What a Berli­nale! We are incred­i­bly proud of our stu­dents and alum­ni who pre­sent­ed so many great films in almost all sec­tions of the fes­ti­val. In only 10 days, 14 of their films were shown 60 times on the cin­e­ma screens of Germany’s capital—and there were award win­ners!

 

4 films screened in Forum or Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino

Sara Sum­ma, Miri­am Bliese, and Simona Kostova—three tal­ent­ed women direc­tors from the DFFB cel­e­brat­ed their fea­ture films’ respec­tive world and Ger­man pre­mieres at the Berli­nale. While Sara Sum­ma enjoyed a suc­cess­ful world pre­miere in Forum with GLI ULTIMI A VEDERLI VIVERE, Miri­am Bliese’s DIE EINZELTEILE DER LIEBE was pre­sent­ed to the audi­ence for the first time in Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino. DREISSIG by Simona Kos­to­va received its Ger­man pre­miere at the Berli­nale and—winner of this year’s Max Ophüls Prize—DAS MELANCHOLISCHE MÄDCHEN by Susanne Hein­rich made a guest appear­ance in Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino.
We wish our tal­ent­ed direc­tors con­tin­ued suc­cess!

 

Awards for DFFB grad­u­ates

We warm­ly con­grat­u­late our alum­na Angela Schan­elec who won the Sil­ver Bear for Best Direc­tor. With ICH WAR ZU HAUSE, ABER the Berlin direc­tor took part in the Berli­nale com­pe­ti­tion for the first time and impressed the inter­na­tion­al jury with ele­ments of the Berlin School—a film with long, spa­cious takes, and silence.

Con­grat­u­la­tions also go out to the team of SYSTEMSPRENGER, espe­cial­ly to direc­tor Nora Fin­gschei­dt and DFFB alum­nus and pro­duc­er Jonas Wey­de­mann, who were award­ed the Sil­ver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize by the jury. The prize has been award­ed since 1987 to com­pe­ti­tion fea­ture films that pro­vide new per­spec­tives on the art of film­mak­ing. The prize was named after the first direc­tor of the fes­ti­val Alfred Bauer. SYSTEMSPRENGER also received the Berlin­er Mor­gen­post Read­ers’ Jury Prize.

Addi­tion­al­ly, the Com­pass-Per­spek­tive-Award, endowed with €5,000, was giv­en to a film with DFFB par­tic­i­pa­tion. We con­grat­u­late BORN IN EVIN by Maryam Zaree, who worked on the film with DFFB alum­na and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Siri Klug, for receiv­ing the award for the best film from the cur­rent pro­gramme of Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino.

We also con­grat­u­late DFFB grad­u­ate Ana-Feli­cia Scutel­nicu, who was award­ed the Kom­pagnon-Fel­low­ship for her treat­ment TRANSIT TIMES. The prize, joint­ly giv­en by Berli­nale Tal­ents and Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino, offers a fel­low­ship of €5,000 for inde­pen­dent script and project devel­op­ment, a men­tor­ing pro­gramme to strength­en the director’s cre­ative vision, as well as coach­ing to improve net­work­ing with­in the indus­try.

 

HAGAZUSSA cel­e­brates suc­cess dur­ing the Berlin Critic’s Week

A DFFB grad­u­ate was award­ed a cov­et­ed prize dur­ing the Berlin Critic’s Week—for her extra­or­di­nary work on HAGAZUSSA, our grad­u­ate and cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Mariel Baque­iro received the prize for Best Cam­era giv­en by
the Ger­man Film Crit­ics Asso­ci­a­tion. We would like to con­grat­u­late HAGAZUSSA on win­ning this award, anoth­er prize to add to its col­lec­tion after the film received the FIRST STEPS AWARDS 2018.

 

Julian Radlmeier brings home the Gold­en Lola for the best unfilmed script

Anoth­er rea­son to cel­e­brate: DFFB alum­nus Julian Radl­maier was award­ed the Gold­en Lola 2019 for the best unfilmed script for his treat­ment BLUTSAUGER. The prize, endowed with €10,000, was pre­sent­ed at the recep­tion of the Ver­band Deutsch­er Drehbuchau­toren (VDD) by Moni­ka Grüt­ters, the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment Com­mis­sion­er for Cul­ture and Media.

