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Aus der Rekordzahl von mehr 220 Einreichungen wurden jetzt 29 Projekte ausgewählt, die im Rahmen des Pitiching-Events European Work im Progress Mitte Oktober präsentiert werden.

Eines der für European Work in Progress ausgewählten Projekte, das mit deutscher Beteiligung entsteht: „Zejtune“ (Credit: Alex Camilleri)

Für das von 14. bis 16. Oktober stattfindende Pitiching-Event European Work in Progress war in diesem Jahr die Rekordzahl von mehr als 220 Projekten eingereicht worden. Jetzt wurden die 29 Projekte bekannt gegeben, die den Gästen des Events und der internationalen Jury in jeweils 15-minütigen Pitchings vorgestellt werden. Darüber hinaus wird es bei European Work in Progress die Möglichkeit zu Meetings zwischen den Verantwortlichen der ausgewählten Projekte und Vertretern von Produktionsfirmen, Verleihern, Weltvertrieben und weiteren Unterstützern geben. Am 15. Oktober werden dann Geldpreise und Dienstleistungsgutscheine in einem Gesamtwert von rund 60.000 Euro – gestiftet von Partnern wie K13 Studios, Mmc Film & TV Studios, LAVAlabs Moving Images, Gruvi, Usheru, Way Film und mm filmpresse – vergeben.

Maßgeblich unterstützt...

Twenty-nine film projects have been selected for the seventh edition of European Work in Progress Cologne (Ewip), the pitching event held from October 14-16.

Among the titles being pitched to an international audience of sales agents, distributors and festival programmers is Bulgarian filmmaker Stephan Komendarev’s seventh feature Made In EU, about a provincial town turning against a seamstress after it appears she is the first local to have contracted Covid.

Other projects include German director Frédéric Halambek’s second feature Marielle, starring child actor Laeni Geiseler as a girl with the telepathic ability to know what her parents are...

In Brandenburg entsteht derzeit Ina Weisses neuer Film „Zikaden“ mit Nina Hoss und Saskia Rosendahl in den Hauptrollen.

Nina Hoss und Saskia Rosendahl in „Zikaden“ (Credit: Judith Kaufmann / Lupa Film GmbH)

In Brandenburg inszeniert Ina Weisse noch bis Ende September die deutsch-französische Koproduktion „Zikaden“, die Dcm im Sommer 2025 in die Kinos bringen will.

In der Geschichte einer Freundschaft zweier ungleicher Frauen spielt Saskia Rosendahl die alleinerziehende Anja, die versucht, sich und ihre Tochter mit verschiedenen Jobs über Wasser zu halten, und Nina Hoss Isabell, die sich um ihre pflegebedürftigen Eltern kümmert und deren Beziehung zu ihrem Mann Philipp (Vincent Macaigne) auf die Probe gestellt wird.

Produziert wird „Zikade“ von Lupa Film in Koproduktion mit Koproduktion mit 10:15 Productions, Zdf und Arte. Förderung gab es vom Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, dem deutsch-französischen Förderabkommen Mini-Traité von Ffa und Cnc und dem Dfff.

Kaouther Ben Hania, deren Dokumentarfilm „Olfas Töchter“ in diesem Jahr für einen Oscar nominiert war, erhält für ihr neues Projekt „Mimesis“ Förderung von der Deutsch-Französischen Förderkommission.

Kaouther Ben Hania erhält für ihr neues Projekt Unterstützung von der Deutsch-Französischen Förderkommission (Credit: Imago / Bestimage)

Die Deutsch-Französische Förderkommission hat in ihrer jüngsten Sitzung für vier Koproduktionen eine Produktionsförderung in einer Gesamthöhe von 1,06 Mio. Euro sowie zwei Entwicklungsförderungen in Höhe von 50.000 Euro beschlossen. Das teilt die Ffa, die das Förderprogramm gemeinsam mit dem Centre National de la Cinématographie (Cnc) durchführt, heute mit.

Zu den geförderten Projekten gehört u.a. das Drama „Mimesis“ der in diesem Jahr für den Dokumentarfilm „Olfas Töchter“ Oscar-nominierten Regisseurin Kaouther Ben Hania, Ina Weisses Drama „Zikaden“ mit Nina Hoss und Saskia Rosendahl in den Hauptrollen, sowie Wolfgang Fischers Abenteuerfilm „Südwest“.

Die geförderten Projeke im Überblick:

Projektfilmförderung

• „Südwest“

Regie: Wolfgang Fischer

Drehbuch: Ika Künzel

Produktion D: Schiwago Film GmbH (63%)

Förderung D:...

German regional fund Medenboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb) has made its latest funding decisions.

