News

Warsaw-based international sales company New Europe Film Sales has taken on Bas Devos’ Generation 14+ title Violet.

Devos’ feature debut is the story of a 15-year-old who witnesses the stabbing of his friend.

The film is produced by the Brussels-based company Minds Meet, which last week announced that more of its titles will be handled by New Europe Film Sales, among them Caroline Strubbe’s Toronto/Rotterdam title I’m The Same, I’m An Other and the 3D Berlinale Generation 14Plus co-production Above Us All by Eugenie Jansen, which Minds Meet coproduced.

New Europe Film Sales presents three films at this year’s Berlinale: Violet, Above Us All (both Generation 14Plus), and Forum title, Us erotic thriller Thou Wast Mild and Lovely by Josephine Decker.

New Europe Film Sales has picked up innovative 3D feature Above Us All for worldwide distribution.

At the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Dutch producers Annemiek van Gorp, René Goossens (De Productie) and Digna Sinke (Sng) have announced that their latest production Above Us All, directed by former Iffr Tiger award winner Eugenie Jansen (Tussenland), will be represented worldwide by Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales.

The film will receive its world premiere in Berlinale Generation 14Plus section as a special out-of-competition screening.

Above us All is a story of 11 year-old girl Shay who, after the death of her indigenous mother, is taken from Australia to Ypres by her Flemish father. In her new surroundings, full of traces of the First World War, Shay tries to understand her mother’s death.

The film was shot using an innovative technique: stereoscopic 3D at 50 frames per second, using long panoramic shots in every scene.

The film was...

Berlinale adds 17 features to the Generation programme, aimed at children and youths, including the European premiere of a feature co-directed by Flight of the Conchords Jemaine Clement.

A total of 60 short and full-length films from 35 countries have been selected for the Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus competitions at the Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16). They include five long and nine short animated films.

Section head Maryanne Redpath said: “This diversity transcends all limits, in content, imagery, narrative structure and rhythm. Each of these animated gems creates its own universe and is a fantastic cinematic adventure, not just for children.”

The selection includes What We Do in the Shadows, a mockumentary that follows the struggles of a group of New Zealand–based vampires to understand modern society and adapt to the ever-changing world around them. The ensemble includes Flights of the Conchords’ Jemaine Clement, who co-directs alongside Taika Waititi.

This year, Generation will be...

Berlin -- Richard Loncraine's "My One and Only," a '50s-era comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, was squeezed into the competition lineup for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, barely a week before the event kicks off.

Zellweger plays a glamorous single mom on the hunt for a rich man to foot the bill for her and her sons' lifestyle. Produced by Merv Griffith Entertainment and Ray Gun Prods., "My One and Only" will have its world premiere in Berlin. Essential Entertainment is handling international sales.

Berlin also added Lone Scherfig's Sundance favorite "An Education" with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson and Davis Guggenheim's music documentary "It Might Get Loud" for its Berlinale Special Galas, ensuring the films will get the red carpet treatment without any of the pressure of competition.

All three films should give an added boost of star power to...

Cologne, Germany -- The Berlinale's avant-garde sidebar Forum has completed its lineup, adding new political documentaries from the likes of Hans-Christian Schmid, Simone Bitton and Thomas Heise.

Bitton follows up her Sundance award winner "Wall" (2004) with another documentary focused on the conflict in the Middle East. "Rachel" takes up the story of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of houses in the Gaza Strip.

Schmid, whose drama "Storm" will screen in competition in Berlin, has a Forum entry with the doc "The Wonderful Life of Laundry," a look at the lives of Polish workers who launder the dirty linen trucked across the border from Berlin luxury hotels. Heise's new documentary, "Material" is also set in Berlin and features previously unreleased footage of events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Other nonfiction entries at the 2009 Forum include Thai documentary "Citizen Juling,...

Cologne, Germany -- Experimental cinema from the U.S., Korea and the Netherlands will take center stage at this year's Berlinale Forum, the Berlin sidebar devoted to avant-garde filmmaking.

Bradley Rust Gray, whose last feature, 2003's "Salt," won the Caligari prize for best film in the Forum, returns with "The Exploding Girl," a low-key drama about two friends moving closer to becoming lovers.

"Beeswax," the latest laconic entry from "Funny Ha Ha" director Andrew Bujalski will have its world premiere at the Forum, as will "Marin Blue," Matthew Hysell's directorial debut about an L.A. youth mental facility.

So Yong Kim, a co-producer on Gray's "The Exploding Girl," also made the Forum cut with his latest film as a director, "Treeless Mountain," one of several Korean films picked for the official lineup. Gray acted as a producer on the drama, which already picked up a Netpac Award at October's Pusan Film Festival.

Amsterdam -- Romantic comedy "Love Is All" took home the Golden Calf for best Dutch feature Friday night as the Dutch Film Festival in Utrecht came to a close. Its helmer, Joram Lursen, received the award for best director.

"Love," a romantic comedy similar to the U.K.'s "Love Actually," stars Carice van Houten and, with 1.3 million admissions, is the biggest boxoffice hit in the Netherlands in recent years.

The festival jury, headed by former banker and film financier Frans Afman, was very critical of the quality of most of the Dutch features in competition, stating that many productions had not deserved financial support.

One of the highlights of the festival was opening night. While career achievement winner Rutger Hauer was not in town to receive his award, he sent along a short film in which he rides a bicycle through Amsterdam with Dutch Culture Minister Ronald Plasterk as his passenger.