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Major figures from the Austrian film industry have come together to protest at proposed cuts to the Austria’s production incentive amid fears that this would lead to “destruction of the industry”, “massive increase in unemployment” and “permanent damage to a whole culturalsector”.

Directors Jessica Hausner and Marie Kreutzer (who both participated in the Investors Circle initiative in Cannes with new projects), Barbara Albert, Stefan Ruzowitzky and Ulrich Seidl are among the signatories of an open letter orgainsed by 17 industry associations protesting at the Austrian government’s plan to slash the ÖFI+ incentive’s annual budget from €22m to €15.5m...

An adaptation of Nicholas Hogg’s novel Tokyo, Jordan Scott’s sophomore directorial “A Sacrifice” has all the indications of competent filmmaking. The production design is neat and stately, and the pace is quite brisk. However, the very center of the film is caught up in a mesh of major screenwriting issues. Scott, who has also written the adapted screenplay, seems to have been trapped in key, critical areas of the plot, which she entirely dispenses with in a hasty rush of information, intercutting between various perspectives in the climactic stretch.

The rush and scramble of providing detailed backstories all at once at a juncture in the film that’s simply too late comes off as an effort to purely cushion the ‘big twist’ in the tale. While the predictability of it is up for debate, the twist considerably sacrifices facets of characterization, pulping previously established parameters so as to achieve a swift landing.

Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Östlund’s next film The Entertainment System Is Down has been awarded €500,000 in production support from Berlin-Brandenburg’s regional film fund.

It is one of 30 feature films and series projects, from directors such as David Wnendt and Ulrike Ottinger, to share more than €7.2m in Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb)’s latest funding round.

Phlippe Bober’s Berlin-based Essential Filmproduktion received the €500,000 for Östlund’s second English-language production The Entertainment System Is Down, starring Daniel Brühl, Kirsten Dunst and Keanu Reeves. The long gestating project is set on a long-haul flight whose inflight entertainment system breaks down.

It has been over a dozen years in the making. We can confirm that Isabelle Huppert has indeed remained on board, so has Sophie Rois, and they will be surrounded by Birgit Minichmayr (of Everyone Else fame) and Huppert’s About Joan co-star in Lars Eidinger in Ulrike Ottinger’s long-gestating The Blood Countess. At eighty-two years young, the German filmmaker has been receiving some much needed pre-production coin support as of late and just landed another round of coin via German funding bodies Film und Medienstiftung Nrw, Fff Bayern and Hessen Film & Medien. Tilda Swinton, Udo Kier and Irm Hermann (who passed away in 2020) were once mentioned way back in 2010.…...

Three German regional film funds - Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw, Fff Bayern and Hessen Film & Medien - have allocated more than €12m to new film and TV series projects in their latest funding sessions.

The fifth and final season of Babylon Berlin, scheduled to start production this autumn, received the largest sum of €2m from the funding committee of Düsseldorf-based Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw.

In total, the fund distributed €5.3m to 12 projects including Coin Film’s production of writer-director Jutta Brückner’s drama The Assistant, starring Corinna Harfouch and Sandra Hüller; Heimatfilm and Amour Fou’s co-production of Ulrike Ottinger...

A Sacrifice features a cult conspiracy involving bizarre Berlin suicides, but fails to deliver a cohesive and believable narrative due to poor execution and rushed pacing. The film's cult aspect is creepy, but lacks depth in exploring why characters like Mazzy and Martin fall under the leader's spell. A Sacrifice sabotages itself with an early reveal, defanging its mystery element and leaving the audience waiting for the oblivious characters to catch up.

In A Sacrifice, a famed psychological profiler investigating bizarre Berlin suicides unwittingly involves his visiting teenage daughter in a cult's sadistic conspiracy. A Sacrifice ticks every box on the twisted thriller checklist but fails to bring the pieces together in a cohesive and believable way. The film wastes a solid cast, decent performances, and an initially compelling narrative with poor execution. The pacing and editorial decisions add up to a rushed runtime that never lets any part of A Sacrifice take hold.

As she gets set to release her second movie, A Sacrifice, in theaters this weekend, Jordan Scott (IFC’s Cracks) recalls the best advice she received from her father, Sir Ridley Scott, from one director to another.

“I’m very lucky that I can pick up the phone and ask his advice on anything and I’m going to get the best answer. And his advice on everything is just: Preparation. Preparation. Preparation,’” Scott tells The Hollywood Reporter.

Inspired by Nicholas Hogg’s 2015 novel Tokyo, A Sacrifice from Scott Free Productions follows American social psychologist Ben Monroe (Eric Bana) as he investigates a local cult connected to a disturbing event in the German capital. While he immerses himself into his work, his rebellious teenage daughter, Mazzy (Sadie Sinke), gets involved with a mysterious local boy who introduces her to the city’s underground party scene. As these two worlds head towards an intersection,...