Wow! Con­grat­u­la­tions to all stu­dents and alum­ni on being invit­ed to par­tic­i­pate in the fes­ti­val and espe­cial­ly to the prizewin­ners! We are look­ing for­ward to the next sea­son and can only add one thing: Keep up the good work!

 

The Prize of Ger­man Film Crit­ics is the only Ger­man film prize award­ed exclu­sive­ly by crit­ics. The prize has an impres­sive rep­u­ta­tion, and is not based on eco­nom­ic, coun­try, or polit­i­cal cri­te­ria, but sole­ly on an artis­tic cri­te­ri­on. In the past, the prize was also award­ed to out­stand­ing films and direc­tors of the year; it was award­ed for the first time in 1956.

This year, the prize for the best cam­era was award­ed to DFFB grad­u­ate Mariel Baque­iro, pre­sent­ed by the Ger­man Film Crit­ics Asso­ci­a­tion. The award went to her work on HAGAZUSSA (D/​S: Lukas Feigelfeld, C: Mariel Baquiero, P: Simon Lubin­sky, Lukas Feigelfeld). Through her impres­sive images, Mariel cre­ates a fight­en­ing atmos­phere hat cap­ti­vates. Her cam­era work enables a deep immer­sion of the pro­tag­nist. In the whirlpool of psy­che­del­ic-ecsta­t­ic image sequences, action and reac­tion fall into one and make it dif­fi­cult for us to make a moral judge­ment — a real visu­al expe­ri­ence for the audi­ence. HAGAZUSSA already gained admi­ra­tion dur­ing the First Steps Award 2018, win­ning the Michael Ball­haus Award for the Best Cin­e­matog­ra­phy, which was endowed with a €10,000 award.

We con­grat­u­late Mariel on this new award!

DFFB alum­nus Julian Radl­maier and his screen­play ‘Blut­sauger’ has won the Gold­en Lola 2019 for the best unfilmed screen­play. At the recep­tion of the Ver­band Deutsch­er Drehbuchau­toren (VDD) (Ger­man Film Crit­ics Asso­ci­a­tion) held dur­ing the 69th Berli­nale, the Fed­er­al Gov­ern­ment Com­mis­sion­er for Cul­ture and the Media, Moni­ka Grüt­ters, award­ed the prize to Radl­maier. The prize is endowed with a €10,000 award and is one of the most impor­tant prizes for screen­writ­ers in Ger­many.

The jury praised the script — which tells the sto­ry of a fake Russ­ian baron and the daugh­ter of a real Ger­man fac­to­ry own­er who make a vam­pire film on the Baltic Sea in 1926 — as “extrav­a­gant, bizarre, and hilar­i­ous”. The script con­tains flam­boy­ant dia­logues that inter­weave with mus­ings on social class­es, cre­at­ing par­al­lels to the mag­ic and cor­rupt­ibil­i­ty of cin­e­ma. We are very excit­ed at the thought of this enter­tain­ing script being made into a film. The prizewin­ner is also enti­tled to sub­si­dies of up to €20,000 for the real­i­sa­tion of the film.

We con­grat­u­late Julian Radl­maier — who also won last year’s Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino Kom­pagnon-Fel­low­ship for the screen­play of “Blut­sauger” — on this suc­cess!

UP.GRADE has always been close to the Berli­nale and peo­ple often ask if they can watch projects grad­ed by UP.GRADERs at the fes­ti­val.

So it’s our plea­sure to share with you a list of films grad­ed by UP.GRADERs that are play­ing this year — as well as all the films grad­ed (and even edit­ed) by our ter­rif­ic UP.GRADE lec­tur­ers!

 

Films grad­ed by UP.GRADERs

“Sys­tem Crash­er”
grad­ed by Petra Lis­son (2016–2017 UP.GRADER)
run­ning in main com­pe­ti­tion

It could have been worse
grad­ed by Kai Klassen (2015–2016 UP.GRADER)

“My Grand­pa is an Alien”
grad­ed by Fran Sokolić (2015–2016 UP.GRADER)

“Thir­ty”
grad­ed by Mag­da Nizel (2016–2017 UP.GRADER)

“Kids”
grad­ed by Artem Stre­tovich (2016–2017 UP.GRADER)

“I often think of Hawaii”, 1978
re-grad­ed/­mas­tered by Ana Maria Ormaza (2018–2019 UP.GRADER)

