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Exclusive: Studio Zentral, the German production company behind Mascha Shilinski’s Cannes competition feature Sound Of Falling, is developing neo-Nazi tale The Aughts penned by Richard Kropf, the writer behind by hit series such as TNT’s 4Blocks and Netflix’s Kleo and Marc Rothemund’s feature Weekend Rebels.

It is one of a number of new projects being readied by the fast growing Berlin and Munich-based Studio Zentral, which is backed by German broadcaster Zdf’s Studios Group.

The Aughts is adapted from the book Nullerjahre by Hendrik Bolz. It is a memoir about a post-reunification adolescence among Neo-Nazis,...

Austria can celebrate a huge success as a filming location thanks in large part to attractive funding programs that have lured major international productions to the country, among them Guy Ritchie’s “Fountain of Youth” and Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Cliffhanger” reboot, while also boasting a strong lineup of local works at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Introduced in 2023, the incentives, known as Fisa Plus and ÖFI Plus, can cover as much as 60% of costs for international film productions.

In addition to magnificent natural landscapes, medieval towns and striking cities, a new state-of-the-art studio complex in Vienna now offers a comprehensive range of services to support productions in the Austrian capital.

“Since the launch of the Fisa Plus funding program two years ago, Austria has emerged as a strong player in the film industry,” says Austrian Film commissioner Nina-Anica Keidies.

Indeed, the new incentive led to 162 projects supported with a total of €144 million in funding,...

It looks like Berlin is getting the sequel nobody wanted. A polarized debate over the crisis in Gaza, of the sort that derailed last year’s Berlinale closing ceremony, is set to return to the Potsdamer Platz red carpet.

The fragile three-week cease-fire in Gaza looks close to breaking — Hamas, accusing Israel of violating parts of the cease-fire deal, have postponed the next release of hostages — and activists and demonstrators are already gearing up to take their proxy battles on the Middle East crisis to the streets of Berlin.

Pro-Palestinian groups, including the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel and Film Workers for Palestine, have called for a boycott of the Berlinale to protest the festival for not publicly condemning the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel’s war in Gaza, which has seen the mass bombing of civilian areas and widespread humanitarian suffering.

Mark Wahlberg is set to star in the upcoming comedy film Weekend Warriors, based on the German original Weekend Rebels. Stephen Chobsky's Weekend Warriors will change the setting from soccer to basketball, bringing in NBA elements. Beyond Wahlberg, the other casting for the film has yet to be announced.

Mark Wahlberg is set to star in a new remake film called Weekend Warriors. In recent years, Wahlberg has played a variety of roles, including dramas and action films. This year, those roles include a part in the just-released Netflix action-spy movie The Union, as well as the Mel Gibson survival drama Flight Risk. Wahlberg's other recent titles include Arthur the King, The Family Plan, and Father Stu.

Setting his next project, Deadline reports that Wahlberg is now involved in the upcoming comedy Weekend Warriors. Apple Original Films had scored rights to the project, which will be written and directed by...

Mark Wahlberg to star in Apple TV's sports comedy "Weekend Warriors," following his successful collaboration in "The Family Plan." "Weekend Warriors" will be based on the German sports comedy "Weekend Rebels" with a father-son journey to find a favorite soccer club. Apple TV's success continues with original films like "Coda" winning Best Picture, and upcoming releases like "F1" and "Wolfs."

Apple TV continues to make moves with its original film releases, landing another hot ticket project. The latest, a sports comedy titled Weekend Warriors, is set to star Mark Wahlberg in his second collaboration with the company, following his success in the recent Apple film The Family Plan.

First reported by Deadline, Weekend Warriors is set to be written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, the author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Chbosky also wrote the screenplays for Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast and the 2017 family drama Wonder.

After claiming the top spot in Netflix’s English Film list with The Union, Mark Wahlberg is back in the news for a different project that brings him back to Apple. Wahlberg is teaming up with Stephen Chbosky for Weekend Warriors, a comedic sports drama written and directed by Chbosky. Multiple studios tried to snag the rights to this one, but Apple Original Films took the pot. Mark Wahlberg stars in Weekend Warriors, with Plan B and The SpringHill Company producing.

Weekend Warriors takes inspiration from the 2023 feature Weekend Rebels, an original German-language sports comedy focusing on the true story of Mirco and Jason von Juterzcenka. The plot revolves around a father and his autistic son, who wants to find his favorite soccer club in the Premier League by forcing his dad to take him to see every team so he can decide. Sources with inside knowledge about the project...

Exclusive: Following the success of The Family Plan, Mark Wahlberg and Apple are looking to get back in business as sources tell Deadline that in a competitive situation, Apple Original Films has landed the hot package Weekend Warriors. The new feature will be written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, with Wahlberg attached to star.

Plan B and The SpringHill Company are set to produce the project, which will be developed and produced by Apple Studios. Insiders say the film is in early development.