Films directed by Wes Anderson, Agnieszka Holland, Emily Atef, Pablo Larrain and Karim Ainouz are among 14 projects to receive more than €5.2m in total production support from the German regional fund Medenboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb) in its latest funding decision.

The largest single amount of €1.5m went to an as-yet untitled project by Wes Anderson which will see the US director continuing his long-standing collaboration with Studio Babelsberg with whom he has partnered on five previous films including The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City.

The...

The European Film Academy (Efa) has unveiled 462 film professionals as new members in an announcement timed to coincide with Europe Day on May 9.

The new arrivals will be eligible to vote in the academy’s European Film Awards, the region’s equivalent to the Academy Awards, as well as contribute to its other initiatives across the year.

The Efa said a record number of professionals had accepted to join the organization this year, adding that 50% were female, 49%, were male, and 1% defined as non-binary.

The bigger intake comes amid a drive to revamp the academy which recently announced it would be moving the Efa ceremony to January in 2026, from its traditional December slot, to make it more relevant in the annual film awards season culminating with the Oscars.

The Efa currently now counts 4,600 members based in 52 countries.

The new members mainly hailed from Germany (68), France (38), Switzerland (37), Poland (36), Italy (33), Spain (24), UK (28) and...

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In writer-director Todd Field’s awards season favorite Tár, Cate Blanchett’s performance as the (fictional) world-famous conductor Lydia Tár is the thespian equivalent of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony: as full of monumental gestures and emotional bombast and just as impossible to resist. She’s the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic and an Egot winner to boot, but she’s also a monstrous genius who has clawed her way to the top of the classical music world with little regard for the people she has used and abused along the way. Over the course of the film, like the plot of any good opera, Lydia Tár’s heroic triumph is followed by her tragic fall from grace, as the maestro becomes a victim of “cancel culture” and, more accurately, her own egotistical excesses.

Against Blanchett’s symbolic cymbal crash of a role,...

Award-winning German actor Nina Hoss has signed with CAA for representation.

Hoss stars opposite Cate Blanchett in Todd Field’s “Tár,” which will open theatrically on Oct. 7 via Focus Features. The film debuted to rave reviews at the Venice and Telluride film festivals, with Variety Senior Awards Editor Clayton Davis suggesting that Hoss could land her first Oscar nomination for her supporting performance as wife to Blanchett’s trailblazing composer, who becomes the first woman to conduct a major German orchestra. In his awards analysis, Davis described Hoss as the “heart and soul of the film.”

Best known for her acclaimed performances in Christian Petzold’s films “Phoenix” and “Barbara,” as well as Anton Corbijn’s “A Most Wanted Man,” Hoss made her debut in 1996 with “A Girl Called Rosemary.” Additional credits include “Yella” and Petzold’s “Something to Remind Me” and “Wolfsburg.”

In 2019, Hoss starred as violin teacher Anna...

Berlin-based sales outfit M-Appeal has closed distribution deals for Italy and Greece following the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

The Israeli-Ukrainian co-production plays in Venice’s Horizons Extra section, and will have its North American premiere on Sept. 14 at Toronto Film Festival in the Contemporary World Cinema section.

Rome-based P.F.A Films Srl will distribute the film in Italy, with a theatrical release planned for April 2023. The company’s recent titles include “Fabian – Going to the Dogs” by Dominik Graf, “The Audition” by Ina Weisse, and “Border” by Abbasi Ali.

Pier Francesco Aiello, CEO of P.F.A Films, commented: “We were really impressed by the understated yet powerful telling of this complex story, that keeps you emotionally involved from the very first frame.”

Arthouse cinema distributor and streaming service Cinobo will handle distribution of the film in Greece, adding the film to their slate, which includes “Alcarras” by Carla Simón,...

Exclusive: German public broadcaster’s latest drama is to be a remake of the 2019 Australian thriller mini-series Safe Harbour after a deal with distributor NBCUniversal Formats.

Titled Liberame – Nach dem Sturm (Liberame – After the Storm), the drama is set around a sailing trip on the Mediterranean, an overcrowded refugee boat and a catastrophe that changes the lives of everyone.

All episodes will be available to stream on streaming service ZDFmediathek on July 30and will begin broadcasting on Zdf on August 29.

The original show was produced for Australian cultural broadcaster Sbs and came from Universal International Studios’ Sydney-based producer Matchbox Pictures.

Here’s a synopsis for the Zdf remake: “Jan (Friedrich Mücke) and Caro (Johanna Wokalek) are on a sailing trip on the Mediterranean Sea with Jan’s sister (Natalia Belitski), her friend Daniel (Marc Benjamin) and Helene (Ina Weisse) when they encounter a broken-down boat with refugees in distress. The...