 

Colour assis­tance by UP.GRADERs

“Stitch­es”
colour assist/​ACES work­flow super­vi­sion by Fran Sokolić (2015–2016 UP.GRADER)

“Erased”
colour assist/​ACES work­flow super­vi­sion by Fran Sokolić (2015–2016 UP.GRADER)
Euro­pean Film Mar­ket

“The Diary of Diana B.”
colour assist/​ACES work­flow super­vi­sion by Fran Sokolić (2015–2016 UP.GRADER)
Euro­pean Film Mar­ket

 

Films grad­ed by UP.GRADE staff

“Dust”
grad­ed by Dirk Meier (Head of pro­gramme)

“I was home, but”
grad­ed by Dirk Meier (Head of pro­gramme)
run­ning in main com­pe­ti­tion

“The Last to see Them”
grad­ed by Edmond Lac­con (Joint Head of Pro­gramme)

 

Films grad­ed by UP.GRADE lec­tur­ers

“The Bicy­cle”
graded/​restored by Chris­tine Hiam (lec­tures on Grad­ing)

“Mal­ou”
graded/​restored by Chris­tine Hiam (lec­tures on Grad­ing)

“Easy Love”
grad­ed by Felix Hüsken (lec­tures on Resolve, ACES, Cal­i­bra­tion)

“Search­ing Eva”
grad­ed by Felix Hüsken (lec­tures on Resolve, ACES, Cal­i­bra­tion)

“Monos”
grad­ed by Lau­rens Orij (lec­tures on Colour sci­ence and Grad­ing)

“O Beau­ti­ful Night”
grad­ed by Philipp Orgas­sa (ARRI music video chal­lenge)

“The Pit”
grad­ed by Tobias Schaarschmidt (lec­tures on Cal­i­bra­tion and ACES)

Oray
grad­ed by Fabi­ana Cardal­da (lec­ture on HDR grad­ing, case study)

Progress in the Val­ley of the Peo­ple Who Don’t Know
grad­ed by Fabi­ana Cardal­da (lec­ture on HDR grad­ing, case study)

Cleo
grad­ed by Fabi­ana Cardal­da (lec­ture on HDR grad­ing, case study)

Armed Lul­la­by
grad­ed by Fabi­ana Cardal­da (lec­ture on HDR grad­ing, case study)

 

Films edit­ed by UP.GRADE lec­tur­ers

“A Tale of Three Sis­ters”
edit­ed by Cicek Kahra­man (lec­tures on Film Gram­mar)
run­ning in main com­pe­ti­tion

 

The 69th Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val presents nine films cre­at­ed with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of DFFB alum­ni.

 

ICH WAR ZUHAUSE, ABER (I WAS AT HOME, BUT) from grad­u­ate Angela Schan­elec screens in com­pe­ti­tion. The film tells the sto­ry of a moth­er and her 13-year-old son, who returns home with­out a say­ing word after dis­ap­pear­ing for a week.

• Tues­day, 12.2., 16:00, Berli­nale Palast (World Pre­miere)
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 9:30, Friedrich­stadt-Palast
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 12:30, Haus der Berlin­er Fest­spiele
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 18:00, Friedrich­stadt-Palast
• Thurs­day 14.2., 15:30, Odeon, Berli­nale Goes Kiez

 

Alum­nus Jonas Wey­de­mann pro­duced SYSTEMSPRENGER (SYSTEM CRASHER) by Nora Fin­gschei­dt, which is screen­ing in com­pe­ti­tion. The dra­ma focus­es on a nine-year-old girl (Hele­na Zen­gel), who is prov­ing to be too much to han­dle for all the ped­a­gog­i­cal sys­tems involved in her case.

• Fri­day, 08.02., 15:30, Berli­nale Palast (World Pre­miere)
• Sat­ur­day, 09.02., 9:30, Friedrich­stadt-Palast
• Sat­ur­day, 09.02., 12:00, Haus der Berlin­er Fest­spiele
• Sat­ur­day, 09.02., 20:30, HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1), Berli­nale Tal­ents
• Thurs­day, 14.02., 17:00, JVA Plötzensee, Berli­nale Goes Kiez (no tick­ets required)
• Sun­day, 17.02., 18:30, Berli­nale Palast

 

Max Linz’s film WEITERMACHEN SANSSOUCI (MUSIC AND APOCALYPSE) (cam­era: Car­los Andrés López) cel­e­brates its world pre­miere in Forum. The Insti­tute for Cyber­net­ics and Sim­u­la­tion Research is threat­ened with closure—this is the start­ing point for this satire about the trans­for­ma­tion of the uni­ver­si­ty sys­tem into a tur­bo-cap­i­tal­ist research machine.