The project is based on the 2023 pic Weekend Rebels, an original German-language sports comedy-drama based on the true story of Mirco and Jason von Juterzcenka. The story follows a father and his autistic son, who wants to find a favorite Premiere League soccer club and makes his father take him to see every single team so he can decide. Sources say this version is said to take...

Distributing films by Todd Haynes, Guy Maddin, Abbas Kiarostami, Laura Poitras, Olivier Assayas, and even Jacques Demy, Zeitgeist Film has been one of the most vital caretakers of independent and international cinema in the last few decades. Founded in New York City in 1988 by Nancy Gerstman and Emily Russo, they will now get a well-deserved celebration at NYC’s Metrograph beginning this Friday, November 3, with the series Zeitgeist Films at 35, and we’re pleased to exclusively debut the trailer.

Along with Olivier Assayas’ Irma Vep, Todd Haynes’ Poison, Derek Jarman’s The Garden, Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry, Atom Egoyan’s Speaking Parts, and Jacques Demy’s Umbrellas of Cherbourg (released in a new restoration by Zeitgeist in 1996), the series features premieres of new 4K remasters of Guy Maddin’s Archangel and Marc Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, plus an exclusive series closing night Member Preview of...

Exclusive: Picture Tree International (Pti) has boarded sales on German Iranian director Alireza Golafshan’s comedy Everything’s Fifty Fifty about a divorced couple who embark on a family vacation, ahead of the AFM.

Laura Tonke (Jupiter) and Moritz Bleitreu play a divorced couple who head to Italy for a family holiday with their young son and the former’s new boyfriend, played by David Kross.

Planned with the best of intentions, the trip exposes cracks in their parenting, forcing them to reappraise their approach and work out how to function as a family again.

The movie follows Golafshan’s Ibiza-set hen party caper Jga and reunites him with producers Justyna Muesch, Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann at Leonine-company Wiedemann & Berg, best known for The Lives Of Others, Never Look Away and Who am I.

They are lead producing in...

Christian Petzold’s Afire and Wim Wenders’ Anselm are among movies on Germany’s longlist for the Best International Film Oscar.

National agency German Films received 12 submissions in the category with an independent jury deciding which film to move forward with on August 22 and 23 in Munich.

The following 12 German films were submitted to German Films by German producers:

Anselm – Das Rauschen Der Zeit (Anselm) von Wim Wenders (Road Movies) Das Lehrerzimmer(The Teachers‘ Lounge) von Ilker Çatak (if… Productions Film) Die Theorie Von Allem (The Theory Of Everything) von Timm Kröger (ma.ja.de Fiction) Ein Ganzes Leben (A Whole Life) von Hans Steinbichler (Tobis Filmproduktion München) Eine Frau (A Woman) von Jeanine Meerapfel (Malena Filmproduktion) Elaha von Milena Aboyan (Kinescope Film) Orphea In Love von Axel Ranisch (Sehr gute Filme) Roter Himmel (Afire) von Christian Petzold (Schramm Film Koerner Weber Kaiser) Sisi & Ich (Sisi & I) von Frauke Finsterwalder...

Germany has announced its shortlist for the 2024 Oscars, naming the pool of 12 films from which it will select its official contender in the best international film category for the 96th Academy Awards.

The selection, unveiled by the national promotional body German Films on Monday, includes several critical darlings from this year’s Berlinale, among them the Christian Petzold romantic feature Afire, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury prize; Ilker Çatak’s school drama The Teachers’ Lounge, the big winner at Germany’s national film awards, where it won six trophies, including for best film and best actress for star Leonie Benesch; Milena Aboyan’s Elaha, winner of Berlin’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino sidebar; and Frauke Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I, a feminist-look at an iconic Austrian Empress and her toxic relationship with her lady-in-waiting.

Perfect Days, the Japan-set drama from three-time German Oscar nominee Wim Wenders — an audience favorite in Cannes,...

Berlin-based sales agency Picture Tree Intl. has picked up “Woodland” (“Wald”), written and directed by Elisabeth Scharang, which has its world premiere in the Centrepiece section at the Toronto International Film Festival. The film’s trailer has also just been launched.

Picture Tree Intl. also handled world sales on Scharang’s sophomore feature film, “Jack,” which also played at Toronto.

“Woodland” is inspired by the novel “Wald” from bestselling author Doris Knecht, and the personal experience of Scharang, who witnessed the attack of a terrorist shooter in Vienna in 2020 in which four people were killed and 23 others were injured. The film marks Scharang’s second collaboration with Dop Jörg Widmer, who is a frequent collaborator with Terrence Malick.

Brigitte Hobmeier as Marian Malin in “Woodland”

In “Woodland,” Marian Malin (Brigitte Hobmeier) has everything she could wish for — a passion, a job and love — until she and her husband (Bogdan Dumitrache...