Hoss plays a violin teacher under pressure in her personal and professional life as she begins work with a new student

The always-compelling German actor Nina Hoss stars as a neurotic, conflicted violin teacher and mother in this sticky, stop-start drama set in the exacting, pressurised realm of classical music. Those who know this world are aware that it’s an arena where fierce discipline and innate talent is required to succeed and secure coveted spots at, first, highly competitive schools and then, for adults, in ensembles and orchestras. Not all music teachers are Mr Holland’s Opus-style nurturers for sure, but films such as this one as well as Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher and, to an extent, the jazz-angled Whiplash, love to dwell on characters whose minds are contorted into all kinds of perverse, emotionally mangled shapes by their devotion to excellence.

Hoss’s Anna is a...

New film by Dominik Graf’s is based on 1930s Berlin-set novel of Erich Kästner.

Paris-based Les Films du Losange has boarded world sales on German director Dominik Graf’s 1930s Berlin set drama Fabian, which has been selected for competition in the Berlinale’s two-part 2021 edition.

Graf’s first feature in five years, it is adapted from the 1931 satirical novel by German writer Erich Kästner, best known internationally as the author of the 1929 children’s book Emil And The Detectives.

Set in Berlin during the Weimar Republic, it stars Tom Schilling, whose credits include Never Look Away, as the...

Let the best-of-the-year lists commence. While guilds and critics groups will soon be delivering their opinions, one of the few of genuine interest each year comes from a single person: the wonderfully eccentric director John Waters, whose eclectic tastes always includes a mix of the unexpected and underseen.

Topping his list this year is Tyler Cornack’s spring release Butt Boy, which features a strange tale of missing persons potentially disappearing up someone’s rectum, followed by the recommended psychological body horror film Swallow. Also among the list are the latest films from Pedro Almodóvar, Craig Zobel, Quentin Dupieux and, as a 10th place tie leading to 11 selections, new courtroom dramas by Steve McQueen and Aaron Sorkin.

Check out the list below via Baltimore Fishbowl, which will appear in the next issue of Artforum. We’ve also included links to our reviews.

1. Butt Boy (Tyler Cornack)

2. Swallow (Carlo Mirabella-Davis)

3. The Hunt...

This weekend sees a trio of new comedies arriving to streaming and video-on-demand platforms, taking viewers to the disparate worlds of European music competitions to the campaign trail to tactical espionage.

Six years after his debut feature “Rosewater” was released, Jon Stewart has re-emerged with his second film, “Irresistible,” and reunited with “The Daily Show” correspondent Steve Carell. The cast also includes Rose Byrne, Chris Cooper, Mackenzie Davis, Topher Grace and Natasha Lyonne. Since most theaters across the country remain closed due to social distancing regulations, Focus Features has decided to give the movie a home premiere and price 48-hour digital rentals at $19.99.

Both Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are debuting exclusive comedies. Netflix’s “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” features Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as an Icelandic musical duo trying to make it big while competing in one of the largest music contests in the world.

A History of Violins: Hoss at a Loss in Weisse’s Careful Character Study

Actor Ina Weisse returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2008’s The Architect with a narrative equally entrenched in the career of its protagonist in The Audition. Riding high on a superb central performance from Nina Hoss (who gives an equally strong turn in the problematic Pelican Blood), Weisse returns to work with co-scribe Daphne Charizani to craft a stellar character study which plays like a carefully moderated musical arrangement, equal parts subtle drama and high anxiety. A portrait of obsessive alliances and psychological projections on the part of its heroine, whose championing of an introverted student awaken desires she’s been unwisely keeping at bay, Weisse spins her film into darker than expected territories favoring a character study which moves to primal depths in its significant silences.…

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The Audition (Das vorspiel) Strand Releasing Reviewed by Harvey Karten for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net Director: Ina Weisse Screenwriter: Ina Weisse, Daphne Charizani Cast: Nina Hoss, Simon Abkarian, Jens Albinus, Ilja Monti, Serafin Mishiev Running Time: 99 minutes Reviewed on: 5/19/20 Opening Date: June 26, 2020 Just as psychoanalysts go through their own years on the […]

The post The Audition Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Simply one of the greatest actresses working today, every time Nina Hoss delivers a new performance, it’s a cause for attention. Her latest film looks to be no exception. Directed by Ina Weisse, The Audition follows Hoss’s character of Anna, a strict violin teacher who fixates on a pupil’s upcoming audition, at the expense of her crumbling marriage and relationship with her young son.

While spoiling plot points would be unwise, the trailer presents the film as a psychological thriller of sorts, looking like a cross between The Kindergarten Teacher and The Piano Teacher. A French-German production, The Audition played at Toronto International Film Festival last year to rave reviews for Hoss’s performance.