A Sacrifice, directed by Jordan Scott, has an overstuffed story with four interconnected storylines that struggle to balance each other. The film's production design is impressive, showcasing unique and lived-in settings in Berlin, but the storytelling suffers from confusing flashbacks and contrivances. A Sacrifice, based on the novel Tokyo, could have benefited from focusing on one storyline, as the current setup leaves the ending unsatisfying and melodramatic.

A Sacrifice (2024) is the second full-length film from director Jordan Scott, daughter of the venerable Sir Ridley Scott, and her first movie in 15 years. Maybe she was off in Berlin like the lead of her movie, Ben Monroe (Eric Bana), a psychologist, novelist, and university professor. He, however, is not a therapist, as he pointedly delineates to German forensic investigator and love interest, Nina (Sylvia Hoeks). It's too bad he isn't, because just about every character in this meandering, often confusing, tale could...

“We’re all so fucked, right.” So says Mazzy (Sadie Sink), a young woman visiting her father Ben (Eric Bana). This observation matches the dreadful tone of the film as a whole. Titled A Sacrifice, written and directed by Jordan Scott and inspired by Nicholas Hogg’s novel Tokyo, this is a small-scale psychological thriller informed by the loneliness of the coming climate apocalypse and comforting allure of group-think.

Bana plays Ben Monroe, a social psychologist who’s moved from his family to Berlin, following a separation with his wife. He’s made a small name for himself from research on cults and their influence. As he prepares to write a new book, his old cop friend Max (Stephan Kampwirth) and Max’s partner Nina (Sylvia Hoeks) bring him along to a crime scene wherein a small group of people appear to have participated in a ritualistic suicide. Days later,...

A teenage girl visiting her father in Berlin is unwittingly targeted by a cult that's also secretly manipulating him in the new film, A Sacrifice. The movie stars Eric Bana as Ben, a famed author and psychological profiler investigating a bizarre series of ritualistic suicides. Sadie Sink co-stars as Mazzy, his rebellious daughter who's furious at being ignored while he's consumed by the mystery. They both miss warning signs and become ensnared in a sinister plot with horrific consequences.

A tense argument in the film has Mazzy questioning if her father's really paying attention or cares about her. It's a hurtful comment, but does have legitimacy given what happens. Bana believes his character "loves his daughter to death" but he's also "vulnerable" and in need of "love himself." Sink gives her character more latitude because she's duped and exploited when she meets "a boy in an everyday situation" that's "what...

Plot: American social psychologist Ben Monroe investigates a local cult connected to a disturbing event, while his daughter becomes embroiled with a mysterious local boy.

Review: I love it when a film comes out of nowhere and manages to impress without a big budget or marketing campaign. Usually, it’s reserved for the festival circuit. But with so many films released every month, whether it’s in theaters or on streaming services, the likelihood has never been greater. And with leads like Eric Bana and Sadie Sink to help intrigue audiences, I think few will expect the wonderful character study that follows. Because as much as this is about a modern cult and its ill intentions, A Sacrifice very much focuses on the people involved and how they would get to such a place.

I’ve always enjoyed Eric Bana and he’s perfect here as Ben Monroe, an American psychologist living in Germany.

An academic’s visiting teenage daughter falls under the sway of a sinister cult connected to his own research in “A Sacrifice.” Suspended between straightforward thriller and something loftier, Jordan Scott’s sophomore feature — headlined by Sadie Sink and Eric Bana — is a slick but unsatisfying narrative muddle. It has the feel of a literary adaptation that doesn’t quite translate to a different medium: While the individual thematic elements are intriguing enough, they just don’t come together on screen in sufficiently coherent or atmospheric form. The result is a movie that ultimately falls short on both suspense and ideas, though it remains watchable enough. Vertical is releasing to U.S. theaters on June 28.

Other territories will be seeing it under the title “Berlin Nobody,” while English author Nicholas Hogg’s source novel was called (and is set in) “Tokyo.” So one can safely assume Scott, whose career has...

It has been some time since viewers last saw Stranger Things star Sadie Sink on-screen. Last appearing in Brendan Fraser's big comeback film The Whale, Sink has been hard at work with the rest of the cast in Hawkins on the massive final season of the hit 80s-soaked horror series. However, she'll grace theaters again this month thanks to the new psychological thriller A Sacrifice and Collider has an exclusive sneak peek at her role in the movie. The footage sees her come face-to-face with Enemy At the Gates star Sophie Rois, who gives her an unsettling briefing about what her group stands for.

New thriller A Sacrifice features Sadie Sink and Eric Bana in a gritty story of cults and family drama. A Sacrifice is based on the novel Tokyo Nobody by Nicholas Hogg, and finds Ridley Scott producing with his daughter, Jordan Scott, directing. Sink also stars in the final season of Stranger Things, set to debut in 2025.