The film follows an African refugee to Israel who finds himself part of a struggling football team.

Picture Tree International (Pti) has acquired international sales rights to Running On Sand, the debut feature of Israeli director Adar Shafran.

The Germany-based sales agency acquired the film from the Israeli producers Firma Films, United King Films and Rommel Films.

United King Films will conduct the domestic release in autumn 2023; currently in final post-production, the film is aiming for a premiere at an autumn festival.

Running On Sand is a comedy-drama about an African refugee to Israel, who accidentally finds himself playing for...

Since its establishment in 2019, Leonine Studios has become one of Germany’s leading film distributors.

Forged by the merger of two companies, Concorde Film and Universum Film, the distribution powerhouse releases between20 and 25 films a year, including around five in-house productions or co-productions, says Bernhard zu Castell, Leonine Studios’ chief distribution officer.

“Our aim is to offer a slate of event movies that is an optimal blend of genres for all target groups and all our partners in the highest possible quality,” adds zu Castell, who previously headed Universum Film. “This strategy was key in establishing ourselves as a reliable distributor and licensor for all content platforms.”

The company last year enjoyed its biggest hit yet with “School of Magical Animals 2,” a fast-growing franchise that Leonine also co-produces. The film sold more than 2.8 million admissions (3 million counting Austria), making it 2022’s most successful German release and the fifth highest-grossing movie of the year by admissions.

With some of Germany’s most successful production companies in its stable, Leonine Studios is reaping the rewards with such feature film and television hits as “School of Magical Animals,” “Nightlife,” “Dark” and “Pagan Peak.”

Leonine’s production division includes such well-established companies as Wiedemann & Berg Film, which focuses on theatrical features, W&b Television and Odeon Fiction, which produce movies and series for all broadcasters and streaming platforms in Germany, documentary outfit Gebrueder Beetz and format maker I&u TV.

“We are in for high creative quality and commercial success,” explains Quirin Berg, who, along with Max Wiedemann, serves as Leonine’s chief production officer and managing director of Wiedemann & Berg Film.

“The parameters in each segment we are operating in may be different, but the agenda is not. And that was already the profile when we started out as producers some 20 years ago.”

Indeed, Wiedemann & Berg’s first feature film,...

Picture Tree Intl. has picked up global sales rights to “Gina” (working title), by Ulrike Kofler, which follows her Netflix debut “What We Wanted.”

“Gina” tells the story of a 9-year-old girl longing for a home and family while having to take care of her younger siblings and mother, who is too overwhelmed to take care of herself, let alone her children.

The film, produced by Film Ag, is the second feature by Kofler, who is a long-time editor for Austrian director Marie Kreutzer. Kofler’s editing work includes “Corsage,” which won best film at the London Film Festival and three nominations for the European Film Awards in 2022, “The Ground Beneath My Feet”, and Josef Hader’s “Wild Mouse”.

Kolfer’s directorial debut “What We Wanted,” starring Elyas M’Barek and Lavinia Wilson, was sold by Pti exclusively to Netflix, and was Austria’s official entry for the Academy Awards in...

The Playmaker Munich has signed with producer Ulysses Films to handle international sales for its upcoming family animation project “Pirate Mo & the Legend of the Red Ruby,” which has a planned release of early 2026.

Ulysses produced animation box-office hits such as “The Amazing Maurice” and “Niko & the Way to the Stars.”

The script for “Pirate Mo,” which is based on Kirsten Boie’s bestselling novel, was written by Richie Conroy, and the director is Florian Westermann, co-director of “The Amazing Maurice.”

The Playmaker team will present “Pirate Mo” at the Marché du Film in Cannes, and will deliver the first teaser presentation at their booth, and at their upcoming highlights market screening on May 18.

Emely Christians, one of the film’s producers, and CEO of Ulysses, said: “I’m really happy that we’ve found a great ‘world sales port’ for our ‘Pirate Mo’ film. The project is very close to my heart.

Picture Tree Intl. has come on board to handle the international sales of black comedy “Shooting Blanks,” written and directed by Žiga Virc. The Slovenian film looks at what happens when a family goes to war with itself.

The film is in post-production. Pti will present a first private market screening at the Marché du Film in Cannes.

Vida’s father France worships his father, a hero of the partisan resistance. When a German supermarket chain decides to build a new store in his hometown, demolishing a statue of his father in the process, France declares war on this new “enemy.”

Vida could not care less about the past – she is trying to get pregnant, and it is not going well. While she and her husband Toni wait for news from the fertility clinic, France leads local volunteers dressed up as partisans and Nazis into maneuvers against the supermarket.

But...

Hannah Herzsprung reprises her role as piano wunderkind from 2006 film.

Berlin-based Picture Tree International (Pti) has boarded international sales for German director Chris Kraus’ 15 Years, a sequel to the writer and director’s 2006 feature Four Minutes.