Josh Lewis said in our review, “German actor-director Ina Weisse brings a sense of quiet severity to her latest film The Audition, which intimately follows Anna (Nina Hoss), a violin instructor at a...

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to Ray Yeung’s “Twilight’s Kiss” (“Suk Suk”) which world premiered at Busan and played at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Sold by Films Boutique, “Twilight’s Kiss” tells the story of two closeted married men in their twilight years, Pak, a 70 year-old taxi driver who refuses to retire, and Hoi, a 65 year-old retired single father. Despite years of societal and personal pressure, they are proud of the families they have created through hard work and determination. Yet, when they meet, something that had been suppressed for so many years is unleashed in them.

Strand Releasing, whose roster is packed with renowned world auteurs, previously handled Yeung’s film “Front Cover” with Jake Choi (“Single Parents”). “The delicate and beautiful story of two older men finding love later in life is a refreshing and realistic story and although uniquely Asian, is universal,...

"A concert audience won't wait." Strand Releasing has debuted the official Us trailer for an indie German film titled The Audition, originally known as Das Vorspiel in German. This initially premiered at the Toronto and San Sebastian Film Festivals in the fall last year, and is getting a VOD release this summer in the Us. Acclaimed German actress Nina Hoss stars a violin teacher at a renowned music school in Berlin. She vouches for a young student, and spends all her time and effort training him hoping he'll be the star she thinks he is, while neglecting her own musician son and her husband. The film also stars Simon Abkarian, Jens Albinus, Ilja Monti, and Serafin Mishiev. This is a very good film lead by a great performance by Nina Hoss that carries the entire story, so much emotional weight and so much frustration. Worth a watch. Here's the first...

Pressure is mounting for actress Nina Hoss, as she begins forgoing her personal life to instead focus all of her attention on one her students in the upcoming drama, ‘The Audition.’ The events in the performer’s character’s life will take a tragic turn when the film is distributed in Virtual Cinemas nationwide on Friday, June […]

The post Witness Ina Weisse’s The Audition In Virtual Cinema Release appeared first on Shockya.com.

Strand Releasing has acquired North American rights to José Luis Montesinos’s Spanish-language thriller “Ropes” which world premiered at the Sitges Film Festival.

Represented in international markets by Reel Suspects, “Ropes” follows Elena, a young quadriplegic who is mourning the recent death of her sister and has moved to a country house with her father. While there, she has the help of Athos, a Belgian pastoral dog specially trained to help her. But the creature turns into her worst enemy after contracting a strange disease.

An up-and-coming director, Montesinos previously directed several shorts, including “El Corredor” which won a Goya (Spain’s highest film honor) and was nominated for a European Film Award.

“Ropes,” produced by Arturo Mendiz at Bastian Films and Carles Pastor, will be presented at the European Film Market during the Berlin Film Festival. Written by Montesinos and Yako Blesa, “Ropes” stars Paula del Río (“Retribution”) and Miguel Ángel Jenner.

Ahead of its 70th edition, the Berlin Film Festival has revealed a program of talks consisting of high-profile international directors who have been invited by the fest’s new artistic director Carlo Chatrian to take part in an in conversation event with a fellow director guest of their choosing. The ‘On Transmission’ series will see: Ang Lee talk to Hirokazu Kore-eda; Claire Denis talk to Olivier Assayas; Ildikó Enyedi talk to Zsófia Szilágyi; Jia Zhang-ke talk to Huo Meng; Margarethe von Trotta talk to Ina Weisse; Paolo Taviani talk to Carlo Sironi; and Roy Andersson talk to Niki Lindroth von Bahr. The festival has also unveiled its poster for the 2020 fest, created by Berlin design agency State.

UK broadcaster Sky has continued its push into movie ‘originals’ by taking rights to Four Kids And It, the feature based on Jacqueline Wilson’s hugely popular children’s book. The film, which...

Strand Releasing has acquired all U.S. rights to Maryam Touzani’s critically acclaimed feature debut, “Adam,” which had its world premiere at Cannes in Un Certain Regard.

“Adam” is also the official entry for Morocco in the international feature film race at the Oscars. Represented in international markets by Berlin-based Films Boutique, “Adam” has been on a laureled path since its Cannes debut. It won the New Director’s Prize Roger Ebert Award at Chicago and the best first feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival, among other prizes. It also played at big international festivals such as Toronto and Karlovy Vary and will next screen at the AFI Fest.

The film stars Lubna Azabal as a woman who runs a modest local bakery from her home in Casablanca, where she lives alone with her 8-year-old daughter. Their lives are transformed by the arrival of a young pregnant woman searching for work,...

