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"Not a jazz concert. A Keith Jarrett concert." "Complete improvised freedom." Zeitgeist Films in the US has revealed the official US trailer for an acclaimed German film titled Köln 75, telling the story of the iconic Keith Jarrett jazz concert in January 1975 in the Germany city of Cologne. The title is the original German name for the city of Cologne - in German it's just Köln. The film premiered at the 2025 Berlin Film Festival and earned rave reviews from many who have seen it – set to open in the US starting in October. Köln 75 is the story of Vera Brandes, who – at the age of 18 – staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett at the Cologne Opera House. Reviews say the film examines "how a cultural passion can sometimes overcome all obstacles and transform a person's life entirely." With everyone praising the lead performance: "The emotional heart of...

Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 unfolds the night when an 18-year-old promoter named Vera Brandes risked everything to bring Keith Jarrett’s improvised solo concert to life at the Cologne Opera House in January 1975. Directed and written by Fluk, the film stars John Magaro as the moody, perfectionist Jarrett; Mala Emde and Susanne Wolff as Vera in youth and midlife, respectively; Michael Chernus as the wry jazz critic Michael Watts; and Alexander Scheer as Ecm founder Manfred Eicher.

At once a coming-of-age comedy, a backstage drama, and a self-aware historical pageant, the film weaves voice-over commentary into its storytelling, reminding us that sometimes the scaffold matters as much as the masterpiece it supports.

What feels vital here is the collision of spontaneous artistry and resourceful spirit—two forces that almost let the show be canceled. As jazz fascinates me for its leap into the unknown, Köln 75 feels like a...

Getting an international TV show made these days is a tough business.

Rising production costs are meeting falling budgets and even the deep-pocketed streamers — who had turbo-charged the global business with big-budget commissions for the past several years — are shifting gears, making fewer shows and focusing more on lower-cost crime shows and less on big-budget drama.

But Sabine de Mardt continues to find a way. Since taking over as head of the German division of legendary French studio Gaumont in 2018, the veteran producer has delivered a wide range of high-end series, from historic epic Barbarians for Netflix (executive produced by Gaumont’s Andreas Bareiss), to the post-war drama The Interpreter of Silence (created by Annette Hess) for Disney+/Hulu, to In Her Car, a Ukrainian-set psychological drama, also exec produced by Bareiss, with some eight broadcasters across as many European countries, and shot amid the ongoing war.

Her upcoming slate...

Exclusive: Bankside has inked a slew of sales on Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 following its Special Gala premiere at the Berlinale this month.

The largely well-received film has sold to Bulgaria (Beta), Canada (Level Film), Czech/Slovak (Aqs), Eastern Europe excluding Poland (HBO), Former Yugoslavia (Discovery), France (Metopolitan), Hungary (Budapest Film), Israel (Naschon/Red Cape), Italy (Lucky Red), Middle East (Front Row), Scandinavia (Sf Studios), South Korea (The Coup) and Spain (Selecta Vision).

Alamode Film holds distribution rights for German-speaking Europe and will be releasing the film in March on more than 200 screens, September Film for Benelux and Madness for Poland. Discussions are ongoing for distribution in both UK and U.S.

The English and German-language pic tells the story behind one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, how it almost didn’t happen, and how one formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes,...

Keith Jarrett’s 1975 double album, The Köln Concert, recorded at the Cologne Opera House earlier that year, sold over four million copies. If you flipped through the album stacks of just about anyone who considered themselves a collector of cool vinyl in the ‘70s, you were likely to come across the famous black-and-white cover shot of the American jazz pianist, eyes closed, hunched over the keys. The live recording of improvised solo piano composition is music to lose yourself in, swirling and transporting, spiritual and transcendent. Jarrett plays with intense feeling, which makes his free-flowing keyboard magic unexpectedly moving.

Ido Fluk’s Köln 75 tells the story of how the landmark concert threatened to fall apart, right up until a half-hour before the 11 p.m. show was scheduled to start. John Magaro is terrific as Jarrett, a once-in-a-generation talent who was sleep-deprived, suffering from acute back pain and disdainful of the...

The doomed Empress Elisabeth of Austria, forever immortalized as “Sisi,” has long captivated audiences with her brooding beauty and tragic life. In Sisi & I, filmmaker Frauke Finsterwalder shines a light on this enigmatic royal through a fresh lens: that of Sisi’s humble lady-in-waiting, Countess Irma.

We follow Irma from her oppressive home into the carefree world of Sisi’s Greek island paradise, where strict societal norms melt away. Though Irma finds kinship and freedom with Sisi, cracks soon emerge in their bond as Irma struggles under the unstable empress’s volatile moods.

Finsterwalder grounds this unconventional historical drama from Irma’s perspective, prioritizing her personal growth and desires over the usual emphasis on Sisi. Sandra Hüller shines as Irma, conveying her character’s shy fragility alongside ferocious passion. Her nuanced performance, alongside Susanne Wolff’s enigmatic Sisi, anchors the film even when its ambitions outpace its execution. Stylistic flourishes like a modern soundtrack,...