15 Years sees Hannah Herzsprung, who went on to star in The Reader and Who Am I, reprising her lead role as the piano wunderkind Jenny von Loeben. It also stars Albrecht Schuch, best known for All Quiet on the Western Front, System Crasher.

Four Minutes launched the acting career of Herzsprung in 2006 and won the best film prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival,...

Picture Tree Intl. has picked up international sales duties on “Manta Manta: Legacy,” directed by and starring Til Schweiger. The action comedy is a sequel to the first “Manta, Manta” feature film from 1991, with a market premiere for both movies planned at the Cannes Film Market.

Released by Constantin Film Verleih on March 30, “Manta Manta: Legacy” has reached over 800,000 admissions and was the number one movie in Germany in its opening week.

Produced by Bernd Eichinger, Peter Zenk and Martin Moszkowicz, and directed by Wolfgang Büld, the first movie launched the acting career of Schweiger in a newly reunified Germany. Generating more than 1.2 million theatrical admissions, the film went on to be the most successful film on German commercial television.

“Manta Manta: Legacy” reunites the leading cast of the 1991 original: Schweiger, Tina Ruland (“Ants in the Pants”) and Michael Kessler. The ensemble cast also includes Tim Oliver Schultz, Luna Schweiger,...

Exclusive: Picture Tree Int’l (Pti) has boarded sales on German Sophie Scholls – The Final Days Oscar-nominee and hitmaker Marc Rothemund’s heart-warming family drama Weekend Rebels, inspired by the true story of a father who forged a special bond with his autistic son through the search for a perfect soccer club.

The film, currently in post-production, is produced by Justyna Muesch, Quirin Berg and Max Wiedemann.

Their Oscar-winning banner Wiedemann & Berg Film company has delivered a slew of award-winning pictures over the years including The Lives Of Others, Never Look Away and Who Am I. SevenPictures Film co-produces.

Leonine Studios is also on board and will release the film in Germany on September 28, 2023.

Florian David Fitz leads the German cast as a father who gets closer to his 10-year-old autistic son through a quest to find a soccer club they can support together,...

On the heels of crowning the class of 2023, Variety is marking 25 years of keeping a keen eye on the next generation of filmmakers with its annual 10 Directors to Watch franchise.

Over the past quarter-century, the editorial initiative has cast an important career spotlight on such future boldface-name directors as Alfonso Cuaron, Christopher Nolan, Ava DuVernay, Wes Anderson, Chloé Zhao, Barry Jenkins, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Steve McQueen, Taika Waititi, Kasi Lemmons, Michael Winterbottom, Sarah Polley, Catherine Hardwicke, Lulu Wang, Jay Chandrasekhar, David Gordon Green and Fernando Meirelles.

The scouting for 10 Directors to Watch goes on all year among Variety‘s editorial staff. The series was birthed in January 1997 by veteran Variety editor Steven Gaydos, executive VP of global content and leader of the Focus features department. The goal is to identify hot helmers before they pick up any significant hardware — aka major award wins, Gaydos said.

Variety‘s Steven Gaydos

“We look for a distinctive voice,...

It's the most wonderful time of the year, or so Andy Williams may have you believe. But while everyone was getting ready to spend time with their families, buying presents, and decking various halls with boughs of holly, film critics were scrambling to catch up with all the movies they simply didn't have the time to see yet. Despite the pandemic's impact, this year was full of incredible cinematic selections, and I do mean full! By the end of the year, you're kind of forced to cut your losses and just recognize that no one can see everything ... despite their best efforts.

So while I probably would have included movies like "The Fabelmans" if I'd had the opportunity to safely see them in theaters, what I have seen will certainly pass muster. This year was hard for everyone and brutally so for me personally. Shocking deaths in the family, physical and emotional trauma,...

Stars: Natalia Avelon, Matthias Bundschuh, Inka Friedrich, Lisa-Marie Koroll, Heiner Lauterbach, Junis Marlon, Jacob Matschenz, Andreas Pietschmann, Lisa Maria Potthoff, Marie-Lou Sellem | Written by Hans G. Raeth, Felix Starck | Directed by Marc Rothemund

Here in Germany, we headed back into what has been described as a “soft” lockdown on Monday. But before this, as it was my wedding anniversary, and as we had a babysitter for the first time since baby number 2 was delivered by the stork, we decided to get down our local cinema, while we could. My wife and I (and 4 other people) saw the German language film Es ist zu deinem Besten (It is For Your Own Good) and it was rather fun.

I appreciate this is going to be rather niche, given this is an English language site, but as I physically went to the cinema I feel this needs to be celebrated, given what is going on in the world.

Read about all the leading titles coming to cinemas.

France, opening Wednesday October 7

Mainstream French comedies and dramas topped the release schedule in France once again this week, in the absence of US studio titles.