The distributor carefully targeted a demographic of women over the age of 40, in particular parents, educators, teachers and care professionals.

German director Nora Fingscheidt’s System Crasher, a drama about a troubled nine-year-old girl who is caught in an overstretched social welfare system, was a highlight at the Berlinale in February.

It impressed the Juliette Binoche-led Competition jury, which handed Fingscheidt’s debut feature the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer prize for a film that “opens new perspectives”. Even more portentously for its commercial prospects, System Crasher won the readers’ jury award of the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.

The film has...

Strand Releasing has acquired all North American rights to Ina Weisse’s “The Audition,” the tense psychological drama which world premiered at Toronto and went on to win the Silver Shell Award (for Nina Hoss) at San Sebastian.

Represented in international markets by Les Films du Losange, the film stars Hoss as Anna Bronsky, an obsessive violin teacher at a high school focused on honing young talent. When Anna finds a young student, Alexander, she sets off to create a model of herself but her dedication gradually creates a tense situation and affects her personal life with her husband and son.

“‘The Audition’ features such a powerful performance from Hoss that is heartbreaking, vulnerable and unforgettable, we are proud to have the film for North America” said Strand Releasing’s Jon Gerrans who negotiated the deal with Alice Lesort of Les Films du Losange. Strand plans to release “The Audition” next Spring or Summer.

Tomorrow will see the kick-off of the 24th Festival of German Film, which will unspool until 8 October in the French capital, organised by German Films. Tomorrow, the French premiere of The Audition by Ina Weisse, which has just earned Nina Hoss the Best Actress Award at San Sebastián after it world-premiered at Toronto, will have the honour of opening the 24th Festival of German Film, set to unspool until 8 October in Paris, at L’Arlequin cinema. Organised by German Films, the event will, through its "Cinema of Today" programme, present a selection of ten features (representing the crème de la crème of recent German film output) that will be screened in the presence of their creators. Other movies set to get an airing as French premieres are System Crasher by Nora Fingscheidt (Silver...

‘The Endless Trench’ picked up four prizes.

Brazilian production Pacified (Pacificado) by Us director Paxton Winters won the top award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, at the ceremony held on Saturday, September 28.

With Darren Aronofsky as a producer, the film is set in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

The jury, led by Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan, also awarded Pacified the Silver Shell for best actor to Bukassa Kabengele and the Jury prize for best cinematography to Laura Merians.

Paxton Winters, a reporter and filmmaker, got to know life in the favelas he portrays living there before he tackled Pacified.

San Sebastian — Blessed by sun, a steady sustenance of Donostia winning stars and a stream of production announcements, the San Sebastian Film Festival rounded its final bend on Friday after a robust 67th edition. San Sebastian’s status as the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world remains unquestioned. The maelstrom of change – imminent global platforms. markets, Latin American politics -could not but play out over events, forging a festival of sharp contrasts and little granularity about how major pivots in the global business could impact the Spanish-language arthouse business and new directors, its stock in trade. Following seven takeaways from this edition:

1. The Winners: Spanish Svod Platforms

You could hear a proverbial pin drop as HBO España unveiled first footage from its first announced series in Spain: “Patria,” a multi-time-period set chronicle on the human impact of the Basque conflict. It left San Sebastian with the status of a must-see show.

The German actress is the recipinet of Hamburg FilmFest’s presitgious Douglas Sirk prize.

German actress Nina Hoss is optimistic about more female directors getting feature films off the ground.

This makes sense when you consider her two most recent movies – Katrin Gebbe’s Pelican Blood and Ina Weisse’s The Audition – were both directed by women. Her upcoming drama, Schwesterlein, was co-directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond.

But her “hope” things are improving for female directors is tempered by a question about getting their movies into festivals. “At festivals, the eye is on the decision-making,” says Hoss. “If...

Arthouse cinema isn’t generally inclined toward “Alien vs. Predator”-style franchise mashups, but if some kind of icy faceoff were engineered between the troubled, seething music instructors of Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” and Ina Weisse’s “The Audition,” all bets would be off. As played with customary, finely razored emotional control by Nina Hoss, violin teacher Anna Bronsky might seem more outwardly functional than Isabelle Huppert’s lonely, repressed paraphiliac Erika Kohut: In a stable middle-class marriage with a gifted son following in her footsteps, Anna seemingly hasn’t much to complain about besides her own stifled musical dreams. Yet the old “those who can, do, those who can’t, teach” maxim takes on more dangerous implications when her dedication to one underdog student veers into obsessive territory; Weisse’s gripping, cool-blooded drama upends all manner of inspirational-educator clichés.

