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Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 Locarno coverage. The Sparrow in the Chimney opens in theaters on August 1.

There’s something electrifying about watching a filmmaker break free from well-worn formulas and push themselves into new, uncharted territory. The Sparrow in the Chimney, Ramon Zürcher’s third feature, is the final installment in a trilogy of highly flammable chamber dramas. Anyone familiar with the previous two, 2013’s The Strange Little Cat and 2021’s The Girl and the Spider––the latter written and directed with twin brother Silvan, who’s produced all his sibling’s projects––will likely remember the clash between their austere mise-en-scène and the tempestuous conflicts that coursed through them. Captured in largely static shots among contained locales and timeframes, the films suggest exercises in geometry whose immaculate compositions are always on the verge of collapsing. Pushing against their steely facades are family feuds,...

"Why are there no locks on the doors?" Film Movement has revealed an official trailer for a Swiss film titled The Sparrow in the Chimney, also known as Der Spatz im Kamin in German. It's the latest feature from acclaimed Swiss writer & director Ramon Zücher, also of the creepy The Girl and The Spider before this. Karen and Markus live with their children in Karen's parents’ house. Karen's sister Jule travels with her family to Markus' birthday party. While Karen takes everyone’s breath away with her domineering manner, Jule is the complete opposite. Gradually a front forms against Karen until everything escalates into a fiery inferno. An inferno that destroys the old to create the new. Described as a "darkly engrossing psychodrama of pent-up domestic tensions" with a "venomously comedic touch." The film stars Maren Eggert and Britta Hammelstein as Karen and Jule, plus Luise Heyer, Andreas Döhler, & Milian Zerzawy.

Since its premiere at last year’s Locarno Film Festival, we’ve long-awaited the U.S. release of Ramon Zürcher’s The Sparrow in the Chimney, the trilogy-capper following the formally thrilling The Strange Little Cat and The Girl and the Spider. Starring Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Andreas Döhler, and Milian Zerzawy, the Zürcher brothers’ latest captures a dysfunctional family over the course of three days. Ahead of Film Movement’s theatrical release beginning at Bam on August 1, we’re pleased to debut the new trailer.

Here’s the synopsis: “Karen (Maren Eggert), along with her husband Markus (Andreas Döhler) and their children, lives in her childhood home left behind after the death of her mother. When her sister, Jule (Britta Hammelstein) visits with her family to celebrate Markus’s birthday, the weekend opens old wounds and past traumas, unleashing repressed feelings that threaten to destroy their relationship and shatter Karen’s grip on reality.

The isolated countryside home plays host to simmering dramas as Swiss filmmaking duo Ramon and Silvan Zürcher explore interpersonal conflicts in their latest work. The Sparrow in the Chimney brings together an extended clan for a fraught weekend reunion, headed by the brothers as writer-director and producer respectively.

At the center of events is matriarch Karen, portrayed with nuanced intensity by Maren Eggert. She invites her family to the rural property for her husband’s birthday celebrations. But the halls of Karen’s childhood residence contain a turbulent past that resurfaces amongst renewed estrangements. Her younger sister Jule arrives with husband and children in tow, while daughters Johanna and Christina join from differing paths. Each character bears lingering wounds and resentments.

Beneath the orchestrated merriment, an assortment of matters fester. Karen remains haunted by her late mother’s legacy despite the woman’s abusive nature, while the home itself represents shifting familial dynamics over generations.

Maren Eggert, centre, as Karen in The Sparrow In The Chimney. Ramon Zürcher: 'There’s a first Karen and there’s a second Karen, because after the second day, she kind of changes. It's really a little bit like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly' Photo: Zürcher Film With The Sparrow In The Chimney (Der Spatz Im Kamin), Swiss filmmakers Ramon and Silvan Zürcher have completed their “animal trilogy”, which began with The Strange Little Cat in 2013, a tale of passive-aggressive family life, and continued with the slightly more sprawling but not much less intense The Girl And The Spider three years ago. Now, with Ramon back on solo writing/direction duty and his twin producing, they have made The Sparrow In The Chimney, which again takes us into the boiling emotions of a family whose relationships are affected by past trauma.

Ramon Zürcher chats to star Maren Eggert Photo:...

The Locarno Film Festival‘s 77th edition has been screening an eclectic lineup of movies, covering a broad range of topics and themes.

However, there are some recurring topics that are touched on in several films in the lineup of the Swiss festival, such as the theme of AI and digital technology.

“Another obvious theme is the conversation around the past feminist female identity and the different declinations of such identity in the present,” Locarno’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro recently told THR.