The biggest release of the week was romantic comedy The ABCs Of Love for Ugc Distribution on some 480 prints. Rising star Vincent Dedienne plays a thirtysomething babysitter, who unwittingly gets entangled in the parent teacher association of the school that his nine-year-old charge attends but finds love along the way.

Other local features included long triangle drama Dreamchild, starring Jalil Lespert, Louise Bourgoin and Mélanie Doutey...

Alexander Payne’s 2004 version starred Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church.

German wunderkind filmmaker and wine lover Felix Starck has optioned Rex Pickett’s Sideways and will shoot a $5 million German adaptation later this summer.

The novel follows two male friends at a pivotal point in their lives who head off together on a trip to wine country. It has already been adapted for the screen successfully by Alexander Payne in his 2004 comedy-drama starring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church. Now, Pickett has given his blessing to the new version by Starck, which is backed by StudioCanal and is currently being cast by Simone Bär.

Film directed by Marc Rothemund posted over 2 million admissions in Germany.

German sales powerhouse Global Screen, which gave a Toronto market premiere to its new 3D animation adventure Tabaluga this weekend, is continuing to rack up deals on true-life tearjerker This Crazy Heart, about a wealthy thirtysomething forced to care for a 15-year-old heart patient.

An eye-catching deal has been closed with China’s Tang Media Partners for the film, directed by Marc Rothemund and produced by Constantin Film’s Martin Moszkowicz and Oliver Berben. Tang Media Partners have acquired all rights for China and are planning a wide release...

This Crazy Heart, last year's break-out German-language hit from director Marc Rothemund (Sophie Scholl: The Final Days), is going to Spain. And China.

The dramedy in the vein of About a Boy, which follows a rich, irresponsible 30-something forced to care for a 15-year-old heart patient, is getting local-language remakes in several territories, including China, Spain, Mexico and Turkey.

Germany's Constantin Film, which produced the original, earlier inked a deal for French adaptation of Crazy Heart with Dimitri Rassam’s Paris-based Chapter 2. The original film, which featured German superstar Elyas M'Barek as the spoiled 30-something and Philip Schwarz as the...

<em>This Crazy Heart</em>, last year's breakout German-language hit from director Marc Rothemund (<em>Sophie Scholl: The Final Days</em>), is going to Spain. And China.

The film is getting local-language remakes in several territories, including China, Spain, Mexico and Turkey. <span style="font-size: 12px;">The </span>dramedy<span style="font-size: 12px;">, in the vein of </span><em style="font-size: 12px;">About a Boy</em><span style="font-size: 12px;">, follows a rich, irresponsible 30-something forced to care for a 15-year-old heart patient. </span>

<span style="font-size: 12px;">Germany's </span>Constantin<span style="font-size: 12px;"> Film, which produced the original, earlier inked a deal for the French adaptation of </span><em style="font-size: 12px;">Crazy Heart</em><span style="font-size: 12px;"> with </span>Dimitri<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span>Rassam’s<span style="font-size: 12px;"> Paris-based Chapter 2. The original film, which features German superstar </span>Elyas<span style="font-size: 12px;"> </span>M'Barek<span style="font-size: 12px;"> as the spoiled 30-something and Philip Schwarz as the young ...</span>...

Historical romance, literary adaptations, arthouse drama, star-studded comedies, children’s pics, animated fare and a high-profile documentary are among the many German films and co-productions on offer at this year’s Cannes Film Market.

Unspooling as part of the festival are Wim Wenders’ “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word,” repped by Focus Features and bowing in Special Screenings; “In My Room,” Ulrich Koehler’s story of a man who suddenly realizes everyone around him has disappeared, which world premieres in Un Certain Regard; and, in Intl. Critics’ Week sidebar, Anja Kofmel’s Swiss co-production “Chris the Swiss,” a partially animated documentary from Urban Distribution that investigates the mysterious death of a young Swiss journalist during the Yugoslav wars.

On the market side, one historical niche that is proving particularly successful is that of the turn-of-the-century artist.

Picture Tree Intl. is following its 2016 hit “Egon Schiele — Death and the Maiden,...

This Crazy Heart is directed by Marc Rothemund whose 2005 drama Sophie Scholl was nominated for the best foreign-language film Oscar.

In advance of the Marché, German sales outfit Global Screen has confirmed multiple sales on two of the titles on its Cannes slate.

This Crazy Heart, directed by Marc Rothemund whose 2005 drama Sophie Scholl was nominated for the best foreign-language film Oscar, has gone to Spain (Flins y Peniculas), Portugal (Pris), South Korea (Yejilim Entertainment), Cis (Voxell), Taiwan (Encore Film), Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary (Prorom), and Brazil (Globo). Negotiations are underway with distributors for France, Italy, China and Japan,...

Marc Rothemund’s drama has attracted more than 1.4 million admissions in Germany.