Appearing in San Sebastian’s official competition following...

The German actress is the recipinet of Hamburg FilmFest’s presitgious Douglas Sirk prize.

German actress Nina Hoss is optimistic about more female directors getting feature films off the ground.

This makes sense when you consider her two most recent movies – Katrin Gebbe’s Pelican Blood and Ina Weisse’s The Audition – were both directed by women. Her upcoming drama, Schwesterlein, was co-directed by Stéphanie Chuat and Véronique Reymond.

But her “hope” things are improving for female directors is tempered by a question about getting their movies into festivals. “At festivals, the eye is on the decision-making,” says Hoss. “If...

The Spanish film festival opens today (Sept 20) with Roger Michell’s ‘Blackbird’.

José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, talks to Screen about the key role the Spanish event plays in both the European and Latin American industries, industry innovations for this year and the art of programming a festival at one of the busiest times of the year.

The festival opens today (September 20) with the European premiere of Roger Michell’s Blackbird and runs until September 28.

You are proud of how open the festival is to new talents. How does this work in practice?

It involves different strategies.

One of the strengths of German cinema is its diversity, says Simone Baumann, managing director of the national film promotion agency German Films.

As well as the three films at Toronto directed by female German helmers, there was also German filmmaker Thomas Heise’s documentary film essay “Heimat Is a Space in Time.” Then there were the many German-funded films directed by non-Germans, including “My Zoe,” by France’s Julie Delpy, and “Guns Akimbo,” by New Zealander Jason Lei Howden.

The country is one of the world’s leading coproduction nations, which was much in evidence in Toronto – with 30 German films in the festival, including coproductions such as U.S. helmer Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” Swede Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness,” and “Proxima,” by France’s Alice Winocour.

It is hard to make generalization about German cinema, a point the filmmakers make themselves. Since the heyday of the Berlin School,...

Four feature films by German filmmakers screened at the Toronto Film Festival, and three of them were directed by women – Angela Schanelec’s “I Was at Home, But…,” winner of the Berlinale’s best director prize, Ina Weisse’s “The Audition,” and Katrin Gebbe’s “Pelican Blood,” the latter two both starring Nina Hoss. Germany’s Oscar entry this year, “System Crasher,” also has a female helmer.

“It’s a good time for female filmmakers… at least in Germany,” says Nora Fingscheidt, the director of “System Crasher,” which won a Silver Bear at Berlin. After the festival she received 35 scripts to consider, and is now working on a major project, as yet under wraps, for a global studio. The film’s child star, Helena Zengel, has just been cast to play opposite Tom Hanks in Paul Greengrass’ “News of the World.”

Fingscheidt says that being a woman – at least in...

Featuring a captivating performance from Nina Hoss, Ina Weisse’s sophomore feature follows a woman trapped in the pursuit of success and abandoning her family. A famous actress with an extended career in German television, Ina Weisse made her first foray into screenwriting and directing with the award-winning feature drama The Architect in 2008. The Audition is Weisse’s sophomore film and had its world premiere in the Discovery section at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival. Anna Bronsky (Nina Hoss) is a violin teacher in a high school for musicians in Berlin. She’s married to French violin maker Philippe (Simon Abkarian) and together they have a 10-year-old son, Jonas (Serafin Mishiev), who also attends the same school. Her relationship with her husband seems to be crumbling, and Anna is looking for new challenges in her rather dull family and professional life. During the school’s annual admission exams, Anna becomes fascinated with.

A scene early in German actress-turned-filmmaker Ina Weisse’s second feature, The Audition, is indicative both of its heroine’s slippery psychology and the slippery nature of the movie itself: Anna, a music teacher and violinist played by the superb Nina Hoss (Barbara, Phoenix), is having dinner at a restaurant with her French husband, Philippe (Simon Abkarian). Before the two can even sit down, she asks him to change tables, and then she switches up her drink order a few times. Then she harasses the waiter about the menu, finally chooses something she likes, only to change her mind again, and then ...

A scene early in German actress-turned-filmmaker Ina Weisse’s second feature, The Audition, is indicative both of its heroine’s slippery psychology and the slippery nature of the movie itself: Anna, a music teacher and violinist played by the superb Nina Hoss (Barbara, Phoenix), is having dinner at a restaurant with her French husband, Philippe (Simon Abkarian). Before the two can even sit down, she asks him to change tables, and then she switches up her drink order a few times. Then she harasses the waiter about the menu, finally chooses something she likes, only to change her mind again, and then ...