Several films at Locarno particularly present women relating to their kids in ways that go beyond traditional images of all-caring mothers. For example, Iraq-born Austrian auteur Kurdwin Ayub’s sophomore fiction feature Moon, which had its world premiere in competition at the fest, includes a scene in which a mother talks about her young kid with her sister in a way that is likely to make...

The opening frame of “The Sparrow in the Chimney” evokes a kind of art-directed ideal of country living: In a spacious, rustically textured farmhouse kitchen, mid-afternoon sunlight pours in through open windows so large they double as French doors, looking out onto rolling, summer-kissed lawns and hazy woods beyond. A regal ginger cat slinks in over the sill, as amplified birdsong and insect chatter also seem to blur the indoor-outdoor boundary. A casserole simmers patiently on the stove. Who wouldn’t want to live like this? Pretty much everyone, it turns out, in Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s elegantly vicious domestic horror movie, which forensically unpicks the compacted resentments, betrayals and traumas underpinning a single weekend family gathering, with a touch as icy as the lighting is consistently, relentlessly warm.

The Zürcher twins — who take a joint “a film by” credit on all their work, though only Ramon is billed here as writer,...

Ramon Zürcher's latest directorial effort probes the troubled subconscious of an extended family as they turbulently clash at a tense party in the idyllic countryside. His third entry into what is now loosely called the "animal trilogy" takes a symbolic approach to the story, elaborate allegory and mistimed theatrics taking a toll on the viewer's rapport with the characters. Despite having a cast of impressive intensity and gracefully capturing nature's radiance, The Sparrow In The Chimney displays a stiff sensibility that flattens its ambitious exploration of familial turmoil.

Karen (Maren Eggert) lives with her husband Markus (Andreas Döhler) and their kids at her childhood home, an isolated countryside residence surrounded by bright and bustling nature. When her sister Jule (Britta Hammelstein) and her family arrive for Markus’ birthday party, memories of the house resurface, and Karen’s grappling with her traumatic past becomes apparent. As they prepare for the celebration,...

Tense, ominous, and stuffed with psychosexual insinuation almost to the point of absurdity, The Sparrow in the Chimney has much in common thematically with writer-director Ramon Zürcher’s previous feature, The Girl and the Spider, which he co-directed with his twin brother, Silvan Zürcher. His third feature, on which Silvan Zürcher served as first assistant director, is a similarly elliptical chamber piece demonstrating a fascination with the conflicts and desires that simmer beneath mundane or sedate social surfaces, though here an expanded canvas allows him to occasionally loosen up and paint with slightly broader strokes.

The film opens with a few bucolic, sun-dappled images of a rural house and its surrounding countryside, the setting for an extended family gathering arranged by dour, prickly matriarch Karen (Maren Eggert) in honor of her husband Markus’s (Andreas Döhler) birthday. We’re soon introduced to the family of Karen’s more outwardly relaxed,...

The Locarno Film Festival, taking place in the picturesque town in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland, always shines a light on arthouse voices, whether new or established. And it showcases Swiss films worth audiences’ attention.

That will be the case again during Locarno77, taking place Aug. 7-17, soon after Switzerland also took center stage at the 2024 Cannes Film Market where the Alpine nation was the country of honor.

Among the Swiss fare featured at Locarno this year are such Cannes hits as Laetitia Dosch’s Dog on Trial, and Swiss animator Claude Barras’ Savages, which are screening in the Piazza Grande lineup along with the world premiere of Swiss director Simon Jaquemet’s Electric Child, the international premiere of U.S.-Swiss filmmaker Freddy Macdonald’s Sew Torn and the Swiss premiere of Swiss-Peruvian filmmaker Klaudia Reynicke’s Reinas.

Meanwhile, Locarno’s international competition includes the Swiss entry Der Spatz im Kamin...

After two of the finest films of their respective years, The Strange Little Cat and The Girl and the Spider, Ramon and Silvan Zürcher are back this year to close out their animal trilogy. The Sparrow in the Chimney, which world premieres this Saturday at Locarno Film Festival, features a cast including Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Luise Heyer, Andreas Döhler, Milian Zerzawy, Lea Zoe Voss, Paula Schindler, Ilja Bultmann, and Luana Greco. Ahead of the premiere, the first trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Karen lives with her husband Markus and their children in her idyllic childhood home. Karen’s sister Jule and her family are visiting for Markus’ birthday. The two women could not be more different. Grim reminders of their deceased mother incite Jule’s rebellion against her domineering sister. As the house gradually fills with life and a sparrow in the chimney seeks a way out to freedom,...