Stranger Things star Sadie Sink joins forces with Dirty John and Troy star Eric Bana in the new trailer for A Sacrifice, an upcoming thriller from director Jordan Scott, the daughter of renowned filmmaker and Academy Award nominee, Ridley Scott. Coming courtesy of Vertical, A Sacrifice finds Bana as a psychiatrist who must save his daughter from the clutches of a cult.

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Alongside the trailer, you can check out the official synopsis for A Sacrifice below.

Inspired by Nicholas Hoggs 2015 novel Tokyo Nobody, A Sacrifice is...

Vertical has unveiled the official trailer for the cult thriller A Sacrifice. The trailer sees Stranger Things' Sadie Sink falling deeper and deeper under the thrall of a dangerous cult. The movie could be the next step toward Sink becoming a bona fide scream queen.

The trailer for A Sacrifice pits Stranger Things star Sadie Sink against a killer cult. The upcoming movie, which is set to premiere in theaters on June 28, was written and directed by Jordan Scott, who made her directorial debut in 2009 with the independent movie Cracks starring Eva Green and Juno Temple. In addition to Sink, her newest project stars Troy's Eric Bana, Blade Runner 2049's Sylvia Hoeks, The Golden Glove's Jonas Dassler, Enemy at the Gates' Sophie Rois, and Stephan Kampwirth, who provided the German voice for Milo in Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire.

Vertical has now unveiled the official trailer for A Sacrifice.

What sacrifices would you make for your job, your family, your lover…or even your sanity?

The trailer for writer/director Jordan Scott’s “A Sacrifice” propels audiences into a twisted game of untangling the motivations for a father-daughter duo caught on the periphery of a cult. Inspired by Nicholas Hogg’s 2015 novel “Tokyo Nobody,” the feature follows American social-psychologist Ben Monroe (Eric Bana) who is investigating a local Berlin cult connected to disturbing events.

While he immerses himself in his work, his rebellious teenage daughter, Mazzy (Sadie Sink), becomes embroiled with a mysterious local boy (Jonas Dassler) who introduces her to the city’s underground party scene. As their two worlds head toward a dangerous intersection, Ben must race against the clock to save his family.

Sylvia Hoeks, Sophie Rois, Stephan Kampwirth, and Lara Feith co-star.

The ever-prolific auteur Ridley Scott produces the film, along with Michael Pruss, Jonas Katzenstein,...

"Untangle yourself from your parents... the sooner you stop relying on them, the more powerful you will be." What kind of cult is this? Vertical has revealed an official trailer for an indie thriller titled A Sacrifice, a cult drama set in Berlin. This is the latest film directed by Ridley Scott's daughter Jordan Scott, following her feature debut Cracks from back in 2009. American social psychologist Ben Monroe investigates a local cult connected to a disturbing event, while his daughter becomes entangled with a mysterious boy. While he immerses himself in his work trying to understand what is going on with this mysterious cult, his rebellious teen daughter, Mazzy, ends up embroiled with this German boy and another strange woman. Starring Eric Bana, Sadie Sink, Jonas Dassler, Sylvia Hoeks, Sophie Rois, Stephan Kampwirth, & Lara Feith. It's "inspired by" a book that was originally set in Tokyo, however they shifted the location to Berlin instead,...

Vertical has dropped the new trailer for A Sacrifice, a thriller starring Eric Bana as a social psychologist who begins investigating a cult in Berlin as his rebellious daughter (Sadie Sink) gets drawn into its clutches.

The official synopsis reads, “A Sacrifice is an emotionally turbulent story that follows American social psychologist Ben Monroe (Bana), who is investigating a local Berlin cult connected to disturbing events. While he immerses himself in his work, his rebellious teenage daughter, Mazzy (Sink), becomes embroiled with a mysterious local boy who introduces her to the city’s underground party scene. As their two worlds head toward a dangerous intersection, Ben will need to race against the clock in order to save his daughter.“

In addition to Eric Bana and Sadie Sink, A Sacrifice also stars Sylvia Hoeks, Jonas Dassler, Sophie Rois, Stephan Kampwirth, and Lara Feith. Based on the novel Tokyo Nobody by Nicholas Hogg,...

“A Sacrifice” is a new crime thriller feature, written and directed by Jordan Scott, starring Sadie Sink (“Stranger Things”), Eric Bana, Sylvia Hoeks, Jonas Dassler, Sophie Rois, Stephan Kampwirth and Lara Feith, opening June 28, 2024 in theaters:

“…American social psychologist ‘Ben Monroe’ investigates a Berlin-based cult connected to disturbing events.

“While he immerses himself in his work, his rebellious teenage daughter, ‘Mazzy’. becomes embroiled with a mysterious local boy who introduces her to the city’s underground party scene.

“As their two worlds head toward a dangerous intersection, Ben will need to race against the clock in order to save his daughter…”

Click the images to enlarge…...

