awards on April 23 in Berlin.

"When We Leave," a drama from first-time director Feo Aladag, was the big surprise, earning six Lola nominations including ones for best film and best actress for Sibel Kekilli ("Head-On") in her comeback role as a young woman banished from her devout Muslim family.

Hans-Christian Schmid's...

New film Storm reminded me the people who lose the most from war crimes trials are the ones they should protect: the victims

International criminal lawyers: renowned for being opaque, overpaid and cliquey. International criminal courts: painfully slow, unfair and bureaucratic. The war in former Yugoslavia: depressing, horrific and complex. The combination of all three is perhaps not the most obvious subject for a compelling film.

So I probably underestimated – or to quote a famous non-supporter of international criminal justice former President Bush, "misunderestimated" – the new film Storm, which tells the fictional story of a warmonger on trial for crimes against humanity and mass rape during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s.

The film, by Requiem director Hans-Christian Schmid, tells the story of a young woman who agrees to testify against a Serbian general responsible for the atrocities. She puts her family at risk in the interests of "justice...

The White Ribbon (Films du Losange / Sony Pictures Classics) (top); Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca in Storm (Zentropa) (bottom) Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon is one of the nominees for the German Film Critics Association’s best picture award. Set in a small German town prior to the outbreak of World War I, Haneke’s stark drama received four nominations: best picture, actor (Burghardt Klaussner), screenplay, and cinematography. The 2009 Palme d’Or and European Film Award winner has been well-received in the United States, though it has surprisingly failed to win many awards from American critics’ groups. The White Ribbon is German’s submission for the 2010 best foreign language film Academy Award. The German critics’ other top nominee is Hans-Christian Schmid’s [...]...

Cologne, Germany – Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or and European Film Prize winner "The White Ribbon" and war crimes drama "Storm" from Hans-Christian Schmid lead the nominations for the annual awards of the German Film Critics association, announced Monday.

Both "The White Ribbon" and "Storm" picked up four nominations, including for best picture.

The other best picture nominees are Sandra Nettlebeck's "Helen" starring Ashley Judd; Marcus H. Rosenmuller's period drama "Little White Lies;" World War II epic "John Rabe" from Florian Gallenberger and two comedies: Andreas Dresen's film industry spoof "Whisky with Vodka" and the romcom "Lila, Lila" from director Alain Gsponer.

The winners will be announced during the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs Feb. 11-21.