Munich-based Global Screen has picked up international sales rights to Constantin Film’s box-office hit This Crazy Heart (Dieses Bescheuerte Herz), which has been seen by more than 1.4 million German cinema-goers since its release on December 21.

Source: Jürgen Olczyk

This Crazy Heart

Based on the bestseller written by Lars Amend together with Daniel Meyer, who suffers from heart disease, Marc Rothemund’s film follows 30-something rich kid Lenny (played by top German box-office draw Elyas M’Barek) who is given the responsibility of caring for 15-year-old heart patient David (newcomer Philip Noah Schwarz in his big screen acting debut) and breaks all the rules to fulfil his young friend’s every wish.

Produced by Constantin Film’s Martin Moszkowicz and Oliver Berben, this film is the first title from Germany’s leading producer-distributor to be handled by Global Screen and will have its market premiere at the...

"Let me prove to you that I can do it." Studiocanal UK has debuted the official UK trailer for a Germany comedy film titled My Blind Date with Life, or originally Mein Blind Date mit dem Leben in German. The film tells the true story of a student who nearly became blind as a teenager. He keeps his limited eye sight a secret and starts working at a hotel in Munich, soon falling in love with a woman. Kostja Ullmann stars as the lead character Saliya Kahawatte, with a cast including Anna Maria Mühe, Nilam Farooq, Sylvana Krappatsch, Ludger Pistor, Johann von Bülow, and Herbert Forthuber. This looks like a very cheesy German romantic comedy, but there's a heartwarming story behind it all. That said, this doesn't seem like it will be good. At least you can get a glimpse at what campy German comedies are like - have fun.

StudioCanal has a sales hit on its hands with German romantic comedy My Blind Date With Life.

The feature, from Sophie Scholl director Marc Rothemund, has sold to some 37 territories, including to Kino Films for Japan, Alpha Filmes for Latin America and Flins & Pinicula for Spain.

Based on a true story, Blind Date stars Kostja Ullmann as a severally visually impaired man who, with the help of his friends, manages to bluff his way into a career at one of Munich's finest luxury hotels. Anna Maria Muhe (Love in Thoughts) co-stars.

"The fact that it is...

The Little Witch (Die Kleine Hexe) will star German actress Karoline Herfurth and reunite the production team behind local box office hit Heidi.

Studiocanal is to co-produce and handle world sales on the first German live-action film adaptation of Otfried Preussler’s children’s classic The Little Witch (Die Kleine Hexe).

Published in 1957, Preussler’s tale centres on a witch who is a mere one hundred and twenty-seven years old and thus deemed too young to be allowed to dance with the others on the Hill of Witches during Walpurgis Night (30 April).

Before she can prove to the chief witch that she has what it takes to become a good witch, she must hone her magic skills, but she hadn’t reckoned with the mean weather witch Rumpumpel using every means to prevent her reaching her goal.

Studiocanal’s German production arm, Studiocanal Film, will co-produce with Munich-based Claussen+Putz Filmproduktion and Switzerland’s Zodiac Pictures after last...

Labyrinth Of Lies director Giulio Ricciarelli Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Giulio Ricciarelli's Oscar shortlisted Best Foreign Language Film candidate, Labyrinth Of Lies, stars Alexander Fehling of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds fame, with Johannes Krisch (Frauke Finsterwalder's Finsterworld and Götz Spielmann's Revanche), André Szymanski, Hansi Jochmann, Friederike Becht (Margarethe von Trotta's Hannah Arendt), Johann von Bülow and Mathis Reinhardt, and is dedicated to the late great stage actor, Gert Voss.

"Heimatfilm", Marc Rothemund's Sophie Scholl: The Final Days on the White Rose shot by Martin Langer, Vico Torriani, Caterina Valente and how the costume design of Aenne Plaumann (Goodbye Lenin!), a La Strada poster, design by Manfred Döring and Janina Jaensch were orchestrated by "card players", gender roles in the Fifties, and what's in a title.

Marlene Wondrak (Friederike Becht) with Johann Radmann (Alexander Fehling)

Ricciarelli in his debut feature captures a mood of cold-sweat exhilarated revitalisation,...

Plans by the German government to slash the budget for incentive programme Dfff by €10m ($13.8m) has surprised the film community.

In her first public appearance before representatives of the film industry on the eve of this year’s Berlinale, the new State Minister for Culture and Media Monika Grütters had told the audience at the German Producers Guild conference that she intended to continue the good work achieved by her predecessor in the post Bernd Neumann.

At the time, Grütters pointed out that the budget for the Dfff had been increased from €60m to €70m ($83m to $97m) in 2013 “and we would like to leave it at least at this”.

She had also said that the coalition agreement between the Cdu/Csu and Spd had given a “clear signal” for Germany as a production hub by proposing that the Dfff .