Exclusive: Vertical has closed a North American rights deal for A Sacrifice, writer-director Jordan Scott’s gripping thriller. The film, originally titled Berlin Nobody, is from Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions and augenschein Filmproduktion.

A Sacrifice stars Eric Bana (Black Hawk Down), Sadie Sink (Stranger Things & The Whale), Sylvia Hoeks (Blade Runner 2049), Jonas Dassler, Sophie Rois, Stephan Kampwirth, and La­­ra Feith. Vertical will release the film exclusively in theaters on June 28.

Inspired by Nicholas Hogg’s 2015 novel Tokyo Nobody, A Sacrifice follows American social psychologist Ben Monroe (Bana) who is investigating a local Berlin cult connected to disturbing events. While he immerses himself in his work, his rebellious teenage daughter, Mazzy (Sink), becomes embroiled with a mysterious local boy who introduces her to the city’s underground party scene. As their two worlds head toward a dangerous intersection, Ben will need to race against the clock in order to save his daughter.

Exclusive: Fresh off strong notices for Darren Aronofsky’s Venice Film Festival drama The Whale, Stranger Things star Sadie Sink has been tapped to star with Eric Bana (Munich) and Sylvia Hoeks (Blade Runner 2049) in thriller Berlin Nobody, which got underway in the German capital today.

Rising German actor Jonas Dassler — who got his breakthrough as a 1970s murderer in Fatih Akin’s Berlin title The Golden Glove — and Sophie Rois (Tom Tykwer’s Drei and Der Architekt) have also joined the cast of Jordan Scott’s movie about American ex-pat and social psychologist Ben Monroe (Bana) who relocates to Berlin to further his research on the epidemic of cult mentality. While he immerses himself in German cultism, his rebellious teenage daughter, Mazzy (Sink), becomes entwined with a mysterious and enigmatic local boy (Dassler). The film is inspired by Nicholas Hogg’s 2015 novel Tokyo.

Produced by Scott Free’s...

The Consonants of Love: Krebitz Gets Caught in an Odd Romance

“It all begins with A,” so begins the omniscient third-person narration of Anna, an actress in her sixties played by the captivating Sophie Rois. It suggests an obvious pattern of themes to come in the ungainly titled Aeiou – A Quick Alphabet of Love (Aeiou — Das schnelle alphabet der liebe), the fourth feature from director Nicolette Krebitz, who seems to revel in characters forced to reinvent themselves through unexpected romantic connections. To her credit, Krebitz ends up delivering something completely unpredictable, though it’s a film clogged with choices which range from magical to agonizingly unpleasant.…...

The title is a bit misleading in German writer-director Nicolette Krebitz’s offbeat romantic comedy “Aeiou — A Quick Alphabet of Love.” Despite its promise of deeper meaning attached to all the vowels in the alphabet, it’s ‘A’ on which it fixates: Said aloud and elongated, we are told, the first letter vocalizes a spectrum of feeling ranging from primal need to sharp pain to orgasmic release. Sure enough, all are present in this unpredictable tale of mutual misfit attraction between a juvenile delinquent and the middle-aged actor whose role in his life shifts from mentor to mother to lover. It’s difficult, prickly material that “Aeiou” handles with a light touch, even as the narrative lurches recklessly across genres into flighty caper territory.

Marked by a gentle deadpan drollness that occasionally blossoms into fanciful romanticism, this an altogether less intense proposition than Krebitz’s last feature, the Sundance-selector 2016 psychodrama “Wild,...

It’s not your regular meet-cute. Anna Moth (Sophie Rois) an actress recognized by people in the street but apparently unable to get work — “everyone knows she’s mental,” says a fellow actor after she extracts herself from his grip during the recording of a clearly low-rent radio play — gets mugged in the street outside a smart bar by a young man. He takes her handbag while a spunky young woman who sees the whole incident chases after him and gets the bag back, minus the wallet. Anna, meanwhile, is recovering her composure inside the bar, diva-style.

“No more than a kid, really,” she says when describing the incident to Michel (Udo Kier), her landlord, benefactor, confidante and possibly number-one fan. What was he wearing? “A leather jacket. I could smell it.” Michel throws his head back, closes his eyes and sniffs theatrically. “The perfect combination,” he sighs. And there...

The complete lineup for the 2022 Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 10-20, 2022, has been unveiled and it’s a major collection of some of our most-anticipated films of the year. As teased yesterday, Claire Denis’ Fire (which now has the title Avec amour et acharnement (aka Both Sides of the Blade)) will premiere in competition, alongside Hong Sangsoo’s The Novelist’s Film, Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 follow-up Alcarràs, Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini, Rithy Panh’s Everything Will Be Ok, and more.