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Susanne Wolff has earned rave reviews for her darkly funny, often heartbreaking, and very original historical film Sisi & I, in which she stars opposite Oscar nominee Sandra Hller. She spoke with MovieWeb's Archie Fenn about making the film and working with Hller, the historical accounts of Empress Sisi, and more. Sisi & I was released July 12, 2024 from Film Movement.

Countess Irma, hired as Empress Sisis lady-in-waiting, accompanies her to a women-only commune in Greece. As they bond, Irma becomes fascinated by Sisi's eccentric lifestyle. Their relationship deepens, leading to tensions and revelations that challenge their roles within the rigid confines of aristocratic society.

Empress Elisabeth's life explored in Sisi & I, focusing on her relationship with Countess Irma. Sandra Hller and Susanne Wolff deliver natural interactions, portraying complex characters. The movie takes an unconventional approach to Sisi's assassination, highlighting women's relationships and societal demands.

The fascinating if meandering drama Sisi & I (2023) (Sisi & Ich) showcases the strange and tragic life of Empress Elisabeth Sisi of Austria (Susanne Wolff), focusing on her relationship with her lady-in-waiting Countess Irma Stzray (Sandra Hller). Irma travels to a remote commune in Greece to be the empress companion, escaping her only other options of marriage or a convent. There, Irma is entranced by the carefree environment where Sisi dictates everything. However, the increasing demands of Sisis husband, Emperor Franz Joseph (Markus Schleinzer), soon pulls Sisi and Irma out of their haven and tests their bond.

Sisi & I (2023)

Director Frauke FinsterwalderRelease Date March 30, 2023Studio(s) Dor Film Produktionsgesellschaft, C-Films Ag,...

Frauke Finsterwalder on Tanja Hausner’s Sisi & I wardrobe for Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff: “I think each one of them had around thirty different costumes, they were all handmade …”

Frauke Finsterwalder’s razor-sharp Sisi & I opens with Portishead’s Wandering Star and begins to close with Sandra Hüller singing Marc Bolan’s Cosmic Dancer. The exquisitely stylish take on the Sisi legend (with Tanja Hausner’s eminently tempting and chronology defying costumes) stars the defiant duo of Susanne Wolff as Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, with Hüller as Irma Countess of Sztáray, her lady-in-waiting. The extraordinary supporting cast includes the two protagonists’ mothers, Sibylle Canonica as Marie Countess of Sztáray and Angela Winkler as Ludovika of Bavaria, plus Georg Friedrich as Sisi’s playful cousin, Archduke Viktor of Austria.

Frauke Finsterwalder with Anne-Katrin Titze (wearing heirloom lizard brooch): “I like these elements of horror or these creepy feelings in my films,...

Quick Links Susanne Wolff and Sandra Hller Give One of a Kind Performances A Complicated and Curious Friendship Sisi & I Is Unashamedly Punk Redefining a European Icon

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (commonly known as Sisi) is one of the most popular figures in European historical dramas. The Empress has been the focus of 10 feature films to date (with the first made as early as 1922), countless TV shows, books, plays, poems, ballets, and even architecture. Yet, director Frauke Finsterwalder completely reinvents her, transforming the commonly perceived shut-in into a whirlwind force of freedom and empowerment. Telling the complicated story of the friendship between Sisi (Susanne Wolff) and Irma (Sandra Hller), Sisi & I is a thought-provoking, rebellious, and exciting adventure, exploring the later years of Sisi's life.

Told through the lens of Irma as she applies for a job as Sisi's Lady in Waiting, Sisi & I explores the complicated friendship between the pair.

“Contempt returns to the sender, and that is how it is,” Catherine Breillat wrote in her essay on Ingmar Bergman’s Sawdust And Tinsel.

Frauke Finsterwalder’s razor-sharp and exquisitely stylish Sisi & I (with Tanja Hausner’s eminently tempting and chronology defying costumes), stars the glorious combination of Susanne Wolff (Wolfgang Fischer’s Styx) as Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary, with Sandra Hüller as Irma Countess of Sztáray, her lady-in-waiting. The extraordinary supporting cast includes the two protagonists’ mothers, Sibylle Canonica as Marie Countess of Sztáray and Angela Winkler (Volker Schlöndorff’s Oscar-winning The Tin Drum) as Ludovika of Bavaria, plus Georg Friedrich (Ulrich Seidl’s Rimini) as Sisi’s playful cousin, Archduke Viktor of Austria. Tom Rhys...

With acclaimed roles in Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” the latter of which earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Sandra Hüller might have had the biggest year of any actress in 2023. The success ensured that many eyes would be on the versatile actress’ next projects, the first of which is set to hit theaters this July.