However, less than a month later, finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble submitted a draft budget which envisaged...

Slamdance winner won the Max Ophüls Prize at the weekend, granting it a slot in the Berlinale.

Jakob Lass’ feature debut Love Steaks, this year’s winner of the Slamdance Trailer Competition Grand Prix, was awarded the prestigious Max Ophüls Prize in Saarbrücken at the weekend.

The film, which is in the Lola nomination long list, will therefore also have a screening slot in the Berlinale’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino on Feb 16.

Billed by the filmmakers as “the world’s first Fogma film” (with the obligatory manifesto), Love Steaks had its world premiere at Munich Filmfest last June where it won all four prizes of the Young German Cinema Support Awards.

This included for Best Screenplay, despite the film not having had any written dialogue and featuring the staff and guests at a wellness hotel on the Baltic Sea coast playing themselves alongside newcomers Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski..

Lass’ graduation film from the University of Film...

Germany has a long and trivia-crazy history with the Oscars that didn’t just begin with Sandra Bullock speaking German in her Blind Side acceptance speech or Christoph Waltz, an Austrian-German talent winning two Tarantino-Flavored Oscars for multi-lingual performances. We’ll get to more trivia in a minute but first the German shortlist. We await their choice for Oscar’s Foreign Language Film submission with curiousity because they’re always a threat for the eventual shortlist. Germany has received 18 nominations and 3 wins over the years. They’re weighing the quality of nine different pictures before deciding. Which will they send our way?

The finalists are…

My Beautiful Country Michaela Kezele

This one skews international - a romance between a young Serbian widow and an Albanian soldier The German Friend Jeanine Meerapfel

A coproduction with Argentina Free Fall Stephan Lacant

A gay romantic drama about two cops The Girl With Nine...

Sophie Scholl – Die Letzten Tage / Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005) Direction: Marc Rothemund Cast: Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Gerald Alexander Held, Johanna Gastdorf, André Hennicke Screenplay: Fred Breinersdorfer Oscar Movies, European Film Award Movies Recommended Julia Jentsch, Fabian Hinrichs, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days Directed with clenched fists by Berlin Film Festival winner Marc Rothemund, who seems to have been at least partly inspired by Robert Bresson's minimalist The Trial of Joan of Arc, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is an intense, unsentimental, impeccably produced retelling of the last days of the young female leader of the White Rose, the German resistance movement. Set in 1943, Fred Breinersdorfer's screenplay chronicles the events that followed the arrest of Sophie Scholl (Julia Jentsch) and her brother Hans (Fabian Hinrichs) after they're accused of distributing "subversive" leaflets at a German university. In the complex title role, Berlin Film Festival, German Academy Award,...

Cologne, Germany -- German's federal film board (Ffa) hasn't lost its taste for big period projects, putting up coin for Roland Suso Richter's early medieval epic "The Physician" and Peter Sehr's 19th century drama "Ludwig II" in its latest round of funding.

"The Physician," based on the Noah Gordon's bestseller of the same name, picked up $844,000 from the Ffa. "Ludwig II," a biopic of the so-called "fairy-tale king" of Bavaria, received a check for $700,000.

The bulk of the Ffa's cash went to mainstream productions, including the comedies "Heute bin ich Blond" (Today, I'm Blond) from Marc Rothemund, "Jesus Liebt Mich" (Jesus Loves Me) from Florian David Fitz and "What A Man," the romcom directorial debut of acting star Matthias Schweighofer.

On the other end of the scale, production-wise, is Andreas Dresen's new low-budget production, "Halt Auf Freier Strecke," which got $140,000 in subsidy cash from the Ffa.

Not only are they capable of lighting up the silver screen, they are also some of today's most talented young actresses, commanding huge fees - in some cases, in the millions. Many have won multiple awards, while others have starred in some of today's biggest box office hits. In short, we're listing down the cream of the crop!

Just like our recent Top 50 hottest young actors, we've narrowed down our list from 88 to 50, and set an age limit. If you miss seeing some of your favorites, so do we - including Maggie Gyllenhaal (31 years old) and Amy Adams (34 years old). Definitely some of the names you'll see on the list are emerging talents - the ones you will see getting the big roles in the near future - and some of them already have, with awards and nominations to boot.

Here's the updated Top 40 list! You'll definitely notice the international flavor!

Not only are they capable of lighting up the silver screen, they are also some of today's most talented young actresses, commanding huge fees - in some cases, in the millions. Many have won multiple awards, while others have starred in some of today's biggest box office hits. In short, we're listing down the cream of the crop!

Just like our recent Top 50 hottest young actors, we've narrowed down our list from 88 to 50, and set an age limit. If you miss seeing some of your favorites, so do we - including Maggie Gyllenhaal (31 years old) and Amy Adams (34 years old). Definitely some of the names you'll see on the list are emerging talents - the ones you will see getting the big roles in the near future - and some of them already have, with awards and nominations to boot.