Ramon Zürcher’s “dysfunctional family portrait” “The Sparrow in the Chimney” (“Der Spatz im Kamin”) has debuted a trailer ahead of its premiere in Locarno’s international competition.

Produced by his twin brother Silvan Zürcher for Zürcher Film, “The Sparrow in the Chimney” was co-produced by Srf Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen / Srg Ssr, while Cercamon handles sales.

In the film, Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Luise Heyer, Andreas Döhler and Milian Zerzawy star as family members preparing for a birthday party and getting more than a generous helping of cake once old traumas start coming to the surface.

Karen – played by Eggert, known for sci-fi romance “I’m Your Man” – lives with her husband Markus and their children in her childhood home. Her sister Jule and her family are visiting, but constant reminders of their deceased mother are impossible to shake off.

“I think these kinds of relationships and psychological abysses are my main interest.

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will debut 17 world premieres, including new works by Hong Sang-soo and Wang Bing, as part of its 2024 competition program. This year’s event runs from August 7 – 17.

The festival announced its competition lineups this morning. The Hong Sang-soo feature is titled Suyoocheon (By The Stream) and stars Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee. The Wang Bing feature is a France, Luxembourg, and Netherlands co-production titled Hard Times. Scroll down to see the full Locarno competition lineup, which also includes new titles from Ben Rivers, Mar Coll, and Christoph Hochhäusler.

The festival today also announced that French acting veterans Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet will receive the event’s honorary Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening ceremony on August 7. Previous recipients of the award include Riz Ahmed and Aaron Taylor Johnson.

Locarno’s separate Piazza Grande lineup features 18 titles, including Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

Ahead of its 39th edition, Poland’s Warsaw Film Festival is betting on timely topics.

“The role of filmmakers, and artists in general, is to react,” says festival director Stefan Laudyn.

“For years, we have been showing films that criticize the situation in various countries, not just in Poland. We try to avoid puff pieces.”

While there is space for “lighter topics” as well, supporting Ukraine – and Ukrainian filmmakers – remains one of the priorities.

“We initiated the first solidarity action with Ukraine back in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea, we also supported Oleg Sentsov. Last year, we featured the entire Ukrainian competition from Odesa International Film Festival, which couldn’t take place due to the war.”

This year, eight Ukrainian productions and co-productions will be shown at the fest. Including “Diagnosis: Dissent” by Denys Tarasov, about punitive psychiatry used by the Kgb, and Taras Dron’s “The Glass House,” where...

We can tell something is amiss the moment Nina (Maren Eggert) smiles and reminds her son Lars (Jona Levin Nicolai) that they only have “ten days left.” The way she says it carries a shared understanding. That he knew she’d be swamped with rehearsals gearing up for the concert she’s conducting. That he agreed to give her that space and time. So why does he look so pained? Why does her inability to not answer her phone make him so angry? What has changed? What hasn’t she realized yet?

Writer-director Hanna Antonina Wojcik Slak wastes little time providing the answer once Not a Word moves from their home to school. Hidden behind the group of boys Lars approaches after being ignored yet again by his mother is a photo memorial for a student. We don’t need details to know it was a tragic death. Whether suicide,...

“Not a Word,” which is being sold by international sales agency Beta Cinema, will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. Variety speaks to the film’s writer-director, Hanna Slak, and debuts its trailer.

“Not a Word” tells the story of a relationship crisis between a parent and her teenage son. Maren Eggert, who won the best acting award at the Berlin Film Festival for “I’m Your Man,” plays an ambitious orchestra conductor, Nina. Jona Levin Nicolai plays her moody son, Lars. Following the death of a girl at Lars’ school, the boy has a mysterious accident, but refuses to talk about it. Nina decides to take a break from city life and together they head to their vacation home on an island on the rugged Atlantic coast. As a storm gathers, their brittle relationship, wreathed in silence, is pushed to breaking point.

Beta Cinema has boarded international sales on “Not a Word,” which will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in the competitive Platform section. The cast is led by Maren Eggert, who won the best acting award at the Berlin Film Festival for “I’m Your Man.”

The film is written and directed by Hanna Slak, whose credits include the Slovenian Oscar entry “The Miner,” and was lensed by Claire Mathon, the cinematographer of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” “Saint-Omer,” “Stranger by the Lake” and “Spencer.”

Eggert plays ambitious musician and conductor Nina. When her teenage son, Lars, has a strange accident at school, she decides to take a break from city life and together they head to their vacation home on an island on the rugged Atlantic coast. Bound in silence, their already brittle relationship is pushed to the edge.

