On Sunday, German Films celebrated its seventieth anniversary at Cannes, with visitors both looking forward and looking back.
At the occasion, Variety was informed by Managing Director Simone Baumann that “it has gotten much better.”
“We’ve seen movies with Sandra Hüller, Wim Wenders, and All Quiet on the Western Front, which won an Oscar and was nominated for one as well as “The Teachers’ Lounge,” an Oscar for best international feature! It doesn’t matter that Wim presented a French film and Sandra a Japanese one—”Perfect Days” and “Anatomy of a Fall”—to be honest; it’s more “mixed” these days.
Run Way Pictures is the company behind Mohammad Rasoulof’s highly anticipated “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” This year, 14 German productions and co-productions have been selected at Cannes, including Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour” and Match Factory’s main competition offerings “Motel Destino,” directed by Karim Aïnouz, who also attended the bash.
International collaborations are here to stay, says Baumann, as events become “more competitive.” Along with movies that don’t hesitate to tackle current affairs, producer of “The Teachers’ Lounge,” Ingo Fliess, said.
“We aimed to examine our society as it currently exists. to create a movie that is entirely set in the present rather than the past. The world is interested in Germany, but it’s also interested in Germany now, he added.
This wasn’t an easy sale, at least not at first.
The ironic or tragic aspect is that it was not what anyone had desired. We were informed that it has “no international potential,” but after that, everyone in the globe said, “Wait a minute.” It concerns us as well.
Fliess praised German films and demanded reform, saying, “They supported our Oscar campaign and we couldn’t have done it without them.”
“We Germans are the idiots of Europe; we need a new law on film funding.” Our system isn’t one that is competitive. We also need to have much greater courage. We witness what Lanthimos, Carax, and Audiard do. I think that cinema is all about avant-garde and excess.
After the German comedy drama “The Zweiflers” won Best Series at the Cannes Film Festival in April, actor Sunnyi Melles returned to the city and concurred:
“We shouldn’t be scared to try new things and fail at them. like Tarantino, like Kubrick. You grow when you step outside of your comfort zone. You enter an unexpected area. The nationality of a film doesn’t really important to me; what matters is that I want to learn about the ideas of the people writing and directing the film, and I appreciate it when they are from diverse countries.
There should be room for other emotions as well, even though powerful dramas still rule the festival scene.
“Anyone can make them laugh, but it takes a genius to make them cry,” as Chaplin once remarked. By doing this, you brighten their day. I experienced the “Triangle of Sadness” at that moment when I started throwing up. Everything is fine. to laugh, but we also need to make them cry,” she said.
Actress Katharina Stark, who will soon be seen in Agnieszka Holland’s “Franz,” an upcoming film on Franz Kafka, and European Shooting Star for Germany both spoke in favour of stories with a “positive impact.”
“I enjoy reading about stories that empower people. That’s what I’m searching for right now,” she added, thinking of the new opportunities that have arisen for regional players as a result of Hüller’s global success. Diane Kruger is set to be in David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” at Cannes, while Franz Rogowski was spotted in Andrea Arnold’s “Bird.”
“That’s a fantastic development: accents should be more common in TV shows and movies as many individuals have them when living abroad. We’re not all the same voice,” Stark remarked.
German films can be overlooked despite their reputation, according to Edvinas Pukšta, POFF’s curator of the Baltics Competition programme.
“They are still worth discovering at festivals other than Berlinale.” German Films constantly provides us with more movies than we could possibly watch! We get to witness everything. Not every company operates with such accuracy.
The director of Sunny Bunny, the first LGBTQ+ festival in Ukraine, Bohdan Zhuk, continued, saying: “German films frequently support our activities; they have also been supporting the Ukrainian Pavillion at Cannes. They are keen to promote German films worldwide, not just at the biggest festivals, as evidenced by our recent event.
They are now exposing these time-tested jewels to younger audiences as part of a new anniversary programme.
“We are providing a collection of some of the most popular German films from the past 70 years for festivals and film weeks,” Baumann said. “70 Years of German Cinema – A Success Story,” which is curated by Alfred Holighaus, has films such as “Good Bye, Lenin!,” “Wings of Desire,” and Alexander Kluge’s “Yesterday Girl.”together with shorts and documentaries.
I was shocked to see how many more individuals were interested than I had initially anticipated. We presented “Run Lola Run” [from 1998] in Rome. The movie theatre was packed!”