Frauke Finsterwalder’s “Sisi & I” sees Huller playing a lady-in-waiting to Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungary (Susanne Wolff), better known as Sisi, the monarch who famously spent an unprecedented 44 years on the throne. The film, which Finsterwalder co-wrote with Christian Kracht, also stars Georg Friedrich, Stefan Kurt, Sophie Hutter, Anthony Calf, and Angela Winkler.

Per the film’s official synopsis, Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary — known as Sisi (Wolff) —is living in an aristocratic women-only commune in Greece. Countess Irma (Hüller) is sent...

As the EFM gets underway Film Movement has snapped up North American rights from The Match Factory to the period dramedy Sisi & I starring current Oscar nominee Sandra Huller.

The Match Factory has also licensed rights in Australia & New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), France (Kinovista), South Korea (Andamiro), Italy (Movies Inspired), Benelux (September Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Ukraine (Traffic Films).

Frauke Finsterwalder’s feature premiered at the Berlinale last year and sees Huller play Countess Irma Grafin, the lady-in-waiting to Empress Elisabeth of Austria played by Susanne Wolff.

Film Movement is planning a theatrical release...

UK sales outfit Bankside Films has unveiled a first look image of Mala Emde in the role of Vera Brandes in Ido Fluk’s The Girl From Köln, as well as a slew of key deals on the film as the company heads into the European Film Market (EFM).

The feature, currently in post-production, tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one formidable German teenager, Vera Brandes, was instrumental in its creation. Bankside will be showing a sales promo to buyers at the EFM.

Dystopian drama Milk Teeth, which world premiered in the Big Screen competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and has its Nordic premiere tonight (January 31) at Göteborg Film Festival, is the debut feature of Swiss filmmaker Sophia Bösch.

Set in an isolated rural community, far from a world that may no longer exist, Milk Teeth follows a woman, Skalde, who has gained the respect of the community despite being born to an ‘outsider’ mother. But that respect is put at risk when she finds a mysterious girl in the local woods. It is an adaptation of Helene Bukowski’s 2021 novel and stars Mathilde Bundschuh,...

Sophia Bosch’s debut feature is a dystopian folklore drama.

LevelK has boarded sales rights on Sophia Bosch’s dystopian folklore drama Milk Teeth, ahead of the film’s world premiere at International Film Festival Rotterdam.

The film will play in the Big Screen Competition ; it is the debut feature of Swiss filmmaker Bosch.

Set in an isolated rural community, Milk Teeth follows a woman who has gained the respect of the community despite being born to an ‘outsider’ mother; but that respect is put at risk when the woman finds a mysterious girl in the local woods.

Bosch says...

This story about Sandra Hüller first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap magazine.

Justine Triet has a word for Sandra Hüller, her star in the dark family drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival: ungraspable.

“It is a word in English that I didn’t know before yesterday,” she said in early October. “And now I want to use it all the time, for Sandra.”

The word certainly applies to Hüller’s character in “Anatomy of a Fall,” in which she plays a successful writer (also named Sandra) who is accused of murdering her husband. Triet never tips her hand to reveal whether Sandra is innocent or guilty, with Hüller finding a way to suggest both alternatives at the same time as the thorny film swings between a portrait of a fracturing relationship and a charged courtroom drama.

The German festival posted its biggest ever audience in 2023.

Filmfest Hamburg came to a close on October 7 with an awards ceremony that saw the Cicae’s arthouse cinema award presented to UK filmmaker Molly Manning Walker’s directorial debut How To Have Sex which premiered in Un Certain Regard in Cannes in May

The cash prize €5,000 is provided by Hamburg’s local film fund Moin to be spent on the film’s PR campaign by its German distributor capelight pictures which will release the film in German cinemas on December 7.

The €5,000 Ndr young talent award, sponsored by local public broadcaster Ndr,...

Exclusive: New indie film financier Mizzel Media is launching in Cannes with what we understand to be a healthy six-figure investment in feature The Girl From Köln, the next film from Holy Spider and The Tale outfit One Two Films.

The movie, which is due to shoot later this year, will star Mala Emde (And Tomorrow The Entire World) and John Magaro (Past Lives) in the lead roles.

Bankside is handling world sales in Cannes on the project, which will tell the little-known backstory of how a maverick German teenager named Vera Brandes was instrumental in the creation of the best-selling solo piano record of all time, U.S. pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert. Ido Fluk (The Ticket) directs from his own script.

The investment is U.S. outfit Mizzel’s first to date. The New York-based company is run by producer and veteran manager Lillian Lasalle, whose clients...

Ulrich Seidl on Rimini: “I had images in my head of fog, of empty beaches, closed bars and restaurants, and hotels. All of this wrapped in a beautiful wintry sentimentality and loneliness.”