Elsewhere in the festival is Bertrand Bonello’s Coma, Dario Argento’s Dark Glasses, Andrew Dominik’s Nick Cave & Warren Ellis doc This Much I Know To Be True, Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet, Gastón Solnicki’s A Little Love Package, Quentin Dupieux’s Incredible But True, plus new shorts by Lucrecia Martel, Hlynur Pálmason, and more. Also recently announced was the Panorama section, which will open...

International sales company The Match Factory has revealed its Berlin Film Festival lineup, including two titles in Competition: “A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love” by Nicolette Krebitz and “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush” by Andreas Dresen.

The Match Factory, which was acquired by Mubi last week, has three films in the shortlist for the International Feature Film Oscar: “Great Freedom,” “Drive My Car” and “Prayers for the Stolen.”

After the irreverent “Wild,” which premiered at Sundance in 2016, Krebitz is back with a new take on love in “A E I O U – A Quick Alphabet of Love.”

The film follows an actress who is mugged in front of a trendy bar in West Berlin. Barging into her, a young man takes her handbag and runs off into the night. A short while later, they meet again. She is Anna (Sophie Rois) and he is Adrian...

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival (February 10-20) revealed its Competition line-up on Wednesday, scroll down for the full list.

As previously announced, the International Competition opens this year with François Ozon’s Peter Von Kant. Joining the Ozon pic today were 17 further features, including new films from Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis, Ulrich Seidl, and Rithy Panh.

This marks Denis’ first time in Berlin’s Competition, having been a regular at Cannes over the years, while her last film High Life debuted at Toronto. The director’s new movie Both Sides of the Blade (previously known as Fire) stars Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon.

South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo picked up the Silver Bear for Best Director in 2020 for movie The Woman Who Ran. His latest pic is The Novelist’s Film, which Berlin Artistic Director today said celebrates chance encounters.

The Competition program is 17 world premieres plus one international premiere,...

Films by auteurs Claire Denis, Hong Sangsoo and Rithy Panh are part of the lineup in competition at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival.

Berlin’s 2022 selection spans 18 movies, seven directed by women, which will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears. The films originate from 15 countries, with 17 serving as world premieres. Two of the films are first features, both from women.

Artistic director Carlo Chatrian discussed the thematic throughline of “human and emotional bonds” across the selection, with the family unit serving as a key focal point in a number of movies. More than half are set in the present time, and two are within the pandemic era.

The festival hosts 12 returning filmmakers, eight of whom are in competition and five of whom already hold a Bear from Berlin.

The festival will go ahead as an in-person event, albeit with seating capacity in movie theaters reduced to 50% and without any parties or receptions.

Forum adds 10 more titles; Classics includes Godard, Pasolini, Russell.

New films from Jonathan Perel and Max Linz are among 17 new titles added to the Forum section at the 2022 Berlinale; while the Classics section has programmed seven digitally restored titles ahead of next month’s festival.

Argentinian filmmaker Jonathan Perel will participate with the world premiere of documentary Camouflage, about a writer who embodies a man with an obsession with Argentina’s biggest military unit.

Perel’s previous films include Berlinale 2020 title Corporate Responsibility.

German director Linz is in the festival with the world premiere of his new film L’Etat Et Moi,...

Spanish Horror

Two of Spain’s highest-profile upcoming horror titles got release dates and trailers today, David Casademunt’s “El páramo” (formerly “La bestia”) at Netflix and Amazon Prime Video’s horror anthology “Historias para no dormir.”

“El páramo” is the highly anticipated feature debut of award-winning short filmmaker Casademunt, and boasts a small yet star-filled cast including Inma Cuesta (“The Bride”), Roberto Álamo (“The Skin I Live In”) and Asier Flores (“Pain and Glory”). The film is set in an isolated cabin where a family of three are visited by a terrible monster which threatens the ties that bind them. It will world premiere on Oct. 11 at the Sitges Film Festival and hit Netflix worldwide on Jan. 26, 2022. Rodar y Rodar produces.

Amazon Prime Video and Spanish broadcaster Rtve’s reboot of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador’s legendary Spanish horror anthology series “Historias para no dormir” will hit the streaming platform on Nov.

Projects to receive funding include Joachim Hedén’s Breaking Surface and Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch.

New projects by Komplizen Film, augenschein Filmproduktion, X Filme and Gaumont are among 16 films and TV series awarded a total of more than €9.6m ($11.5m) in production funding by North Rhine-Westphalia’s regional film fund Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw in its first funding session of 2021.

The largest single award to a feature, €1m ($1.19m), went to augenschein Filmproduktion’s English-language survival drama The Dive, based on Swedish writer-director Joachim Hedén’s Breaking Surface, which will be directed by Maximilian Erlenwein in Sardinia and Germany later this year.

Six series will play in the festival with 10 titles in the Market.

A new anthology series titled This Is Music from directors including Wim Wenders and David Byrne is one of 10 international projects selected for the Co-Pro Series section of the Berlinale Co-Production Market 2021 (March 2-5).

