EXCLUSIVE: German Movies, the company that promotes German cinema globally, has revealed the seven individuals for its annual Face to Face marketing campaign, which embody skills who’ve labored on tasks equivalent to Unorthodox, We Youngsters From Bahnhof Zoo and Tides.
This yr, which marks the tenth anniversary of the Face to Face initiative, will see German Movies introduce seven burgeoning skills from the German movie and TV trade to the worldwide movie group on the Berlin Movie Pageant subsequent month. The initiative has lengthy been thought-about a big platform for showcasing German skills to the broader movie and tv spheres.
This yr’s choice contains actors Aaron Altaras, Lea Drinda and Thea Ehre, writer-directors Leonie Krippendorff and Mariko Minoguchi, in addition to director Mala Reinhardt and Director of Pictures Tim Kuhn.
They’re following within the footsteps of filmmakers and stars Sandra Hüller, Christian Friedel, Burhan Qurbani, Saskia Rosendahl, Alexander Fehling, Julia Jentsch, Jonas Nay, Jannis Niewöhner, Sara Fazilat, Soleen Yousef and Eva Trobisch, who’ve all been a part of the marketing campaign because it launched in 2016.
This yr’s marketing campaign will kick off with a Deadline Digital Occasion on February 5, the place Deadline sits down with 4 of the individuals – Altaras, Ehre, Reinhardt and Krippendorff – to debate the challenges and alternatives dealing with the German movie and tv industries right this moment.
The seven skills will then participate at a panel occasion organized by German Movies through the Berlin Movie Pageant on February 17.
German actor Altaras started his performing profession with a task in Nicht alle waren Mörder earlier than starring Netflix’s worldwide hit Unorthodox, wherein he performed a music scholar who exhibits trendy Berlin to an orthodox Jewish girl looking for freedom. Additional credit embody Disney+ collection The Interpreter of Silence, The Night time Between Us and Cannes Sequence Award-winning present Die Zweiflers, for which he gained the German Tv Award and the Blue Panther within the “Greatest Actor” class. His subsequent movies can be Why Me and Rave.
Drinda grew to become identified to a wider viewers in 2021 together with her first main function in We Youngsters From Bahnhof Zoo. She was nominated for the German Performing Award (Greatest Newcomer) in the identical yr. She acquired a number of awards for her function within the collection Turning into Charlie, wherein she performed the primary non-binary character on German tv. She’s had additional roles in tasks equivalent to Nachts im Paradies, which was launched on Canal+, Metropolis of Blood for Disney+ and The place is Wanda? for Apple TV+.
Austrian actress Ehre landed first function within the 2018 tv collection Vorstadtweiber. In 2022, she portrayed Leni Malinowski, a transgender girl navigating a posh world of affection and investigations in Christoph Hochhäusler’s style thriller Until the Finish of the Night time. She acquired the Silver Bear for Greatest Supporting Efficiency on the 2023 Berlinale for her efficiency. Ehre actively advocates for the illustration of transgender people, each in her public persona and thru her work in movie and theatre. She will be able to subsequent be seen in Tom Tykwer’s Gentle, which opens the Berlin Movie Pageant subsequent month.
Minoguchi’s characteristic movie debut Relativity acquired the German Movie Critics’ Award for Greatest Debut Movie and Greatest Screenplay, amongst others. Along with director Tim Fehlbaum, she wrote the screenplay for his movie Tides, which premiered in Berlinale whereas additionally reaching primary within the U.S. Netflix chart. Additional credit embody Zeit Verbrechen and upcoming characteristic movie Die Andere Seite. She’s a accomplice on the Munich-based manufacturing firm Trimafilm.
Kuhn’s credit embody collection Hindafing, which gained the Romy Award within the Greatest TV Sequence class, in addition to Breaking Even and Luden, for which he acquired the German Digicam Award. He additionally shot Comfortable Holidays with Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Scandar Copti and labored on the movie adaptation of the bestselling novel 22 Bahnen.
Reinhardt’s documentary The Second Assault premiered at DOK Leipzig in 2018 as a part of the German Competitors, the place it earned an honorable point out. It later featured on the Berlin Movie Pageant in 2021. Final yr, she directed and produced her feature-length doc Acquainted Locations which premiered on the Locarno Movie Pageant. She is at present researching for her subsequent undertaking Mom/Tongue, a hybrid movie that may discover the intricate connections between language, migration and colonial politics.
Director and creator Krippendorff’s commencement movie Looping was shortlisted for the German Movie Award 2019 and nominated at Guadalajara Worldwide Movie Pageant, for the Jupiter Award and the Max Ophüls Prize, amongst others. Her second characteristic movie Cocoon was chosen because the opening movie of the Era 14plus competitors on the Berlinale 2020. In 2021, she directed and co-wrote German mini-series Loving Her about lesbian love. She just lately wrapped taking pictures characteristic movie Peeled Pores and skin, which can be launched in 2025.
“We have now a vibrant and various movie scene in Germany,” mentioned German Movies MD Simone Baumann. “This variety and creativity naturally thrives on its filmmakers. We have now skills in all of the totally different trades who’re all the time developing with new concepts, who’re curious, who’re consistently rethinking and redesigning the medium of movie and cinema. At German Movies, we see it as our responsibility to help these skills from the German movie trade and to accompany them on their solution to changing into profitable filmmakers. We’re proud to have the ability to current seven filmmakers as ambassadors for our marketing campaign this yr, who’re emblematic of innovation within the movie trade.”