About a day as beautiful as today that should never fade away sings a row of inhabitants in an Austrian nursing home, holding on to their walkers for dear life. So begins Ulrich Seidl’s heartbreaking Rimini (72nd Berlin International Film Festival), co-written with Veronika Franz (The Lodge and Goodnight Mommy with Severin Fiala), shot by Wolfgang Thaler (Maria Schrader’s Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe), with costumes by Tanja Hausner. Rimini is as close to a musical as the director will probably ever get, conjuring up an eternal return of suffering, memories, and curated forgetting.

Ulrich Seidl with Anne-Katrin Titze on costume designer Tanja Hausner: “We first look into the closets of the performer.”

Seidl exposes in...

Nearly 125 years after her assassination, the Empress Elisabeth of Austria — or Sisi to her enduring cultists — continues to inspire a veritable industry of portraiture in Europe: In the last year alone, a novel, two TV series (one of them a glossy Netflix affair) and two feature films have been dedicated to the tightly corseted royal icon. Viewers outside the Continental sphere of Sisi-mania may only have registered one of those films, Marie Kreutzer’s chic, subversive anti-biopic “Corsage,” which might make the second, German director Frauke Finsterwalder’s lush, irreverent “Sisi & I,” seem to them a too-soon spare — coincidentally repeating several tricks from Kreutzer’s anachronistic playbook with its modern feminist inflections, contemporary soundtrack cues and sensational fashions, albeit with plenty of its own panache.

That unfortunate timing, combined with the absence of a Vicky Krieps-style crossover arthouse star, may cost “Sisi & I” some distributor interest outside...

I have been tracking producer Sol Bondy since 2016 when co-production The Happiest Day in the Life of Ölli Mäki won the Un Certain Regard Grand Prize and the European Film Award for Best Debut. He and Fred Burle have been developing The Girl from Köln (aka Köln 75) with writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection The Ticket since 2019. "This project has been very close to our hearts in the last few years and we're very excited with the way it's been shaped so far," said Bondy, a Variety Producer to Watch in 2018. "It's been such a joy working with Ido on this exciting story and we're thrilled to have put an amazing team together," added Burle, Brazilian born producer who was just made a partner in One Two Films, alongside co-founders Sol Bondy and Christoph Lange. Burle joined One Two in January 2017, having graduated from the German Film and Television Academy (dffb) the previous year. He has previously worked as a film critic, at The Match Factory, and as curator of the inaugural dffb film festival. One Two Films has produced and co-produced award-winning films such as Holy Spider (Read my blog about it here), Vadim Perelman's Persian Lessons (Read my blog about it here), Jennifer Fox's Sundance breakout The Tale, Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop and Juho Kuosmanen's The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.Other titles in the pipeline include Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurdsson's dark comedy Northern Comfort, which premieres in SXSW later this month, Annemarie Jacir's survival drama The Oblivion Theory, Sarah Arnold's debut feature Wild Encounters and Michiel ten Horn's romantic comedy Any Other Night. In Berlin this year it was announced that Bankside would be The Girl from Köln's international sales agent and was launching sales. Alamode Film already has German-speaking territories and is a coproducer, who have very recently secured funding through the Fff, the local fund in Bavaria. It is in early pre-production and will shoot this year in Poland and Germany. The Girl from Köln tells the little-known story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975, at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. With Polish Film Institute backing, Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska (Ida, Cold War) of Extreme Emotions is co-producing along with Annegret Weitkämper-Krug of Germany's Gretchenfilm (Seneca). Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman (Love & Mercy, Bad Education) serves as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk's previous feature, The Ticket. The Tale writer-director Jennifer Fox also serves as executive producer. Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green executive produce for Bankside. It stars Mala Emde (Skin Deep, And Tomorrow the Entire World) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (Past Lives) as Jarrett. Magaro was also in Cannes last year with Kelly Reichardt's competition title Showing Up.Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush), Ulrich Tukur (The Life of Others), Susanne Wolff (Sisi & I, Styx), Jördis Triebel (Dark), Jan Bülow (Lindenberg) and Marie-Lou Sellem (Tar, Exit Marrakesh). The NYU-graduate Fluk was dubbed "a talent to watch" by Variety following his feature debut Never Too Late, the first crowd-sourced Israeli film ever made. His American debut, the Tribeca competition selection, The Ticket, starred Dan Stevens and Malin Akerman. Upcoming projects include 24 Hours in June, a retelling of the final day in the life of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg who were convicted of spying on behalf of the Soviet Union, to be produced by Academy Award winner James Schamus (Brokeback Mountain) and Joe Pirro (Driveways). Fluk is repped by Amotz Zakai, Amy Schiffman, and Kegan Schell at Echo Lake Entertainment. He is also created the recently-announced HBO series Empty Mansions for Fremantle with director Joe Wright (Atonement, Darkest Hour) attached to direct the pilot. "From the moment I heard Vera's story, about how as a high school teenager she organized one of the greatest concerts in history, I knew her story had to be told," said Fluk. "We were immediately exhilarated by Vera Brandes' remarkable female empowerment story. Her strength, courage and sheer belief in herself and the music of Keith Jarrett will entertain and inspire audiences around the world," added Kelliher.