The Berlinale Series has also selected six series to play in the online festival, which runs from March 1-5.

Scroll down for full list of Co-Pro Series, Berlinale Series and Series Market Selects titles

Produced by Norway’s Oslo Pictures, anthology series This Is Music is created by Bjørn Olaf Johannessen, who wrote Wenders...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the six titles that will take part in the latest edition of Berlinale Series. The shows will screen online during the first week of March when the European Film Market runs, and the team are currently discussing plans for presenting some of the shows during the festival’s planned summer event.

The line-up includes Philly D.A., the strand’s first docuseries, which follows the most controversial District Attorney in the U.S. and will arrive from its premiere at Sundance. Deadline recently revealed that Dogwoof has boarded the project, which comes from Oscar-nominated duo Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald.

Latin American TV will be represented for the first time with two titles: Amongst Men (Entre Hombres), an Argentinian HBO production, and The Last Days of Gilda (Os últimos dias de Gilda) from Canal Brazil.

Russell T Davies’ drama set during the AIDS crisis,...

This year’s Berlinale Series has announced the section’s lineup of six titles.

The TV arm of the festival, which is being held online this year due to the pandemic, said the shows reflect “unconventional and surprising topics, narratives and visual style [that] comprise a mirror of our time.”

Latin American content is represented for the first time with the Argentinian HBO production “Entre hombres” (Amongst Men) and “Os últimos dias de Gilda” (The Last Days of Gilda) from Brazil. “Philly D.A.,” a U.S. production by Oscar-nominated duo Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, is the first documentary series to be invited into the program.

Separately, the Berlinale Series Market and Conference, the industry platform which is part of the European Film Market, has announced a newly created special label called “Berlinale Series Market Selects” that highlights series with high commercial potential within the “Berlinale Series Market” screenings.

Berlinale...

Selection includes TV series from UK, Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Israel and Denmark.

The Berlin International Film Festival (February 7 – 17) has unveiled the seven TV titles set to be screened in this year’s Berlinale Series programme.

Among the line-up is Amazon’s Hanna written by David Farr, who co-wrote the 2011 film of the same name. It is directed by Sarah Adina Smith, whose film credits include Buster Mal’s Heart, which starred Rami Malek. Hanna stars Esmé Creed-Miles, Joel Kinnaman and Mireille Enos. NBCUniversal International Studios is producing alongside Working Title Television.

Also in the selection is Netflix’s first Swedish original series Quicksand,...

Author: Emily Breen

Anyone who has spent more than five minutes in the company of a preschooler has cursed Peppa Pig. Flipping the pig the bird is pretty much a parental right of passage. Along with indelibly imprinting every word of The Gruffalo on your long term memory and continuing to prefix farm animal names with the sound they make, irrespective of whether children are in earshot. Happily, for the former at least, revenge is within your grasp…

Illustrator Ted Sieger’s Molly Monster comes to the big screen this weekend with a monstrously sweet and refreshingly simple story to tell. Molly’s primary coloured, clockwork world is about to be rocked by the arrival of a brand new sibling. The sensible sister-to-be sets to work knitting a cosy hat to help her process the big news and welcome the new baby. Her wind-up pal Edison is not to be so easily won over.

Exclusive: Features from Sandra Nettelbeck, Thomas Stuber, Caroline Link and Burhan Qurbani on slate for German outfit.

New features by Sandra Nettelbeck, Thomas Stuber, Burhan Qurbani and Oscar-winner Caroline Link are being lined up by the Ludwigsburg/Berlin-based production company Sommerhaus Filmproduktion, which was launched by producers Jochen Laube and Fabian Maubach at the end of last year with Beta Film’s Jan Mojto as partner.

The first project to go into production this year will be the melancholic romantic comedy What Does Not Kill Us (Was Uns Nicht Umbringt) by writer-director Sandra Nettelbeck in August with a cast including August Zirner, Sophie Rois, Christian Berkel, Bjarne Mädel and Jenny Schily.

The German-language film will mark Nettelbeck’s return to filmmaking in Germany after working abroad for more than ten years on films including Helen and Mr. Morgan’s Last Love. It will also link to the director’s internationally successful romantic comedy Mostly Martha (Bella Martha) with...

The Decent One director Vanessa Lapa with producer Felix Breisach: "We were very focused on the age, the accent, the ability of entering a character and remain truthful to the text." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Vanessa Lapa's The Decent One (Der Anständige) is evocative and complex with the horror of disconnect, impossible to dismiss as it plays out. In New York, with producer Felix Breisach, we discussed the casting of letter and diary readers Tobias Moretti as Heinrich Himmler, Sophie Rois, Antonia Moretti, Lenz Moretti, Florentín Groll and Lotte Ledl as the Himmler family. We spoke about Marlene Dietrich singing as a marker of time, if Hannah Arendt's Banality of Evil works here and how the writings were obtained, transcribed and put on film.

