News

Move follows complaint by female student.

Ben Gibson has been formally “relieved of his duties“ as director of Berlin’s German Film and Television Academy (Dffb) with immediate effect.

The decision was taken by the film school’s board of trustees at a sitting last Friday in response to an incident involving a student from Babelsberg’s University of Film & Television following a “mooning“ incident during the Berlinale.

Christian Gaebler, head of the Berlin Senate’s Chancellery and chairman of the board of trustees, confirmed the employment contract with Gibson had been “terminated by mutual agreement”.

Gibson had served as...

Andreas Dresen’s biopic wins six prizes from 10 nominations.

Andreas Dresen’s biopic Gundermann was the big winner at this year’s German Film Awards, taking home six Lolas at the weekend’s gala in Berlin after receiving a record 10 nominations.

The production by Pandora Film Produktion and Kineo Filmproduktion received the evening’s top award, the Lola in Gold for best feature film, as well as the Lolas for best director (Dresen), screenplay (Laila Stieler), lead actor (Alexander Scheer), production design (Susanne Hopf) and costume design (Sabine Greunig).

Accepting his Lola for best director - his third win in...

• The Jury: Claude Lelouch, chairman (France), Felipe Cazals (Mexico), Chang Chen (Taiwan, China), Anna Galiena (Italy), Marcel Jean (Canada), Eberhard Junkersdorf (Germany) and Eva Zaoralová (Czech Republic). Festival President Alain Simard is able to bring out the pearly whites despite a dismal first edition. Damián Alcázar (Mexican actor who was in Citrillo’s Corner) Pascale Marcotte’s short film Revolver Tango collected 3 awards. The Silver Iris for Best Director went to Hiroshi Ishikawa (Left) for Su-ki-da Why is Luc Picard smiling? Cuz he cleaned up at this year's fest. L’audition won the audience award for best Canadian feature, for best performance in a Canadian feature and Golden Iris of Montreal – Grand Prize of the Festival. Photos by Pierre-Alexandre Despatis (c) 2005....

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TORONTO -- French filmmaker Claude Lelouch (A Man and a Woman) will head up the jury for the inaugural New Montreal FilmFest, which is set to run Sept. 18-25, organizers said Thursday. Lelouch will be joined on the jury by Italian screen star Anna Galiena, Mexican director Felipe Cazals, Chinese actor Chang Chen, Quebec animation producer Marcel Jean, German producer Eberhard Junkersdorf, and Eva Zaoralova, head of the Karlovy Vary Festival. The New Montreal FilmFest jury will screen 14 features and 7 short films in competition for the Golden Iris award.

BERLIN -- Veteran German producer Eberhard Junkersdorf (The Tin Drum, Homo Faber) has launched a private investment fund to bankroll four mid-budget pictures from his Munich-based company, Neue Bioskop Film. The fund aims to raise around €32 million ($32.3 million), half of which will come from private investors. The remainder will be made up of national and regional film subsidies, bank loans and contributions from co-producers. The cash should give Neue Bioskop a degree of independence from its bankrupt parent company, Kinowelt Medien. Films to be financed through the fund will come from a short list of six in-development projects: The Prophet, an adaptation of Ray O'Nolan's Nostrodamus-themed thriller; an adventure film titled Goldrausch (Goldrush); teen comedy Shooting Carlo; prison drama Julia; an untitled biopic of German supermodel Uschi Obermaier and action feature Auferstanden (Revival). Junkersdorf and Neue Bioskop managing director Dietmar Guentsche will manage the fund with Tin Drum director Volker Schloendorff acting as artistic consultant on the projects.