• Tues­day, 12.02., 18:30, Del­phi Film­palast
• Wednes­day, 13.02., 13:45, CineS­tar 8
• Fri­day, 15.02., 20:00, Cubix 9
• Sun­day, 17.02., 19:30, Colos­se­um 1

 

Uli M. Schuep­pel presents DER ATEM (THE BREATH) (cam­era: Cor­nelius Plache) screen­ing in Panora­ma. The film shows a col­lec­tion of exis­ten­tial expe­ri­ences tak­ing place at night in Berlin—fragments of por­traits, stitched togeth­er to form a com­po­si­tion.

 

• Wednes­day, 13.02., 21:30, Zoo Palast 1
• Thurs­day, 14.02., 12:30, Cin­e­maxX 7
• Fri­day, 15.02., 22:00, Colos­se­um 1
• Sat­ur­day 16.02., 20:00, Inter­na­tion­al

 

David Dietl’s doc­u­men­tary BERLIN BOUNCER (cam­era: Eric Ferranti/​Raphael Bein­der, pro­duced by Mar­tin Heisler/​Gabriele Simon)—also pre­oc­cu­pied with Berlin at night—celebrates its world pre­miere in Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino. This doc­u­men­tary tells the sto­ry of three leg­endary Berlin bouncers—Frank Kün­ster, Smi­ley Bald­win and Sven Marquardt—working in the once-divid­ed city and in today’s night­club metrop­o­lis.

• Sun­day, 10.02., 22:30, Cin­e­maxX 1,
• Mon­day, 11.02., 22:00, Colos­se­um 1
• Sat­ur­day, 16.02., 20:00, Cin­e­maxX 1

 

Ute Aurand’s film RASENDES GRÜN MIT PFERDEN (RUSHING GREEN WITH HORSES) will screen in Forum Expand­ed. RASENDES GRÜN MIT PFERDEN (RUSHING GREEN WITH HORSES) is a col­lec­tion of short obser­va­tions and encoun­ters filmed between 1998 and 2018.

• Fri­day, 8.2., 16:15, Kino Arse­nal
• Sat­ur­day, 9.2., 17:00, Werk­stat­tki­no des silent green

 

The film UMWEG (DETOUR), direct­ed in 1982 by Ute Aurand and Ulrike Pfeif­fer, screens in Ret­ro­spek­tive.

• Tues­day, 12.2., 16:30, Cin­e­maXX 8
• Wednes­day 13.2., 21:30, Zeughauski­no

 

Screen­play grad­u­ate Ari­ana Berndl wrote the script for OH BEAUTIFUL NIGHT with direc­tor Xaver Böhm, and the film screens in Panora­ma. Although Juri is young, his life is dom­i­nat­ed by the fear of dying. Noc­tur­nal pan­ic attacks are famil­iar to him.

• Tues­day, 12.02., 20:00, Inter­na­tion­al
• Wednes­day, 13.02., 12:30, Cin­e­maxX 7
• Thurs­day, 14.02., 22:00, Colos­se­um 1
• Fri­day, 15.02., 17:45, CineS­tar 3
• Sat­ur­day, 16.02., 19:30, Zoo Palast 2

 

The cin­e­matog­ra­phy for BORN IN EVIN by Maryam Zaree, screen­ing in Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino, was exe­cut­ed by DFFB grad­u­ate Siri Klug. The chil­dren who were born in Iran’s most noto­ri­ous prison Evin and then grew up in the West wit­nessed tor­ture, mur­der, and human rights vio­la­tions. Ger­man-Iran­ian actress Maryam Zaree is one of these chil­dren. When she learns that she was born in Evin, Zaree sets out to search for oth­er chil­dren also born there in order to bet­ter under­stand her own sto­ry.

 

• Sat­ur­day, 09.02., 19:00, Cin­e­maxX 3
• Sun­day, 10.02., 12:00, Colos­se­um 1
• Sun­day 10.02., 20:00, Cin­e­maxX 1

 

We wish you a fan­tas­tic fes­ti­val and film expe­ri­ence at the Berli­nale!