Based on previously unseen family diaries, photographs and private letters found in Himmler's home in Gmund in 1945 by the Us Army, Lapa's documentary sheds harsh light on the Reichsführer-ss,...

That "Heini" was Margarete Himmler's pet name for Nazi husband Heinrich is the most memorable factoid in The Decent One, a biographical documentary that examines the Himmlers' marriage. By focusing on Margarete and Heinrich's relationship, director Vanessa Lapa purports to highlight the disconnect between the powerful SS leader's placid domestic life and genocidal public career. But the approach proves myopic; by emphasizing home movies and letters, Lapa fails to elucidate her hateful subject's actions. Actors Tobias Moretti and Sophie Rois read, off-camera, from decades' worth of Heinrich and Margarete's letters. Lapa only contextualizes this through intertitles offering a general historical timeline of events. Just before Margarete praises her son Puppi for following "...

Asia was the big winner at the 64th Berlin Film Festival, taking home four Bears, including the Golden Bear for Best Film and Silver Bear for Best Actor (Liao Fan) for Diao Yinan’s Black Coal, Thin Ice (Bai Ri Yan Huo).Click here for full list of winners

Another of the three Chinese titles, Blind Massage, picked up the Silver Bear for Outstanding Achievement, which again went to a cinematographer, Zeng Jian. Last year had seen DoP Aziz Zhambakiyev receive the prize for his camerawork on Harmony Lessons.

At the ceremony on Saturday night, the Silver Bear for Best Actress was presented to Haru Kuroki for her performance in The Little House by veteran Japanese director Yoji Yamada.

There were a further six prizes or special mentions for films from Asia in the decisions of the Generation and independent juries (Fipresci and Netpac).

Black Coal, Thin Ice is the fourth Chinese film to win the Golden...

Kim Basinger is set to play the lead role in Danish director Anders Morgenthaler's new English-language drama "Petit" at Zentropa Entertainments.

Basinger stars as Maria, a successful career woman who has just received the news that she is infertile.

She begins a desperate pursuit to adopt a child, her efforts leading her into the criminal underworld of infant prostitution in Eastern Europe.

Jordan Prentice, Peter Stormare, Sophie Rois and Sebastian Schipper co-star.

Marie Gade Denessen and Julie Lind-Holm are producing, and shooting has just begun on the project in Hamburg, Germany ahead of a 2014 release.

Source: THR...

Kim Basinger (pictured) stars.

Anders Morgenthaler has started shooting his new feature Petit in Hamburg.

For production details visit

Petit

Kim Basinger stars as a successful career woman who is desperate for a baby and is drawn into an underworld of abuse and brutality.

Morgenthaler, who previously directed films including Princess and Echo, makes his English-language debut.

The cast also features Jordan Prentice, Peter Stormare, Sebastian Schipper and Sophie Rois.

Producers Marie Gade Denessen and Julie Lind-Holm for Zentropa Entertainments32 ApS in co-production with Maria Köpf for Zentropa Entertainments Berlin GmbH, Jamila Wenske and Sol Bondy for One Two Films and executive produced by Peter Aalbæk Jensen for Zentropa and Peter Nadermann for Network Movie in cooperation with Zdf/Arte, Film i Väst, Morgenthaler Office, Copenhagen Bombay, Viking Brothers Entertainment and TV2/Denmark and with support from The Danish Film Institute, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and Dfff.

TrustNordisk handles international sales and the film will be readied for a 2014 release...

Kim Basinger (pictured) stars.

Anders Morgenthaler has started shooting his new feature Petit in Hamburg.

Kim Basinger stars as a successful career woman who is desperate for a baby and is drawn into an underworld of abuse and brutality.

Morgenthaler, who previously directed films including Princess and Echo, makes his English-language debut.

The cast also features Jordan Prentice, Peter Stormare, Sebastian Schipper and Sophie Rois.

Producers Marie Gade Denessen and Julie Lind-Holm for Zentropa Entertainments32 ApS in co-production with Maria Köpf for Zentropa Entertainments Berlin GmbH, Jamila Wenske and Sol Bondy for One Two Films and executive produced by Peter Aalbæk Jensen for Zentropa and Peter Nadermann for Network Movie in cooperation with Zdf/Arte, Film i Väst, Morgenthaler Office, Copenhagen Bombay, Viking Brothers Entertainment and TV2/Denmark and with support from The Danish Film Institute, Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein and Dfff.

TrustNordisk handles international sales and the film will be readied for a 2014 release.

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Things become complicated when two halves of a couple separately develop illicit interests in the same man.

Hanna (Sophie Rois) is in science marketing. She's also irritable and argumentative, which she puts down to the menopause, though she's also stressed because her relationship seems to have gone stale and her partner isn't giving her the sex she wants. So she picks a fight with visiting cell biologist Adam (Devid Striesow). One things leads to another. Before she knows it, she's having an affair.