Jona Levin Nicolai co-stars as the provocative teenage son while Maryam Zaree,...

Near the halfway point of The Delinquents, a funny, existential epic from Argentina, a banker dips into an arthouse cinema. Though almost all the seats are free he can’t decide which one to choose. What’s the point of all those options, the film asks, if you’re always left wanting more? In another moment the elder statesman of a prison yard explains that the only advantage a cellmate holds over those outside is having all the time in the world to think. (What’s the point of freedom itself if you’re a slave to the algorithm?) “There wasn’t more freedom,” another man explains, reminiscing about an objectively worse era in Argentinian history, “but you could smoke anywhere.”

One of the very best films from this year’s Un Certain Regard, The Delinquents, the seventh feature from Argentine director Rodrigo Moreno, is set in motion with a delicious bit of game theory.

Looking for some romcoms you haven’t already watched 50 times? You may have missed some of these gems with some of your favorite stars, including Frances McDormand, Dan Stevens, Robert Downey Jr, and Ethan Hawke.

I’m Your Man

“Downton Abbey” alum Dan Stevens is an eager to please robot designed especially for anthropologist Alma (Maren Eggert). If she lives with him for a week, she gets funding for her research project. Despite her misgivings, she begins to have feelings for him in this German comedy that swept the German Film Awards. Read TheWrap’s review.

Der Spatz im Kamin

This latest micro indie film from Ramon and Silvan Zürcher titled Der Spatz im Kamin (which translates to The Sparrow in the Chimney) would have filmed last summer in the Swiss city of Bern – and it completes the trilogy of films. It’s a dysfunctional family film enlisted players Maren Eggert, Britta Hammelstein, Andreas Döhler and Milian Zerzawy. The Strange Little Cat (2013) and The Girl and the Spider (2021) have been acclaimed critically.

Gist: Karen (Maren Eggert) and Markus (Andreas Döhler) live with their children in Karen’s parents’ house. Karen’s sister Jule (Britta Hammelstein) travels with her family to Markus’ birthday party.…...

Click here to read the full article.

The Locarno Film Festival is following the lead of A-list neighbor Berlin and going gender-neutral.

From 2023 on, Locarno’s acting honors will no longer be categorized according to gender — best actor and best actress — but be gender-neutral “best performance” and “best supporting performance” awards.

For the 76th edition of the Locarno Film Festival, set for August 2-12, 2023, the festival’s two main competitions, Concorso internazionale and Concorso Cineasti del presente, will each present two awards for the best performances.

Berlin was the first big film festival to take this step, last year handing out its first gender-neutral Silver Bears for best leading performance, which went to Maren Eggert for her starring role in Maria Schrader’s sci-fi screwball comedy I’m Your Man, and best supporting performance to Lilla Kizlinger for Bence Fliegauf’s Forest — I See You Everywhere. This year’s acting honors...

Bleecker Street has acquired North American rights to Catherine Hardwicke’s action-comedy Mafia Mamma, starring Toni Collette, Monica Bellucci and Rob Huebel, which is heading into production in Italy in May.

The Vocab Films, Idea(L) and New Sparta production is based on an original idea from acclaimed French novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker Amanda Sthers. It centers on Kristin (Collette), who is facing a slew of challenges. Her only son is desperate to leave for college, her boss is a sexist pig, and she just caught her unsuccessful musician husband (Huebel) cheating with a groupie. That’s when she receives a life-changing phone call from Bianca (Bellucci), her estranged grandfather’s trusted consigliere, telling her he is dead and that she must attend the funeral in Italy.

Egged on by Jenny,...

Bleecker Street said Tuesday that it acquired U.S. rights to the dramatic thriller 892, starring John Boyega (Star Wars franchise) and the late Michael Kenneth Williams (The Wire). The film recently made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in U.S. Dramatic Competition, where it won its Special Jury Award for Ensemble Cast. The independently financed distributor is planning a late-summer release in theaters nationwide.

Based on a true story, the feature directorial debut of Abi Damaris Corbin picks up with former U.S. Marine Brian Brown-Easley (Boyega) as his disability check from Veterans Affairs fails to materialize, watching as he finds himself on the brink of poverty. Desperate and with no other options, he walks into a Wells Fargo Bank and says, “I’ve got a bomb.” What ensues is an edge-of-your-seat narrative that reminds us of the social responsibility we have to our soldiers, our colleagues,...