German cinema looks set for a major boom this year with a strong lineup of diverse works that span historical dramas, coming-of-age tales, high-octane nostalgia, animation and sci-fi fun.

The Berlin Film Festival is bowing a muscular selection of local titles, among them “Afire,” by Berlinale mainstay Christian Petzold (“Undine”), screening in competition. The films centers on a group of young people staying at a holiday house near the Baltic Sea during a hot, dry summer, exploring volatile emotions that start to sizzle when a wildfire spreads through the surrounding forest.

Likewise vying for the Golden Bear is Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic “Ingeborg Bachmann: Journey Into the Desert,” starring Vicky Krieps (“Corsage”) as the radical Austrian author. The film examines her relationship with Swiss writer Max Frisch and her 1964 journey of self-discovery through the Egyptian desert.

“Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything,” by Emily Atef (“More Than Ever”) and...

The adventures of Sisi and Franz will continue.

German period drama series Sisi — a reimagining of the historic love story between 19th century Austrian Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed “Sisi,” and her husband, Emperor Franz — has received a third-season order from German network Rtl.

Swiss American actress Dominique Devenport will return as Sisi and Jannik Schümann as Franz for season 3, which Story House Pictures will produce, in collaboration with Beta Film.

Sisi was an out-of-the-gate hit for Rtl, which has success both streaming the show on its Rtl+ platform and broadcasting it on its flagship linear channel in Germany. Beta has sold the series to more than 100 territories worldwide, including to Mediaset in Italy, TF1 in France and Globoplay in Brazil.

In the Rtl series, Empress Elisabeth is depicted as a tomboy who falls, as a princess in Bavaria, head-over-heels in love with the the handsome and powerful Franz, Emperor of Austria.

Germany’s Mala Emde and US actor John Magaro are set to star.

UK sales outfit Bankside Films has boarded worldwide sales on director Ido Fluk’s feature Köln 75, that tells the little-known story of one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, US pianist Keith Jarrett’s 1975 Köln Concert, and how one maverick German teenager was instrumental in its creation.

The film meets teenager Vera Brandes while she is still in high school and starts producing and promoting music concerts in Cologne, and risks everything to put on what will become Jarrett’s legendary show.

German star of...

The German sales company’s slate also includes titles by Margarethe von Trotta, Emily Atef, Tatiana Huezo.

The Match Factory has finalised a seven-strong slate of titles playing at the 2023 Berlinale, on which it represents world sales rights.

The company’s lineup includes four titles in Berlin Competition, including German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, about a group of friends in a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire.

The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt and is produced by...

Almost Home

Making a student film set in space, in a zero gravity environment, is a huge challenge. Making it well enough to get it shortlisted for the Oscars is something else – but that’s the story behind Norwegian contender Almost Home. It was produced by Jonas Lembeck, directed by Nils Keller and shot by Georg Nikolaus, and it stars seasoned actors Susanne Wolff and Stephen Kampwirth alongside rising star Jeremias Meyer – all of whom reunited when an opportunity arose to talk about the film.

“It’s intensely humbling,” says Nils of the Oscar news. “We dreamed of being there, but still, you can’t calculate with that. It has already been a great journey going to the Student Academy Awards, being nominated there, receiving an award there, then being qualified for the Oscars, then making it to the shortlist. So this is all like a huge journey we never anticipated and in.

The Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday unveiled the final films for its 2023 Panorama section, the Berlinale’s main sidebar.

The 2023 lineup includes several world premieres, including Femme, the debut feature from directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping, a drag artist revenge thriller staring 1917 actor George MacKay and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett; The Beast in the Jungle, from Austrian director Patric Chiha (Brothers of the Night), an adaptation of the Henry James novel, starring Anaïs Demoustier, Tom Mercier and Beatrice Dalle; and Joan Baez I Am A Noise, a documentary on the legendary folk singer, from directors Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle.

After Marie Kreutzer’s Oscar contender Corsage, Panorama will get another historic revisionist take on Austrian Empress Elizabeth, aka Sisi, with Sisi & I, a German drama from director Frauke Finsterwalder, featuring Susanne Wolff (The Stranger in Me) as Sisi, and also starring Sandra Hüller, Georg Friedrich,...

Sepideh Farsi’s “La Sirène” (“The Siren”) is opening the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand.

The program, which comprises 35 films from 30 countries, including 28 world premieres and 11 debuts, includes new films by Patric Chiha, İlker Çatak, Frauke Finsterwalder, Maite Alberdi, Milad Alami and Apolline Traoré. They feature a galaxy of well-known protagonists and actors such as Joan Baez, Jafar Panahi, Payman Maadi, George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Fan Bingbing, Sandra Hüller and Susanne Wolff.