Simon (Sebastian Schipper) is also frustrated. He has found it hard to tell...

DVD Release Date: Feb. 7, 2011

Price: DVD $27.99

Studio: Strand Releasing

Sebastian Schipper and Sophie Rois do a little celebrating in 3.

The 2010 foreign-language romantic comedy 3 is the latest film from Germany’s Tom Twyker, director of the sensational Run Lola Run and, more recently, The International.

The movie follows Hanna (Sophie Rois) and Simon (Sebastian Schipper), a couple in their early 40s who live together in Berlin. With their 20th anniversary looming, they both become restless despite being truly and deeply in love. Unbeknownst to one another, they separately become acquainted with Adam (Devid Striesow), a younger man whom they both fall in love with!

3 is tagged as “an intellectual study of a modern couple looking for redefinition in a world of absolutes” that nods to Hollywood’s screwball comedies of the 1930s.

The movie rolled out to theaters and film festivals across the world, including a limited theatrical run in the U.

Director: Tom Tykwer Writer: Tom Tykwer Starring: Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Devid Striesow, Annedore Kleist, Angela Winkler, Alexander Hörbe, Winnie Böwe, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Alexander Scheer, Karl Alexander Seidel During the opening split-screen montage, boxes multiply on the screen providing us with a menagerie of overlapping images and dialogue. Being that writer-director Tom Tykwer's 3 is in German (with English subtitles), it is difficult to make out everything that is being said. Even for native German-speakers, the barrage of sound and vision is probably a lot to consume at once; but the method of Tykwer's madness makes sense once we hear Hanna (Sophie Rois) -- in one of the split screen images -- complain to Simon (Sebastian Schipper) about her inability to follow the narrative of the film they are watching. Hanna's comment truly is a self-reflexive slap in the face. 3 has a lot to say about the over-saturation of content...

Tomas Alfredson's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, that showcase of contemporary British acting, has opened in the UK this weekend, and that roundup has been updated through today. The entry on Gus Van Sant's Restless has been updated with pointers to pieces related to the Museum of the Moving Image's retrospective, running through September 30. And of course, we've got roundups running on Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive and Rod Lurie's remake of Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs. Meantime, two weeks after the release of Steven Soderbergh's Contagion, we've entered the think piece stage, so that roundup's been kept up-to-date through today as well.

"Imagine that a semi-pagan society quietly survives in the heartland of Russia, amid the leftover Soviet-era factories, the old shops and stores strung along the roadsides, the new concrete towns with their shopping malls." Stuart Klawans in the Nation: "Imagine that the people of...

[With Tom Tykwer's first German-language film in a decade releasing limited today in the U.S. we now revisit Dustin Chang's review from this spring.]I can't find any news article that says Tom Tykwer, the German director known for his celestial, kinetic action films, had a breakdown or went through traumatic events in his life. But I'm assuming he had to have been, because his new film, Three is extremely chatty, dense and very grown-up, unlike anything he has done prior.His first German film since Princess and the Warrior, Three concerns a middle aged, modern Berlin Couple, Hanna (Sophie Rois) and Simon (Sebastian Schipper) falling in love with the same man, Adam (Devid Striesow). Riddled with post-modern themes, the film is in part, reminiscent of Don...

I sometimes get in trouble when I review a gay arthouse film and I say I found it talky or pretentious. Often I'm accused of missing the point.

Which may very well be true. When I like an arthouse film and someone else calls it talky or pretentious, I usually accuse them of missing the point!

That said, I didn't like the new German "love triangle" film Three, which opens in limited release today. I thought it was ... talky and pretentious.

It's the work of writer-director Tom Tykwer, who is responsible for the very influential 1998 film Run Lola Run (which I have somehow never seen).

It's the story of Hannah (Sophie Rois) and Simon (Sebastian Schipper), who have a phenomenally bad marriage of 20 years. Then again, they're dealing with some pretty serious issues: miscarriage, the death of a parent, testicular cancer. Maybe that's why they're so non-communicative, self-centered, and all-around unlikable.

Tom Tykwer's (Run Lola Run) comes most recent project, 3, has revealed a new trailer from Strand Releasing.

Click to watch 3 Trailer!

3 is a sexy romantic drama with a nod to classic Hollywood's screwball comedies. Hanna and Simon, a couple in their early forties, live together in Berlin. With their 20th anniversary looming, they both become restless despite being truly and deeply in love. Unbeknownst to one another, they become acquainted with Adam, a younger man, and fall in love with him.

3 comes to theaters September 16th, 2011 and stars Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Devid Striesow, Annedore Kleist, Angela Winkler, Alexander Hörbe, Winnie Böwe, Hans-Uwe Bauer. The film is directed by Tom Tykwer.