Here's the updated Top 40 list! You'll definitely notice the international flavor!

Not only are they capable of lighting up the silver screen, they are also some of today's most talented young actresses, commanding huge fees - in some cases, in the millions. Many have won multiple awards, while others have starred in some of today's biggest box office hits. In short, we're listing down the cream of the crop!

Just like our recent Top 50 hottest young actors, we've narrowed down our list from 88 to 50, and set an age limit. If you miss seeing some of your favorites, so do we - including Maggie Gyllenhaal (31 years old) and Amy Adams (34 years old). Definitely some of the names you'll see on the list are emerging talents - the ones you will see getting the big roles in the near future - and some of them already have, with awards and nominations to boot.

Here's the updated Top 40 list! You'll definitely notice the international flavor!

COLOGNE, Germany -- Michael Verhoeven, one of Germany's most prolific political filmmakers, best known for his films dealing with Germany's Nazi past, will receive a lifetime achievement honor at next year's Bavarian Film Awards, organizers announced Wednesday. The award will be presented Jan. 19 at a gala ceremony in Munich.

Verhoeven, a director, actor, writer and producer, told the story of the failed anti-Nazi resistance group led by siblings Sophie and Hans Scholl in The White Rose, (1982), a film that was an inspiration for Marc Rothemund's Oscar-nominated "Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days." (2005).

The director's My Mother's Courage (1995) is the true story of how one woman escaped the Nazis' deportation of 4,000 Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz in 1944. And 1990's Nasty Girl, which won a Berlin Silver Bear and a U.K. Bafta award for best foreign-language film, follows a German high school student who uncovers her town's secret collaboration with the Nazis during the war.

Verhoeven's latest film, the documentary The Unknown Soldier, is an examination of the German army's involvement in the Holocaust.

CANNES -- Oscar-nominated director Marc Rothemund is returning to his comic roots for his next project: Pornorama, a lighthearted look at the Munich sex film industry in the 1970s. The project, which Rothemund will begin shooting in the fall, reteams the director with Munich-based Constantin Film, who produced Rothemund's teen comedy Ants in My Pants (2000). Constantin's Bernd Eichinger (Downfall, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer) will produce and co-write the script with Rothemund.

CANNES -- Oscar-nominated director Marc Rothemund is returning to his comic roots for his next project: Pornorama, a lighthearted look at the Munich sex film industry in the 1970s. The project, which Rothemund will begin shooting in the fall, reteams the director with Munich-based Constantin Film, who produced Rothemund's teen comedy Ants in My Pants (2000). Constantin's Bernd Eichinger (Downfall, "Perfume: The Story of a Murderer") will produce and co-write the script with Rothemund.

COLOGNE, Germany -- Marc Rothemund's Nazi-resistance drama Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days, already a front-runner for nomination in this year's foreign-film Oscar race, has added another German award to its long list of honors, winning the Bavarian Film Prize for best film. Sophie Scholl, which recounts the final days in the life of the eponymous resistance fighter, already piled up multiple honors at last year's Berlin International Film Festival as well as the German and European Film Awards. The Life of Others, a Cold War thriller set in communist East Germany that marked the feature debut of television director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, was the other big Bavarian Film Prize winner. Star Ulrich Muehe was named best actor, and von Donnersmarck received best script and best newcomer honors as well as the VGF Prize.

COLOGNE, Germany -- Marc Rothemund's Nazi-resistance drama Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days, already a front-runner for nomination in this year's foreign-film Oscar race, added another German award to its long list of honors Friday night, winning the Bavarian Film Prize for best film. Sophie Scholl, which recounts the final days in the life of the eponymous resistance fighter, already piled up multiple honors at last year's Berlin International Film Festival as well as the German and European Film Awards. The Life of Others, a Cold War thriller set in communist East Germany that marked the feature debut of television director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, was the other big Bavarian Film Prize winner. Star Ulrich Muehe was named best actor, and von Donnersmarck received best script and best newcomer honors as well as the VGF Prize.

• Out with the old & in with the new… the New Year has finally arrived and the staffers at ioncinema.com are all psyched for the prospects of another eclectic year in film. In our 5-day bonanza, was put together by our panel of 4 (from Canada, the U.S, Europe and Australia). Drum roll please as we give you The Top 50 most anticipated films of 2006! Here are picks 40 thru 50. 40. (tie) Sophie Scholl When: Zeitgeist Films will hope to make a buck with this one - Who: Marc Rothemund What: 1943. The Germans have lost the battle for Stalingrad and, in Munich, members of the White Rose infiltrate the city with a wave upon wave of anti-Hitler activities and slogans. Sophie and Hans Scholl are busy distributing flyers in the main hall of Munich University when they are observed and arrested. Why: A likely candidate for a best foreign picture nom â

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