Noticias

Peter Simonischek, the Austrian actor who rose to international prominence late in life through Oscar-nominated feature Toni Erdmann, has died. He was 76.

He passed away surrounded by family in Vienna, according to a statement released by Austria’s national theater, the Burgtheater. No cause of death was given.

Simonischek was a well-known actor in the German-speaking world and performed at the Salzburg Festival. He played the title role in Austrian play Jedermann several times, appeared in TV movies such as Years of Love and features such as Franz Seitz Jr.’s Success.

He joined the Burgtheater in 1999, according to the institution, and was made an honorary member in 2019.

However, it was in 2016 when he played ageing prankster Winifred Conradi in the Austrian film Toni Erdmann that he gained international popularity. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Oscars,...

The film stars Toni Erdmann’s Peter Simonischek as a world-famous conductor who accepts the job of creating an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra.

Global Screen has added France and Japan to the line-up of territories which have now picked up Dror Zahavi’s drama Crescendo #makemusicnotwar.

Deals were signed on the eve of this year’s European Film Market (Efm) with France’s Bodega Films and Japan’s Shochiku, with the film’s inflight distribution rights being acquired by Encore.

Global Screen had previously concluded deals with Menemsha Films for the USA and Canada as well as with Satine (Italy), Adso...

A loving tribute to Studio Babelsberg, the story of a family’s escape from Nazi Germany, a moving drama about young Palestinians and Israelis working together, and an adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s children’s novel “The Amazing Maurice” are among a wide-ranging selection of German films on offer at Afm this year.

Leading sales companies are presenting the gamut of romantic dramas, arthouse works, high-profile literary adaptations, family films and animated pics.

Picture Tree Intl. presents Martin Schreier’s “Traumfabrik,” a period-piece love letter to East Germany’s famed Defa film studios, now known as Studio Babelsberg. Produced by the late Tom Zickler, the romantic drama follows a young studio extra’s ambitious efforts to reunite with the French girl he loves after being separated by the construction of the Berlin Wall. The film, which opens the 50th Goa Film Festival on Nov. 20, has already sold in major territories around the world,...

Global Screen has sold the distribution rights for North America for “Crescendo#makemusicnotwar” to Menemsha Films. The film, loosely inspired by the story of the formation of Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, toplines “Toni Erdmann” star Peter Simonischek.

Global Screen also closed deals on the film for Spain (Adso Films International Management), Italy (Satine), Korea (Tcast) and Taiwan (Swallow Wings Films). Strong interest has also been signalled by distributors in other territories, Global Screen said.

The film, helmed by Dror Zahavi (“Everything for My Father”), was recently presented with the Rheingold Audience Award at the 15th Festival of German Cinema in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. Zahavi received a 1988 Student Oscar nomination for “Alexander Penn – Ich will allein sein.”

Simonischek plays world famous conductor Eduard Sporck, who accepts the job to create an Israeli-Palestinian youth orchestra, but is quickly drawn into a tempest of seemingly unsolvable problems. Having grown up in a state of war,...

The Israeli feature "For My Father" is a rarity indeed: A sweet, sentimental movie about a suicide bomber. Don't get me wrong, director Dror Zahavi doesn't condone terrorism; in fact, he pictures it as an avoidable evil. The story takes place during one eventful weekend. Palestinian Tarek (Shredi Jabarin) is awakened at home by his mom and driven to Tel Aviv by two cohorts. He's been outfitted with a vest of explosives that he is to set off in a crowded marketplace. But the trigger doesn't work, and Tarek finds...

Indie Roundup reviews the past week of news from the independent film community and provides a peek at what's coming soon.

Opening. Three indie flicks open on Friday: Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's terrific music doc Soul Power, Chris Nahon's live-action adaptation of anime horror thriller Blood: The Last Vampire, and a reissue of Francois Truffaut's 1969 crime romance Mississippi Mermaid, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve. After a good start in New York and Los Angeles (see below), action thriller The Hurt Locker expands into 50 selected markets.

Deals / Articles of Interest. Our friends at indieWIRE reported on three recent acquisitions with upcoming theatrical releases planned: Chris Fuller's critically-acclaimed teen drama Loren Cass (Kino; July 24); Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, with Robin Wright Penn and Alan Arkin (Screen Media, October); and Dror Zahavi's thriller For My Father (Film Movement, Winter 2010). Eugene Hernandez considers Chris Anderson's...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Dror Zahavi's "For My Father" (Sof Shavua B'Tel Aviv), a Hebrew-language thriller. It will have a limited theatrical run and a day-and-date cable VOD release this winter.

The film tells the story of Terek, a Palestinian forced to go on a suicide mission to Tel Aviv, who is given a second chance when the fuse on his explosive vest fails to detonate.

It won the audience award at the Moscow International Film Festival and was nominated for seven awards by the Israeli Film Academy.

The acquisition was negotiated by Film Movement president Adley Gartenstein and Paco Alvarez of Forward Motion Entertainment Corp.

• I have a penchant for films that delve into storylines where the notion of sacrifice is explored via martyrdom or catch-22 type situations of, to kill or not to kill. The idea of a person duck-taping sticks of dynamite to their body is so foreign to North American audiences, that in a way, the lure of such films is how the act psychological manifests itself inside the film's protagonist. I think back to classics such as Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers and more recently, Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now with today's announcement. Film Movement have strapped themselves to Dror Zahavi's For My Father (Sof Shavua B'Tel Aviv), the picture about possibly altering the destination of one's actions will be set up for an eventual limited theatrical run late in the calender year with their usual cable release quickly right after. The dubbed German trailer below spells out acts I and II,

...

The 24th Israel Film Festival, which runs from June 3-18 at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills and Lammele's Fallbrook 7 in the San Fernando Valley, will kick off with Reshef Levy's autobiographical drama "Lost Islands," the top-grossing and most honored film in Israel last year.

At the opening-night and awards gala at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre on June 3, Iff Awards will be presented to John Fishel, president of The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles; producer Robert Lantos; producer Branko Lustig; and songwriter Diane Warren.

In addition to "Islands," the fest's feature film lineup consists of: Ronit Elkabets and Shlomi Elkabetz' "7 Days"; Paul Schrader's "Adam Resurrected"; Avraham Kushnir's "Bruriah"; Ori Ravid's "Eli & Ben"; Marco Carmel's "Father's Footsteps"; Dror Zahavi's "For My Father"; Eitan Green's "It All Begins at Sea"; Igal Burstyn's "Out of the Blue"; Omri Givon's "Seven Minutes in Heaven"; and Shmuel Beru's "Zrubavel."

The...