News

Frédéric Hambalek with Anne-Katrin Titze on What Marielle Knows (Was Marielle Weiß): “I love it when a film gives me this devilish grin on my face …”

Frédéric Hambalek’s What Marielle Knows (Was Marielle Weiß), produced by Tobias Walker and Philipp Worm, premièred at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and is a highlight in the Viewpoints program of the 24th edition of the Tribeca Festival.

We soon learn what Marielle (Laeni Geiseler) knows in Hambalek’s somewhat supernatural family drama. After being slapped by a schoolfriend she insulted, the young girl can see and hear everything her parents do all day; whom her mother, Julia (Julia Jentsch), flirts with at work and how her father, Tobias (Felix Kramer), actually behaved during a staff meeting at his publishing job, as opposed to the rearranged facts he dishes...

What does Marielle (Laeni Geiseler) know in Frédéric Hambalek’s somewhat supernatural family drama? After being slapped by a schoolfriend she insulted, the young girl can see and hear everything her parents do all day; whom her mother, Julia (Julia Jentsch), flirts with at work and how her father, Tobias (Felix Kramer), actually behaved during a staff meeting at his publishing job, as opposed to the rearranged facts he dishes out during the family dinner that night about his nemesis, Sören (Moritz von Treuenfels).

What Marielle Knows (Was Marielle weiß), produced by Tobias Walker and Philipp Worm, premièred at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year and is a highlight in the Viewpoints programme of the...

Twenty German films will world premiere in the New German Cinema and Spotlight sections of the 42nd Munich International Film Festival, which runs from June 27-July 6.

The new German Cinema competition section will include 16 world premieres, with another four in the Spotlight section.

The films range from offbeat comedies such as Ganzer halber Bruder and Zweigstelle, to dramas such as Sechswochenamt, thriller such as Brick and ensemble films such as #blacksheep and Mädchen Mädchen.

“The German films at the Munich International Film Festival reflect the times we’re in: a lot of people are caught up in exceptional circumstances,” saidChristoph Gröner,...

Exclusive: France’s Totem Films has boarded Anna Roller’s adaptation of best-selling novel Allegro Pastell and will launch global sales in Cannes.

Now in post-production, the German-language film is about a novelist and web designer who have a seemingly perfect long-distance relationship. They balance sleepless nights in Berlin with peaceful retreat until their delicate balance of space and intimacy is shaken up when one begins to question the future.

Sylvaine Falingrant, Jannis Niewohner and Haley Louise Jones star.

Allegro Pastell is produced by Tobias Walker and Phillip Worm of German outfit Walker + Worm, who are fresh off What Marielle Knows...

Frédéric Hambalek’s dark comedy What Marielle Knows, about a teenager with the power to read her parents’ minds, has inked multiple territory deals following its Berlinale premiere in competition.

The film has sold across Europe to Paname Distribution in France, Cineart in Benelux, Karma Films in Spain, Alambique in Portugal, Edge Entertainment in Scandinavia, Aurora in Poland, Film Europe for Czech Republic and Slovakia, Mozinet in Hungary, Beta in Bulgaria, Scanorama in the Baltics, and McF Megacom in Former Yugoslavia. Palace Films will distribute the film in Australia and New Zealand, Bir Film in Turkey, Falcon in Indonesia, Cine Canibal...

New Paris-based sales company Lucky Number has acquired world rights to Frédéric Hambalek’s family satire What Marielle Knows,which will premiere in competition at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival.

The film’s titular protagonist is a young girl who develops telepathic abilities that give her the power to see and hear everything her parents do, which shakes up the ostensibly perfect couple’s relationship. As secrets are exposed, a manipulative game leads to unexpected consequences.

Julia Jentsch and Felix Kramer star alongside newcomer Laeni Geiseler.It is German filmmaker Hambalek’s follow-up to debut feature Model Olimpia which premiered...

Schaad’s directorial debut won the Queer Lion after debuting at Venice Critics’ Week.

Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights from Beta Cinema to Alex Schaad’s body swap thriller Skin Deep, which premiered in 2022 in Venice Critics’ Week, where it was awarded the Queer Lion.

Skin Deep is the directorial debut of Alex Schaad, who previously won the Student Academy Award for his social media thriller Invention of Trust.

The film is co-written by Schaad and his brother Dimitrij Schaad and produced by Tobias Walker and Philipp Worm of Walker + Worm Productions, Bayerischer Rundfunk, and Donndorffilm.

In the film,...

German festival held awards ceremony on Friday (October 7)

Slovak director Michal Blasko’s debut feature Victim has won the Hamburg Producers Prize for International Cinema Co-Productions at Filmfest Hamburg.

The €25,000 prize sponsored by Hamburg’s Senate for Culture and Media was presented to the film’s German co-producers, Michael Reuter and Yogev Saar of Berlin-based Electric Sheep.

Victim debuted in Horizons at Venice Film Festival earlier this month, going on to play in Contemporary World Cinema at Toronto.

The film follows a Ukrainian immigrant living with her son in a small Czech border town. She is devastated when he is...

German festival held awards ceremony on Friday (October 7)

Slovak director Michal Blasko’s debut feature Victim has won the Hamburg Producers Prize for International Cinema Co-Productions at Filmfest Hamburg.

The €25,000 prize sponsored by Hamburg’s Senate for Culture and Media was presented to the film’s German co-producers, Michael Reuter and Yogev Saar of Berlin-based Electric Sheep.

Victim debuted in Horizons at Venice Film Festival earlier this month, going on to play in Contemporary World Cinema at Toronto.

The film follows a Ukrainian immigrant living with her son in a small Czech border town. She is devastated when he is...

Cannes competition title Loveless wins best international film.

Films by Andrey Zvyagintsev, Pedro Pinho and Tom Lass were among the winners at the 35th Filmfest München which came to a close on Saturday evening with a gala awards ceremony before the German premiere of Lone Scherfig’s Their Finest with actor Bill Nighy and producer Stephen Woolley in attendance.

The €50,000 Arri/Osram award for the best international film in the CineMasters sidebar went to Zvyagintsev’s Cannes competition film Loveless which opened in Russian cinemas through Wdssr on June 1 and will be released in Germany by Wild Bunch.

Producers Alexander Rodnyansky and Serguey Melkumov accepted the award in Munich from the hands of the international jury comprising German director Valeska Grisebach (whose latest feature Western premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in May), producer Markus Zimmer, and actress Nastassja Kinski.

This is the second time Zvyagintsev received the Munich award after his previous feature Leviathan had won...