In a new series, Variety catches up with the directors of the films shortlisted for the International Feature Oscar to discuss their road to the awards, what they’ve learned so far, and what’s taken them off guard.

Maria Schrader, an Emmy winner for directing the Netflix series “Unorthodox,” is also a Berlin Silver Bear winning actor for “Aimée & Jaguar” (1999). Her latest feature “I’m Your Man” follows a scientist who agrees to live for three weeks with a humanoid robot designed to make her happy. The film debuted at the 2021 Berlinale where Maren Eggert won the Silver Bear for best acting performance and swept the German Film Awards.

What does it mean to you to be shortlisted for the best international feature Oscar?

It’s simply an honor. This category with its almost 100 entries offers a journey through the world, such a variety of voices, language and landscapes,...

Years ago, you wouldn’t have looked to the international feature category — or foreign-language film, as it was more insularly named back then — for much in the way of reflecting the modern world. World War II history and heartwarming child’s-eye family portraits were for a long time the staple diet of an award that shied away from more nervy topics. This year’s shortlist, however, sees a number of global filmmakers tackling more resonant, contemporary subject matter — with matters of gender and sexuality woven through a number of them.

Germany’s entry, “I’m Your Man,” even strays into science fiction, a genre rarely given much attention in this category. Maria Schrader’s witty, philosophical romantic comedy begins as a battle of wills between Alma (Maren Eggert), an independent, career-oriented academic, and Tom (Dan Stevens), the android boyfriend tailored directly for her needs in a lab — though it seems he...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Ailey (Jamila Wignot)

Has any choreographer mattered more to American dance than Alvin Ailey? The documentary Ailey, directed by Jamila Wignot, makes a good case that there has not. Comprised of amazing archival footage, peer interviews, and choreographer Rennie Harris prepping a modern-day performance in honor of the artist, Wignot paints a full picture of a complicated man. Born in the middle of Texas during The Great Depression, old recordings of Ailey recount his picking cotton with his mother (his father was non-existent in his life), then later on seeing Katherine Dunham (and her male backup dancers) perform live. The shock of watching somebody that looked like him produce such wonderful art emboldened him to pursue the work himself. – Dan M. (full...

As 2021 draws to a close, the film aficionados who make up Deadline’s International Critics Line crew have each chosen their top three titles of the year to hail from abroad. Some were world premieres at Sundance, Berlin, Cannes, Venice or Toronto, though not all are on the Oscar International Feature shortlist, nor are they each in a foreign language It’s also interesting to see some overlap, with a trio of films showing up more than once.

Here are Deadline critics’ top international films of 2021 (in alphabetical order by title):

Drive My Car

Since its premiere in Cannes, where it won writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi the screenwriting prize, to its recent honors as Best Film from critics groups in New York, Los Angeles, Boston and more, the Japanese-shortlisted entry for the Best International Film Oscar has become perhaps the one to beat at the Academy Awards. With a three-hour running time,...

Back in 1964, CBS premiered the sci-fi rom com “My Living Doll” in which a bachelor psychiatrist (Bob Cummings) is asked to take care of a beautiful prototype android (Julie Newmar) because her creator doesn’t want the robot to fall in the hands of the Army. The shrink decides to teach his stunning but naïve charge how to be the perfect woman: a pre-women’s lib female does what she is told and never talks back to him. That premise wouldn’t fly these days especially in the wake of the #MeToo era. Even then the series only lasted one season. The tables are turned in the sophisticated, thought-provoking rom-com “I’m Your Man,” Germany’s official entry for Best International Feature at the Oscars.

Directed by Maria Schrader and starring Maren Eggert and Dan Stevens, “I’m Your Man” revolves around a bright young woman, unlucky in love and working at a financially strapped museum,...

Germany’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards, “I’m Your Man,” tells the story of Alma (Maren Eggert), a scientist who accepts an offer to participate in an experiment in which she lives with a humanoid robot named Tom (Dan Stevens) that has been created to make her happy. The comedy was written and directed by Emmy winner Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”) who was inspired to tell a more simple story than she had in the past.

“My project before took so long and was so much research with so many characters,” Schrader admits. “This one seemed to be so interesting because it’s the classical boy meets girl. Girl meets boy. Boy is not a boy, boy is a robot. You can create a tale about love. You can work along a romantic comedy narrative and, at the same time, irritate it right from the start.

The story of I’m Your Man, Germany’s submission to the International Feature Oscar race, is rife with humanity — even if one of the central characters is a humanoid robot. Inspired by a short story from Emma Braslavsky, the premise sparked for both director Maria Schrader and co-star Dan Stevens, as they told us during a Bleecker Street panel at Deadline’s Contenders Film: International awards-season event.