The DFFB presents a com­pre­hen­sive pro­gramme dur­ing this year’s 69th Berlin Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val (Feb­ru­ary 7–17, 2019). The DFFB con­tributes to an excit­ing film fes­ti­val with four fea­ture films by DFFB stu­dents screen­ing in two sec­tions.

 

Sara Summa’s film GLI ULTIMI A VEDERLI VIVERE (THE LAST TO SEE THEM) will be cel­e­brat­ing its world pre­miere in Forum. The film tells the sto­ry of the final hours in the life of a four-per­son fam­i­ly in an iso­lat­ed farm­house in south­ern Italy. With the view­er already aware of the vio­lent deed from the out­set, their dai­ly rou­tines coa­lesce into a ten­der requiem, a trance-like count­down.

• Sat­ur­day, 9.2., 11:00, Cin­e­maxX 6 (Press & Indus­try)
• Sun­day, 10.2., 19:00, Del­phi (World Pre­miere)
• Tues­day, 12.2., 22:00, CineS­tar 8
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 12:30 & 15:45, DFFB Kino (EFM Mar­ket Screen­ing)
• Thurs­day, 14.2., 19:30, Colos­se­um 1
• Sun­day, 17.2., 17:30, Arse­nal 1

 

Miri­am Bliese’s DFFB grad­u­a­tion film DIE EINZELTEILE DER LIEBE (THE COMPONANTS OF LOVE) screen­ing in Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino is also cel­e­brat­ing its world pre­miere. A film about Sophie and Georg who once loved each oth­er, but are now sep­a­rat­ed. A lacon­ic por­trait of a mod­ern patch­work fam­i­ly that plays out before a front door in Berlin. A seri­ous com­e­dy about sep­a­ra­tion, inter­spersed with Schlager music.

• Tues­day, 12.2., 14:00, Cin­e­maxX 5 (Press & Indus­try)
• Tues­day 12.2., 19:00, Cin­e­maxX 3 (World Pre­miere)
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 12:00, Colos­se­um
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 17:30, Blauer Stern
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 14:00, DFFB Kino (EFM Mar­ket Screen­ing)
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 20:00, Cin­e­maxX 1

 

Simona Kos­to­vas’ DREISSIG (THIRTY) will also screen in Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino after a suc­cess­ful pre­miere at the 48th Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val Rot­ter­dam in Jan­u­ary. The film tells the sto­ry of a group of friends who cel­e­brate Övünç’s birth­day. The scene shifts from day to night as they wan­der the streets and bars of Neukölln. A rag­ing lust for life. Long­ing for that spe­cial some­thing to final­ly come to pass which has so elud­ed them dur­ing the day.

• Sat­ur­day, 9.2., 22:30, Cin­e­maxX 2 (Press & Indus­try)
• Sat­ur­day, 9.2., 22:30, Cin­e­maxX 1 (Ger­man Pre­miere)
• Sun­day, 10.2., 22:00, Colos­se­um 1
• Wednes­day, 13.2., 9:00 & 17:10, DFFB Kino (EFM Mar­ket Screen­ing)
• Sat­ur­day, 16.2., 12:00, Colos­se­um 1

 

Susanne Heinrich’s DFFB grad­u­a­tion film DAS MELANCHOLISCHE MÄDCHEN (AREN’T YOU HAPPY?), which received the prize for best fea­ture film at this year’s 40th Max Ophüls Film Fes­ti­val, is the clos­ing film of Per­spek­tive Deutsches Kino. In this film, a girl roams the city look­ing for a place to sleep, but between yoga stu­dios, art gal­leries and the beds of strangers there is no space for her. A post-mod­ern com­e­dy in pink and blue.

• Wednes­day, 13.2., 11:00, DFFB Kino (EFM Mar­ket Screen­ing)
• Clos­ing Film of Per­spec­tive: Sun­day, 17.2., 19:00, Cin­e­maxX 3

 

We are also pleased to announce that GLI ULTIMI A VEDERLI VIVERE and DIE EINZELTEILE DER LIEBE have been nom­i­nat­ed for the GWFF Best First Fea­ture Award pre­sent­ed by the Berli­nale, which comes with a €50,000 award. We are keep­ing our fin­gers crossed!