Panorama Selections

“After”

by Anthony Lapia | with Louise Chevillotte, Majd Mastoura, Natalia Wiszniewska

France

World premiere | Debut film

“All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White”

by Babatunde Apalowo | with Tope Tedela, Riyo David, Martha Ehinome Orhiere, Uchechika Elumelu, Floyd Anekwe

Nigeria

World premiere | Debut film

“And, Towards Happy Alleys”

by Sreemoyee Singh | with Jafar Panahi, Nasrin Soutodeh, Jinous Nazokkar, Farhad Kheradmand, Aida Mohammadkhani

India

World premiere | Debut film | Documentary

“La Bête dans la...

“It’s been an amazing ride,” says director Nils Keller, whose film “Almost Home” won a Student Academy Award and has since been shortlisted for Best Live Action Short at the 95th Oscars. “It was a student project. We didn’t have much money. We had high-flying dreams. We hope that the story will come across that we kept all the technical aspects. In the end, we wanted to tell a heartfelt story that I hope touches as many people as possible and feels relevant. This is the ultimate dream to be shortlisted for the Oscars.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

The sci-fi film centers on Nico (Susanne Wolff) and Jakob (Jeremias Meyer), a mother and son who learn of an outbreak of a dangerous virus shortly before their long-awaited return to Earth. The two of them struggle to decide whether to land or return to space aboard their confined spaceship.

Sisi & I

Sisi became all the rage with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage but another “Sisi” film was also in the works. Topically we’d love to see how this one measures ups but also expounds on the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. Sandra Hüller, who toplined Frauke Finsterwalder’s first feature-length film Finsterworld (2013) is onboard here as well. Susanne Wolff takes on the Empress role. Principal photography took place in September of 2021 in locations in Bavaria, Vienna, Malta and Switzerland. The German filmmaker first got her start in docu film – apparently this second swim in fiction film was filmed in Super 16 mm film.…...

Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (a highlight of the 60th New York Film Festival)

When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) last August she was on holiday in Italy. We spoke about her role in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), Corsage (Austria’s Oscar entry), and Bachmann & Frisch. Vicky can now be seen this week playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and in 2023 as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi release for 2023, Sisi & I, starring Sandra Hüller with Susanne Wolff as Sisi.

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Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (a highlight of the 60th New York Film Festival)

When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) last August she was on holiday in Italy. We spoke about her role in Mathieu Amalric’s Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), Corsage (Austria’s Oscar entry), and Bachmann & Frisch. Vicky can now be seen this week playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage and in 2023 as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi release for 2023, Sisi & I, starring Sandra Hüller with Susanne Wolff as Sisi.

[imageleft...

Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort) star Vicky Krieps on Mathieu Amalric: “I am not him, yet I am almost his alter ego as well.”

When I met up with Vicky Krieps (who starred opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread) she was on holiday in Italy. We discussed her role in Mathieu Amalric’s penetrating Hold Me Tight (Serre Moi Fort), which is based on Claudine Galéa’s play Je Reviens De Loin.

Vicky can soon be seen playing Sisi, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage (screening in the Main Slate of the 60th New York Film Festival and produced by Toni Erdmann director Maren Ade) and as Ingeborg Bachmann in her relationship to Max Frisch in Margarethe von Trotta’s Bachmann & Frisch. Ronald Zehrfeld from Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, plays Frisch. Finsterwalder has an upcoming Sisi project for 2023, Sisi & I,...

Berlin-based One Two Films, in Cannes this week with Ali Abbasi’s competition title “Holy Spider,” is prepping a new feature from writer-director Ido Fluk, the filmmaker behind 2016 Tribeca selection “The Ticket.”

“Köln 75” tells the true story of Vera Brandes, who, in 1975 and at the age of 17, staged the famous Köln Concert by jazz musician Keith Jarrett, which became the top-selling jazz solo album of all time. It stars Mala Emde (“And Tomorrow the Entire World”) in the lead role, alongside John Magaro (“First Cow”) as Jarrett. Magaro is also in Cannes with Kelly Reichardt’s competition title “Showing Up.”

Oscar-winning Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska of Extreme Emotions will co-produce, with Oscar nominee and Emmy winner Oren Moverman serving as executive producer. Moverman also produced Fluk’s previous feature, “The Ticket.”

Other cast attached include Alexander Scheer (“Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush”), Ulrich Tukur (“The Life of Others”), Susanne Wolff...

Filming of the project will take place between Lanzarote, Hamburg and Luxembourg from February 2021 until the beginning of April. Luxembourg's Laura Schroeder is now preparing her new project, a drama entitled Maret. The helmer, an alumna of the Sorbonne and of Beaconsfield's National Film and Television School, is best known for Barrage (2017), Luxembourg's bid for the best foreign language film at the 90th Academy Awards. The script of Maret, penned by the director herself, follows the titular woman, played by German actress Susanne Wolff. A groundbreaking brain surgery to be performed in a clinic in Lanzarote may be her only hope to get her memory back. The problem is: does she really want to remember the person she once was? The technical crew attached to the project includes DoP Laurent Brunet, editor Andrew Bird, composer Pascal Schumacher, sound designer Carlo Thoss, production designer Christina Schaffer,...