I’m Your Man, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and took the Lead Performance prize for Maren Eggert, centers on her Alma, an anthropologist who agrees to live with a humanoid robot for three weeks as part of a trial testing period. Stevens’ Thomas has been designed as Alma’s ideal partner, using algorithms based on her brain scans, her responses and research involving 17 million people.

Thomas, as manufactured as he may be, has other gifts, notably helping Alma discover a different life.

Dan Stevens tapped into Cary Grant’s performance in The Philadelphia Story to inform his role as a romance-driven robot in Bleecker Street’s I’m Your Man, Germany’s official entry in the International Feature Oscar race.

“That specific movie was a great touchstone for us, [director Maria Schrader] and I loved the idea that Tom had been programmed with Cary Grant- and Jimmy Stewart-like characteristics and got his programming from a lot of screwball comedies,” Stevens said Sunday during Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles award-season event at the DGA Theater. “We went for Cary Grant’s hair color for Tom and really borrowed certain mannerisms and characteristics.”

I’m Your Man earned star Maren Eggert the best actress Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. She stars as a scientist at the famous Pergamon Museum in Berlin. In order to obtain research funds for her work, she...

To the uninitiated, Princess Diana biopic “Spencer” might appear like the quintessential British film, albeit with a Chilean director and an American star. But it is, in fact, German, Simone Baumann, managing director of German Films, says. It’s a German-u.K. co-production to be exact, but shot in Germany, with a German producer, Komplizen Film, on board, and 70% of the financing was German.

Other German co-productions this year include Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch,” with Studio Babelsberg as a co-producer, as well as a host of arthouse films not in the German language, such as Leos Carax’s “Annette,” which was co-produced by Detailfilm, Michelangelo Frammartino’s “Il Buco,” co-produced by Essential Filmproduktion, and Tatiana Huezo’s “Prayers for the Stolen,” co-produced by Match Factory Productions.

At AFM, there are 31 German productions and co-productions screening, represented by nine German sales companies, gathered under the German Films umbrella. German...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review on the sci-fi romance “I’m Your Man” – featuring Dan Stevens (Disney’s live action “Beauty & the Beast”) – currently in select theaters.

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Stevens portrays Tom, a robot programmed specifically to be a partner to an archeologist named Alma (Maren Eggert). She has agreed to the experiment to get funding, but immediately hates Tom’s perfect ways. As Tom becomes more human as his programming allows, he becomes confused by her reaction, and a different type of relationship between them evolves.

“I’m Your Man” is currently in select theaters. Featuring Dan Stevens, Maren Eggert, Sandra Hüller, Hans Löw, and Annika Meier. Written by Maria Schrader and Jan Schomberg. Directed by Maria Schrader. Rated “R”

Click here for Patrick McDonald’s full audio review of “I’m Your Man”

I’m Your Man

Photo credit: Bleecker Street Media

Click here for Patrick McDonald’s...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond)

It is hard to think of a recent horror film––or a film of any genre, really––in which the main character is tasked with a job as original and ingenious as Enid Baines, the protagonist of Prano Bailey-Bond’s riveting Censor. She is, yes, the titular censor. It is 1980s England, the time of “video nasties” that drew parental consternation and tabloid outrage. These were the low-budget, ultra-violent VHS cassettes that earned their own category in the collective consciousness. Not all were UK productions––I Spit On Your Grave and Abel Ferrara’s Driller Killer made the list. In Censor, however, the nasties are homegrown, in more ways than one. – Chris S. (full review)

Where to Stream: Hulu...

Titane crossed $1m in second weekend.

A24’s Noomi Rapace starrer Lamb opened at the weekend on 583 US screens and grossed more than $1m for the all-time highest debut by an Icelandic film.

‘Lamb’: Cannes Review

Vladimir Johannsson’s directorial debut premiered in Cannes and centres on a childless couple that discover a strange newborn on their farm and adopt is as their own. Hilmir Snaer Gudnasson also stars.

Lamb arrived in seventh place in the North American box office charts and grossed $415,079 on Friday, $325,000 on Saturday and $260,000 on Sunday. It is projected to bring in a further $130,000 on...

