SCREENING GUIDE

Acquisition begins with a TFV Review

Four’s a Crowd

Friday, 17 February

Select Screenings

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

(Filmax) | 4:10. CinemaxX 16

Dancing Queen

(LevelK) | 4:30. CinemaxX 4

Let’s Get Lost (TVCO)

4:45 CinemaxX 9

A Love Story

(Le Pacte) | 6:45 CinemaxX 17

The Fox

VERDICT: An intimate,visceral immersion into the rituals of the Estonian smoke sauna, a healing space where women confide in one another

09:30 CinemaxX 18 Autlook Filmsales

Irati

(Filmax) 09:15. CinemaxX 14

First Snow of Summer (Picture Tree International) 10:45 CinemaxX 2

A Compassionate Spy (Autlook Filmsales) 11:10. CinemaxX 18

Silver Haze

(New Europe Film Sales) 11:10. CinemaxX 6

Blue Giant (Toho)

12:35 CinemaxX 9

(Beta Cinema) | 7:00 CinemaxX 2

The Store

VERDICT: Director Ami-Ro Sköld blends live action with stop-motion animation in this impressive social drama, which takes place in a Swedish supermarket.

11:20 CinemaxX 14 Fandango

For Complete Screening Guide, click here

SIMONE BAUMANN INTERVIEW (Continued)

SB: As I already mentioned we should start the promotion at an earlier stage. So now we have a couple of cooperations with institutions like ACE, Torino Filmlab, the European Producers Club and Rotterdam Lab, but we also support German projects who make it to the selection of Works in Progress in Les Arcs for example. So we try to be more present at the Industry part of festivals.

Another important part is the talent promotion. We extended our Face to Face talent campaign from only directors and actors to writers, editors, composers etc. Film is teamwork and Germany has a lot of great talent in all areas of film production. Despite the IP of a film today the talent behind it is one of the biggest values.

TFV: You are on your way to Berlin with many initiatives; what is your focus in Berlin?

SB: We have a huge lineup of German Films at Berlinale - more than 30 majority German films, 4 of them in competition - so there is a lot to promote. Then we are starting our new 2023 Face to Face campaign in Berlin – with great new talents.

And we also have a lot of meetings with our partners, festivals and other organisations.

One thing I want to admit is that we are supporting the Ukrainian filmmakers – so we co-financed the Ukrainian stand at EFM and we will be a part of some events with Ukrainian filmmakers.

TFV: How is German Films success measured by its Board and by you?

have 9 nominations for “All Quiet on the Western front” by Edward Berger.

But success today is much broader than this. We should also look at the number of successful coproductions like “Holy Spider,” and also realize that German filmmakers today are working worldwide in many international projects. So Germany is really a global player in that sense.

TFV: Over your 25-year career, you witnessed, as many did, significant changes in Germany. How did those changes affect German filmmakers of today?

Music

In Competition

SB: This is not an easy question. Of course there are the classical success elements like festival participation and international awards, but also the box office of German films outside of Germany. The box office didn’t look so bad even in Covid times, thanks to our Animation and titles like “Spencer”. For the competition in A festivals there are always complaints that we never have a film in the Cannes competition – which we haven’t had very often – the last one being “Toni Erdmann” by Marion Ade. But on the other hand we always have good films in other A competitions like Karlovy Vary or Locarno. For example, the film “Piaffe” by Ann Oren in 2022 was in the Locarno competition and later in 80 other festivals

Of course the Oscars are another story – last year we had “I am your Man” by Maria Schrader on the short list and this year we

SB: I think that German films today are much more diverse by the choice of subject, but also by the people who are making these films. It is not only about the Second World War, but also about the younger German history – like the GDR, the reunification and more contemporary subjects. In recent years we have more films dealing with the life of people with a different cultural background in Germany, like “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan in the Berlinale Perspektive section.

Today the more established filmmakers like Christian Petzold or Margarete von Trotta present their films at Berlinale as well as the younger generation like Ayse Polat or Ilker Catak.

Other big differences are changes which came with the series boom and projects like “Dark” by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese or “Babylon Berlin” by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handlogten.

Then we have filmmakers like Robert Schwentke, who are (Continues next page)

SIMONE BAUMANN INTERVIEW (Continued)

working mainly in the US, but also shooting German films. Schwentke is now at Berlinale with “Seneca”.

TFV: Is it true that this year’s German Academy Award selection committee was all women? If this is so, was that a conscious choice to have an allwomen selection committee? And they chose All Quiet on the Western Front, a remarkable film with 9 nominations – what does this selection tell you by a committee made up of all women?

SB: It is true that it was an all women committee with Maria Furtwängler as the Chair woman. This happened by chance, since the committee members are selected by the Unions and the German Film Academy, who have the seats in the committee. At the end it turned out that we had 9 women selecting the film which would represent Germany for the Best International Feature. It was also a surprise for us. But I have to say that is was a very professional process choosing the film during a very interesting discussion. It was clear that they would select the film that had the best chances for an Oscar in a competition for an American film award.

TFV: Since we know your time is limited; Who will take home the Oscar statue this year?

SB: I think that “All Quiet on the Western Front” will take at least one Oscar – hopefully more.

TILL THE END OF THE NIGHT –In Competition

TFV: Simone, thank you very much for your time, in closing, is there anything else you would like to add before you rush off to Berlin…

SB: I really hope that Berlinale is going to be a very successful festival, a fest celebrating cinema with old and new talents. My Berlinale colleagues had a hard time with 2 difficult Covid editions – so hopefully they will be back with new energy and good films.