In his book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell asserted that 10,000 hours of focused practice is the key to achieving top-flight expertise in any field. It’s a convenient and easy-to-package theory, but the “10,000 Rule” hardly accounts for the standards demanded by the characters in Ina Weisse’s sophomore feature effort, “The Audition.” The austere and chilly picture presents an equally austere and chilly chamber orchestra ensemble who don’t necessarily act like real humans; instead, they are embodiments of varying levels of emotional cruelty that eventually manifest into a shocking conclusion.

Continue reading ‘The Audition’: Musical Rivalries Should Never Be This Dreary, Exhausting, & Predictable [Tiff Review] at The Playlist.

German actor-director Ina Weisse brings a sense of quiet severity to her latest film The Audition, which intimately follows Anna (Nina Hoss), a violin instructor at a high school that specializes in gifted musicians, as she begins to project her own thwarted potential onto her new pupil Alexander (newcomer Ilja Monti) and finds herself so invested in his success that her anxieties and resentments about resigning herself to a life of mundane normalcy bubble to the surface and soon infect her relationships with everyone around her.

It’s a simple, not particularly innovative idea—think Whiplash but with the Pov reversed and less overt psychological warfare—however it does strike a very interesting dynamic between Anna and her husband (Simon Abkarian). He used to be a promising musician as well but in his age has grown to accept his role as not just a humble luthier who takes pride in his craft,...

Variety has been given exclusive access to the first teaser for German actor-turned-director Ina Weisse’s second behind-the-camera feature “The Audition,” world premiering at the Toronto Film Festival Discovery section on Sunday afternoon.

The film stars Germany’s internationally acclaimed Nina Hoss as a highly strung violin teacher still suffering under the yoke of her own overbearing parents even into middle age, and years after her mother has passed. When the gifted teacher gets a new student, full of talent but lacking in technique, it puts a strain on her relationship with her own son, a gifted violin player in his own right, and pushes her need for perfection to abusive levels. Meanwhile, things become further strained at home as a new rival for her romantic attention emerges.

In the teaser, we are introduced to Anna (Hoss) and her student prodigy Alexander, as well as a one of the extreme...

Standing out in the French sales agent’s Toronto line-up is German director Ina Weisse’s second feature film, which will then go on to battle it out in competition at San Sebastián. The international sales team (led by Alice Lesort) of Parisian outfit Les Films du Losange (directed by Margaret Ménégoz) are heading for the 44th Toronto International Film Festival (running 5 to 15 September), pinning their hopes on The Audition, among others, by Germany’s Ina Weisse, which will have its world premiere in Canada on 8 September within the Discovery section of the Festival, before travelling on to compete in the 67th San Sebastian International Film Festival (20 to 28 September).This second feature film by the actress, following on from The Architect (screened at the 2009 Berlinale within the German Cinema line-up), brings together German star Nina Hoss, France’s Simon Abkarian, Ilja Monti, Serafin Mishiev and Denmark’s Jens Albinus. Written.

‘The Australian Dream.’

Daniel Gordon’s The Australian Dream and Ben Lawrence’s Hearts and Bones will have their international premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In addition, Eva Orner’s Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator will be among 25 titles in the Tiff Docs section, along with The Australian Dream.

Good Thing Productions and Passion Pictures’ The Australian Dream opened the Melbourne International Film Festival. Written by Stan Grant, the film looks at race, identity and belonging from the perspective of former Sydney Swans captain and Indigenous rights activist Adam Goodes.

In 2013 Goodes sparked a national conversation about racism after requesting a 13-year-old Collingwood supporter be removed from the ground after calling him an “ape.”

Madman Entertainment will launch the film on 100—plus screens on August 22.

Lawrence’s debut feature Hearts and Bones, which had its world premiere at the Sydney Film Festival, will screen in the Discovery program.

Produced...

The Toronto Film Festival has revealed this year’s lineups for its documentary, Midnight Madness, Discovery and retro Cinematheque sections, adding movies from Alex Gibney, Barbara Kopple, Bryce Dallas Howard, Richard Stanley and Ali LeRoi to the 2019 fest that kicks off next month.

Tiff Docs’ 25 pics kicks off with the world premiere of Feras Fayyad’s The Cave, about an underground hospital led by a female doctor in war-torn Syria. Also in the mix is Kopple’s Desert One, chronicling a perilous mission to rescue hostages in Iran, and Gibney’s Citizen K, profiling the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Meanwhile, the genre lineup of Midnight Madness includes Richard Stanley’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptation Color Out of Space, which stars Nicolas Cage and brings the director back to the section after 29 years, and Takashi Miike’s Japanese action-comedy First Love.

The Discovery section will open with Chiara Malta’s Simple Women,...

Line-up also includes films by Louise Archambault, Guillaume Nicloux, José Luis Torres Leiva, Ina Weisse, Adilkhan Yerzhanov and David Zonana.