‘I’m Your Man’ Tops German Film Awards

Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man won four awards at the Lolas, Germany’s national film awards, on Saturday evening. The film won best film plus prizes for screenwriting, directing and for lead actress Maren Eggert. The awards were held physically this year with more than 1,000 attendees in Berlin, though Schrader is currently in New York so attended remotely. Also winning on the night were Oliver Masucci as best actor for his performance in Enfant Terrible, and Mr. Bachmann and His Class, which won best documentary. Senta Berger received the lifetime achievement award. I’m Your Man is Germany’s entry to the Oscars this year. Director Schrader recently won an Emmy for her work on Unorthodox.

Zurich Fest Winners

This year’s Zurich Film Festival has crowned its award winners. A Golden Eye apiece went to the films La Mif by Fred Baillif...

The Berlin ceremony brought together the German industry for the first time in 18 months.

Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man was the big winner at the Lolas, the German Film Awards in Berlin on October 1, winning best film, best director, best screenwriter for Schrader and Jan Schomberg and best actress for Maren Eggert.

I’m Your Man is produced by Lisa Blumenberg’s Hamburg-based Letterbox Filmproduktion. It is Germany’s entry to the best international film category at the Oscars. I’m Your Man had its world premiere in competition at the Berlinale in March where Eggert also won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for her performance.

I’m Your Man, a sci-fi rom-com from director Maria Schrader, featuring Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens as a German-speaking romance robot, has won the Lola in Gold for best film at the 2021 German Film Prize, Germany’s top film awards.

Schrader, fresh off her Emmy win (for best directing for a limited series in Netflix’s Unorthodox), picked up the best director Lola for I’m Your Man. Schrader and co-screenwriter Jan Schomburg took the best screenplay honor for their I’m Your Man script, an adaptation of a short story by German writer Emma Braslavsky. Maren Eggert, who plays the robot’s no-nonsense human love ...

I’m Your Man, a sci-fi rom-com from director Maria Schrader, featuring Downton Abbey star Dan Stevens as a German-speaking romance robot, has won the Lola in Gold for best film at the 2021 German Film Prize, Germany’s top film awards.

Schrader, fresh off her Emmy win (for best directing for a limited series in Netflix’s Unorthodox), picked up the best director Lola for I’m Your Man. Schrader and co-screenwriter Jan Schomburg took the best screenplay honor for their I’m Your Man script, an adaptation of a short story by German writer Emma Braslavsky. Maren Eggert, who plays the robot’s no-nonsense human love ...

Dan Stevens as Tom and Maren Eggert as Alma, in German director Maria Schrader’s sci-fi I’M Your Man (Ich Bin Dein Mensch). Courtesy of Obscured Pictures and Bleecker Street

Would you fall in love with an android specially designed to please you? Would that be a good thing? That is the premise behind director Maria Schrader’s German sci-fi tale I’M Your Man (Ich Bin Dein Mensch) starring Dan Stevens and Maren Eggert. I’M Your Man starts out like a romantic comedy, but takes a deeper, more thoughtful, and thought-provoking turn in this excellent German language film. Of course, people falling in love with robots has a long literary history, going back to Pygmalion, and human-made men tales go back to the Golem and Frankenstein, was well as being a familiar science fiction theme. But Schrader, whose previous work includes the Netflix series “Unorthodox,” puts a new spin on...

Bleecker Street’s sci-fi romantic comedy I’m Your Man blasted off – relatively speaking in today’s specialty market – with a per screen average of $2,139 in 16 theaters in North America.

Directed by Maria Schrader film with Maren Eggert and Dan Stevens, it was the rare specialty film of late to pass $2K per screen in limited release. New York and Los Angeles were standouts. It also played San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Dallas. Bleecker will expand in those markets next week and add 15 new ones.

Stevens supported the film at a Q&a at the Landmark Saturday. It has a 17-day exclusive theatrical window.

See Deadline review here for the 95% Certified Fresh film that’s Germany’s entry for the 2022 International Feature...

Bleecker Street’s I’m Your Man opens on 12 screens in seven markets, expanding to another 15 next week in a rare platform release banking on strong word of mouth for the well-reviewed, 94% Certified Fresh film that’s Germany’s entry for the 2022 International Feature Oscar race.

Helmed by Unorthodox director Maria Schrader, the sci-fi romantic comedy earned star Maren Eggert the Best Actress Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Co-star Dan Stevens supported the film on social and in a Today show appearance Wednesday. He’ll be at a Q&a at the Landmark in LA on Saturday.

Initial openings include NY, LA, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C., Phoenix and Dallas. Bleecker plans a small expansion in those markets as well next week. The film has a 17-day exclusive theatrical window. Deadline review here,

Eggert plays...