Stars: Susanne Wolff, Dragos Bucur, Alexia Lestiboudois, Teun Luijkx, Jan Bijvoet, Therese Affolter, Mark Rietman, Kim Hertogs, Leny Breederveld, Dennis Rudge, Murth Mossel, Valentijn Dhaenens, Martijn van der Veen, Anna Tenta | Written and Directed by Lennert Hillege, Guido van Driel

The Netherlands is not a country that is very well known for its movies. Off the top of my head the only one I can actually think of is Christmas horror movie Sint/Saint (which is pretty good so check it out next December), so Bloody Marie enters a very small list of my movie watching entitled ‘Dutch cinema’.

Bloody Marie is the story of (unsurprisingly) Marie. A woman who was once a successful comic book artist but is now struggling to make a living through her art and lives in the Red Light District of Amsterdam. She is mostly drunk and walks the streets at night almost looking for...

"An artist draws. And I... drink." Uncork'd Ent. has released an official Us trailer for an indie drama from The Netherlands titled Bloody Marie, which is one of the films that was considered for submission to the Oscars this year. This premiered at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier this year, and is already available on VOD now. Award-winning German actress Susanne Wolff (also seen in Styx) stars as Marie Wankelmut, a once successful comic artist, who lives among the prostitutes in Amsterdam's Red Light District. Nowadays drunken and bold, she gets into one big conflict after another. A gruesome sobering event at her neighbors forces her to take action. Co-starring Dragos Bucur, Alexia Lestiboudois, Teun Luijkx, Jan Bijvoet, and Therese Affolter. Looks like this gets extra wild in the second half, turning into a crazy crime thriller. Here's the Us trailer (+ Dutch poster) for Lennert Hillege & Guido van Driel's Bloody Marie,...

The festival is held from September 26 to October 5.

The line-ups for six juries at this year’s Filmfest Hamburg (Sept 26 to Oct 5) have been revealed.

The all-German jury that will award the Hamburg producer prize for German cinema productions includes actress Susanne Wolff (Styx), director Ilker Çatak and editor Sebastian Thümler, who worked on Özgür Yildirim’s Only God Can Judge Me. The award comes with a €25,000 cash prize.

Judging the German producer in an international co-production award are Serbian cinematographer Ivan Markovic, Swiss producer Ivan Madeo and German-Swiss dramaturg and curator András Siebold.

The all-German jury for the Hamburg...

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

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

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

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

Susanne Wolff is a force to be reckoned with in Styx Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Wolfgang Fischer's impassioned Styx, co-written with Ika Künzel, shot by Benedict Neuenfels, and edited by Monika Willi, takes us on an unexpected journey. Rike is a German emergency doctor. She sails alone, heading to Ascension Island in the South Atlantic, where Charles Darwin experimented with the coexistence of native and non-native flora and fauna.

Wolfgang Fischer on Susanne Wolff as Rike: "It was important that she's an emergency doctor, she's got the skills."

After a violent storm, Rike finds herself confronted with a leaky, sinking, overcrowded fishing boat carrying desperate refugees. One of them, a boy with a bracelet spelling out Kingsley (Gedion Oduor Wekesa), manages to swim over to her. What is she to do? The Coast Guard seem to be stalling...

Susanne Wolff with Styx director Wolfgang Fischer on rescuing Kingsley (Gedion Oduor Wekesa): "I remember that we had a rehearsal to check out how difficult it is." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

When Volker Schlöndorff was filming Return To Montauk near Lincoln Center and on the steps of the New York Public Library with Stellan Skarsgård, Nina Hoss, Susanne Wolff, Bronagh Gallagher, Isioma Laborde-Edozien, and Mathias Sanders, he introduced me to the cast and his co-writer Colm Tóibín. At Film Forum before the Us theatrical premiere of Wolfgang Fischer’s Styx, I spoke with the director and his formidable star Susanne Wolff about the challenges of shooting on the high seas and how Jc Chandor's All Is Lost with Robert Redford did not encounter the same obstacles.

Susanne Wolff is Rieke in Wolfgang Fischer's Styx: "90% of the movie we shot on open ocean."

Wolfgang Fischer's impassioned Styx, co-written with Ika Künzel and shot by Benedict Neuenfels,...

A blunt, breathless, and astoundingly unsentimental morality play that’s told with the intensity of a ticking-clock thriller, Wolfgang Fischer’s “Styx” is every bit as ominous as its title suggests, and far less fanciful. A German emergency doctor named Rieke (Susanne Wolff) takes a well-deserved vacation from her long nights of saving lives, and flies to the sunny rocks of Gibraltar in order to fulfill one of her forever dreams. Completely by herself on an 11-meter yacht without any connection to the outside world except for the boat’s radio, she’s sailing to Ascension Island, a volcanic speck located halfway between West Africa and Brazil. Rieke longs to see the jungle that Charles Darwin once designed for the island: “Wild, untouched nature that was actually planned.” And she longs to do it alone. For a man, that might seem like a bit of bravado; for a woman, it...