The San Sebastian film festival (September 20-28) has announced seven more titles that will compete for the 2019 Golden Shell award.

They include the long-delayed Zeroville directed by James Franco, who won the Golden Shell in 2017 for The Disaster Artist, and films by Louise Archambault, Guillaume Nicloux, José Luis Torres Leiva, Ina Weisse, Adilkhan Yerzhanov and David Zonana.

Zeroville is based on Steve Erickson’s novel about the changing Hollywood of the late 60s and stars Franco, Megan Fox, Seth Rogen,...

James Franco, who won the Golden Shell 2 years ago, will be vying for the prize once again, going head to head with filmmakers such as France’s Guillaume Nicloux and German actress-director Ina Weisse. This morning, the 67th San Sebastián International Film Festival, which will unspool in the beautiful Basque city between 20 and 28 September this year, announced a slew of new titles. These films have thus been added to those included in the announcements made a few days ago, such as the latest outings by Alejandro Aménabar and the trio behind Giant (see the news). Standing out among the new additions is Us actor-director James Franco, who won the Golden Shell in 2017 with The Disaster Artist. He is back with Zeroville, a movie about the tumultuous 1960s in Hollywood, starring the director himself together with his usual posse of actors, headed up by his brother Dave Franco...

Madrid — James Franco’s “Zeroville,” Louise Archambault’s “And The Birds Rained Down” and José Luis Torres Leiva’s “Death Will Come And Shall Have Your Eyes” will compete for San Sebastian’s Golden Shell, the Spanish festival announced Friday.

Further new main competition titles unveiled take in Guillaume Nicloux’s “Thalasso,” Ina Weisse’s “The Audition,” Adilkhan Yerzhanov’s “A Dark-Dark Man,” and Mexican debutant director David Zonana’s “Workforce.”

The seven titles join three already-announced Spanish competition contenders: Alejandro Amenábar’s “While At War,” Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga’s “The Endless Trench” and Belén Funes’ “A Thief’s Daughter.”

Playing out-of-competition will be “Heroic Losers,” , starring and co-produced by Ricardo Darín, which receives a Special Screening, and Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo’s “Diecisiete,” marking the first time a Netflix Original Film makes San Sebastian’s Official Selection cut.

After winning the Golden Shell in 2017 with “The Disaster Artist,...

Project is a contemporary re-telling of Henry James’ novella.

Les Films du Losange has boarded sales and distribution on director Patric Chiha’s French-language adaptation of the Henry James novella The Beast In The Jungle (La Bête Dans La Jungle).

Chiha’s contemporary re-telling of James’ cautionary tale about a man who withdraws from life as he awaits an imagined, future catastrophic event is due to shoot this winter for delivery in 2020.

French actor Gaspard Ulliel has signed on to play the tale’s protagonist opposite Luxembourgian actress Vicky Krieps as the woman who loves him and also gives up...

German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmark made a splash in the foreign language box office over a decade ago with The Lives of Others, which took the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. He is back again with Sony Pictures Classics for Never Look Away, which is also vying for Oscar this year. Also out in theaters beginning Friday is Greenwich Entertainment’s WWII-era drama, The Invisibles, which was the first pick up for the company back in 2017. And on a decidedly different note, Cinedigm is mixing camp and horror with Dead Ant starring Tom Arnold and Sean Astin.

Also this weekend, Focus Features is taking Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman back to theaters following its six Oscar nominations. The company said the film, which grossed over $48.5M in its initial run in theaters starting last August, will play 168 theaters around the country beginning Friday. Said Focus president Lisa Bunnell, “We...

Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor) director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on Martha's (Ina Weisse) marriage to the monstrous Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), father to Ellie (Paula Beer): "You can sense she has a different spirit but yet she is so subjugated by everything that she can't even dare to live it."

Elements from Gerhard Richter’s life story inspired the role of Kurt Barnert, played by Generation War and Jan Ole Gerster's Oh Boy (aka A Coffee In Berlin) star, Tom Schilling, in the latest film from the director/screenwriter of the Oscar-winning The Lives Of Others. In Never Look Away (Werk Ohne Autor), Germany's Oscar submission for the 91st Academy Awards, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck sets the bar far higher for himself than he did for his Hollywood misfire The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (with Anne-Katrin Titze) on his...

Never Look Away (Werk ohne Autor) Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Cast: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Cai Cohrs, Oliver Masucci, Ina Weisse, Rainer Bock, Johanna Gastdorf, Jeanette Hain, Hinnerk Schönemann, Florian Bartholomäi,Hans-Uwe Bauer, Jörg Schüttauf, Ben Becker, Lars Eidinger […]

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