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Arte hat heute sein Programm für das erste Halbjahr 2025 präsentiert.

Arte hat heute sein Programm für das erste Halbjahr 2025 vorgestellt, zu dem auch Jasmila Zbanic‘ Serie „I Know Your Soul“ (im Bild) gehört (Credit: Deblokada/Arte G.E.I.E.)

Arte hat heute sein Programm für das erste Halbjahr 2025 präsentiert, in dem man u.a. Sandra Hüller und Lars Eidinger mit jeweils einem Filmabend würdigen will.

Beim „Abend mit Lars Eidinger“ wird am 12. Februar Lars Kraumes Drama „Familienfest“ mit Eidinger, Hannelore Elsner, Jördis Triebel, Marc Hosemann und Michaela May in den Hauptrollen sowie Rainer Holzemers Dokumentarfilm „Lars Eidinger – Sein oder nicht sein“ zu sehen sein.

Am 7. März, dem „Abend mit Sandra Hüller“, zeigt Arte Frauke Finsterwalders „Sisi & ich“ mit Hüller und Susanne Wolff in den Hauptrollen sowie Antje Harries Dokumentarfilm „Hüllers Geheimnis“.

Zur Berlinale und zum Festival de Cannes präsentiert Arte darüber hinaus Spielfilme wie Robert Schwentkes „Seneca, Oder: Über die Geburt...

Tanja Hausner zählt zu den renommiertesten Kostümbildnerinnen im deutschsprachigen Raum. Für ihre Arbeit an „Des Teufels Bad“ hat sie den Excellence Award gewonnen, den die European Film Awards den Gewerken zuspricht. Im Interview spricht sie über die Bedeutung dieser Auszeichnung und die Zusammenarbeit mit Veronika Franz und Severin Fiala.

Die österreichische Kostümbildnerin Tanja Hausner darf den Excellence Award für „Des Teufels Bad“ am 7. Dezember in Luzern bei der Verleihung der European Film Awards entgegennehmen (Credit: Florian Rainer)

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum European Film Award! Was bedeutet Ihnen diese Auszeichnung, und ganz allgemein: Welchen Stellenwert haben Preise für Sie als Kostümbildnerin?

Tanja Hausner: Der European Film Award freut mich natürlich sehr. Ich finde, jeder Preis, der für Kostüm vergeben wird, unterstützt den Stellenwert für Kostüm an sich. Dadurch wird sichtbar, dass auch hinter dem Gewerk Kostüm Leute stehen, die künstlerisch arbeiten und die Idee eines Films vorantreiben. Kostüm ist ein wichtiges Mittel beim Film.

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,...

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...

“Red Island,” the latest film by “120 Bpm” director Robin Campillo, has been acquired by New York-based company Film Movement for North American distribution following its run in the festival circuit.

“Red Island,” which is produced by Marie-Ange Luciani, the Oscar-nominated producer of “Anatomy of a Fall,” world premiered at San Sebastian Film Festival. Film Movement will open the film theatrically on Aug. 16 at Film at Lincoln Center, followed by a wider release and a rollout on digital and home entertainment platforms.

Set at the beginning of the ’70s in Madagascar, “Red Island” follows the lives of a few armed forces and their families living in one of the last French military bases abroad, a relic of the fading French colonial empire. Influenced by his reading of the comic book heroine Fantômette, Thomas, a 10-year-old boy, explores his surroundings and gradually opens another reality.

“Red Island” marks Campillo’s follow up to “120 Bpm,...

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...

On Sandra Hüller’s wall is the first piece of art she ever owned: a photograph she bought from a shop in Munich. “I won’t say its name,” she says archly, “because that would be advertising.” It’s a dynamic, joyous image showing the ensemble cast of Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring as staged by Pina Bausch, the German choreographer famous for saying, “Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.” “I just love it,” Hüller says admiringly, turning her head for another look. “These people are all making the same movement, as you can see. But everybody is doing it completely differently. They have the same task, but you can see each personality in the way they’re doing it. I love it so much. It’s like they’re almost flying.” It explains a lot about Hüller and her craft.

The East German-born actress has been a...

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.

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

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

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

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...

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...

Row Pictures is the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything.

Karsten Stöter’s Germany-based Row Pictures, the producer of Emily Atef’s Berlin competition title Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything, has unveiled a slate of features from Natja Brunckhorst, Markus Schleinzer and Eliza Petkova.

Brunckhorst’s second feature, Zwei zu Eins, is set to go into production this summer at locations in Central Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia. It will be co-produced by the Lübeck-based arm of zischlermann filmproduktion with backing from broadcasters Zdf and Arte as well as Mdm, the Film- und Medienstiftung Nrw and Bkm.

Cologne-based sales company The Match Factory has expanded and restructured its acquisition and development team.

Former head of sales, Thania Dimitrakopoulou, has been promoted to vice president of acquisitions and sales. Claudia Solano comes on board as senior manager of acquisitions, and Cécile Tollu-Polonowski, a long-time partner with the company, has been appointed as head of development.

Dimitrakopoulou, who joined The Match Factory in 2007, will now be heading up all acquisitions activities and manage the sales team, reporting to Michael Weber, managing director.

Solano joins The Match Factory from the distributor Koch Media in Italy where she worked as sales and acquisitions manager. Solano has held various positions in acquisitions in companies such as Videa and Good Films. During her career, she has introduced several high profile directors to the Italian market, including Xavier Dolan and Yorgos Lanthimos.

The Match Factory has appointed long-standing partner Tollu-Polonowski to lead the development team for the company.