Typically, movies involving one person in the ocean are never happy stories. You either get stranded at sea (“All Is Lost”), attacked by sharks (“The Shallows”), or trapped on a raft Sam Claflin (“Adrift”). Admittedly, all three of the aforementioned scenarios might all be blessings depending on who you are. Feel-good films featuring a prominent role for the ocean simply do not exist, and “Styx” does very little to alter this cinematic pattern.

Continue reading ‘Styx’: Susanne Wolff and Existential Terror Keep This High Seas Drama Afloat [Review] at The Playlist.

Set in the notorious picturesque red light district in Amsterdam, the fllm opens on the drunken antics of an attractive woman in a bar who often gets into arguments with men when drunk.

Marie Wankelmut, once successful comic artist, lives among the prostitutes in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Nowadays drunken and bold, she gets into one conflict after another. A gruesome sobering event at her neighbors, forces her to take action.

Marie shares her acute alcoholic binges with her mother whom we meet as she is passed out in her apartment along with her daughter.

Any resemblance to Fatih Akin’s recent dive bar serial killer movie The Golden Glove stops there.

One day, a fellow barfly magicaly claims ro “know her”. He resemales a creature from a fairy tale, very short wih a manly face and a prominent beak-like nose and he claims to have prescient powers.

Watch the trailer here.

Film Movement has debuted an official Us trailer for a dramatic thriller titled Styx, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year to quite a bit of worthy acclaim. This mostly-silent film is about a woman who decides to embark on a solo sailing journey from Europe to to Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. Not only does she encounter a violent storm that nearly kills her, she encounters something else that changes her forever. Susanne Wolff stars in this, giving an incredible performance that carries the entire film. I saw this in Berlin last year and I loved it, writing a glowing review saying: "the film shows just how powerful silent storytelling can be, all we need is to watch what's happening and look closely at the details, and it will all make sense." This film is a hard sell, so the trailer not only shows the big...

Thriller won awards after world premiere in Berlin.

Film Movement has acquired all North American rights from Beta Cinema to Wolfgang Fischer’s thriller Styx ahead of its Contemporary World Cinema slot in Toronto next month.

Styx premiered at the Berlinale and will receive its North American premiere in Canada before opening at New York’s Film Forum in February 2019.

Susanne Wolf stars as a German emergency room physician who embarks on a solo voyage across the Atlantic and must take matters into her own hands when she encounters a damaged boat containing dozens of refugees.

The film won the Heiner Carow Prize,...

Wolfgang Fischer's Styx, a stark drama exploring the refugee crisis, has won the European Cinema Label honor for best European film running the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. The award, handed out by the association of European arthouse cinemas, includes distribution support for Styx in its pan-European release.

Fischer's feature stars Susanne Wolff as a determined young German doctor who, while on a solo yachting trip, comes across a leaky trawler filled with desperate refugees. She is caught between her sense of duty and her desire to intervene, and the orders of an invisible coastguard telling her to...

Germany-Austria co-pro to benefit from exhibition support.

Wolfgang Fischer’s Styx has won the 2018 Europa Cinemas Label at the Berlin Film Festival.

The prize is selected by a jury of four exhibitors and the film will now receive promotional support from the Europa Cinemas network, with exhibitors in the network offered a financial incentive to include it in their programming.

The Label Jury consisted of Nora Kasza (Art+Cinema, Budapest, Hungary), Fréderic Cornet (Cinéma Les Galeries, Brussels, Belgium), Stanislav Ershov (Foundation Kino&Teatr, St.Petersburg, Russia) and Mustafa el Mesaoudi (Cinema/Rex Filmtheater, Wuppertal, Germany).

They issued the following statement:

“Styx is a simple but highly dramatic story that has a very clear and powerful message – we in Europe cannot ignore the refugee situation. We must face it and find solutions. Susanne Wolff is remarkably strong as a lone woman sailor in mid Atlantic who comes across a boatload of people in dire need of help. Great cinematography and sharp...

Author: Stefan Pape

“What I’ve always loved about you, Max…” is a line we hear uttered in Volker Schlondorff’s Return to Montauk – which, unsurprisingly, is a film by an author (the talented Colm Toibin – behind the novel that inspired Brooklyn) about an author. Naturally self-indulgent in parts, the film also suffers from the frustrating trope of having a writer converse with dialogue similar to the words he gets paid to write – rather than talk normally like a normal human being.

Stellan Skarsgard plays Max, embarking on a book tour which leads him to New York City, promoting his latest piece of literature. It’s the city where an old flame resides, and he decides – despite being in a relationship with Clara (Susanne Wolff) – to get back in touch, arriving, uninvited to the workplace of Rebecca (Nina Hoss). Initially she has no intention of seeing him, but as he pleads for her attention,...