I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch), the Maria Schrader-directed film that earned star Maren Eggert the best actress Silver Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, has been selected as Germany’s entry into the 2022 International Feature Oscar race.

The film stars Eggert as a a scientist at the famous Pergamon Museum in Berlin. In order to obtain research funds for her work, she is persuaded to participate in an extraordinary study: For three weeks, she is to live with a humanoid robot (Dan Stevens) tailored to her character and needs, whose artificial intelligence is intended to be the perfect life partner created solely to make her happy.

Bleecker Street acquired North American rights to the German-language pic and is releasing it in U.S. theaters September 24.

I’m Your Man, which also is playing at the Toronto Film Festival, was selected by a nine-member jury overseen by German Film.

Germany has picked I’m Your Man, a sci-fi rom-com from director Maria Schrader (Unorthodox) to represent the country for the 2021 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Category.

I’m Your Man stars Downton Abbey and Legion actor Dan Stevens as a German-speaking “love robot” programmed to be the perfect match for a no-nonsense German archeologist, played by German theater star Maren Eggert. The feature premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where Eggert won the Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance. I’m Your Man made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Schrader co-wrote the screenplay to I’m Your ...

Germany has picked I’m Your Man, a sci-fi rom-com from director Maria Schrader (Unorthodox) to represent the country for the 2021 Academy Awards in the Best International Feature Category.

I’m Your Man stars Downton Abbey and Legion actor Dan Stevens as a German-speaking “love robot” programmed to be the perfect match for a no-nonsense German archeologist, played by German theater star Maren Eggert. The feature premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where Eggert won the Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance. I’m Your Man made its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Schrader co-wrote the screenplay to I’m Your ...

In Dan Stevens’ new film “I’m Your Man,” the British actor speaks perfect German throughout. And to everyone’s surprise, Stevens actually learned German in school.

“Really loved it — it’s been a lifelong love of mine, the German language,” Stevens told TheWrap’s Beatrice Verhoeven in a virtual interview during the Toronto International Film Festival. “I did a movie there about 12 or 13 years ago playing an Englishman who spoke German, so a little bit different to this one.”

He added: “It was nice to dust off the German and use it in this way.”

In “I’m Your Man,” Stevens plays a humanoid robot designed to be the perfect man for Alma (Maren Eggert), who is taking part in the humanoid experiment to obtain research funds for her studies. The entire film, directed by Maria Schrader, is in German. Schrader co-wrote the script with Jan Schomburg, based on a short story by Emma Braslavksy.

Dan Stevens is here to greet you in German with a trailer for "I'm Your Man," a romantic comedy in which he plays an amorous robot. Maren Eggert co-stars in the German-language film, which won her the Silver Bear award for Best Leading Performance at this year's Berlin International Film Festival.

It's the newest movie from Maria Schrader, who is next set to helm the Weinstein investigation film, "She Said." Schrader also won a Primetime Emmy Award last year for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, thanks to her work on Netflix's "Unorthodox."

View the trailer for "I'm Your Man" below.

"Listen, Tom. I'm not looking for a partner....

The post I'm Your Man Trailer: Dan Stevens is Your Robot Boyfriend appeared first on /Film.

Dan Stevens may be the perfect man for a woman played by Maren Eggert. He’s handsome, charming and as seen in his introduction for the “I’m Your Man” trailer, speaks perfect German. The only problem is, he’s a robot.

Literally, “I’m Your Man” stars Stevens as a lifelike humanoid robot that has been designed specifically to be one woman’s perfect life partner tailored to her every need. She’s not interested in marrying a machine, but he’s assigned to live with her for three weeks so that she can obtain funding for a project. But the film explores the ideas of modern love and relationships and what it even means to be human in the present day.

“You may not realize this, but you treat Tom like a machine. Do you understand why this is,” a service employee for the company that designed the robot says.

"Your dream partner. Built for you." Bleecker Street Films has debuted another new official US trailer for the beloved sci-fi romance indie film I'm Your Man, directed by German filmmaker Maria Schrader. This originally premiered at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year under the German title Ich bin dein Mensch, and lead actress Maren Eggert won the Silver Bear for Best Performance at the fest. In order to obtain research funds for her studies at a museum in Berlin, a scientist accepts an offer to participate in an extraordinary experiment: for three weeks, she has to live with a humanoid lover robot, created to make her happy. It's a flip on the idealistic robot lover concept, with Dan Stevens (speaking perfect German) as the perfect man for her, as determined by the programmers. But she doesn't like him, and really doesn't want a relationship, and this challenges her. The cast also includes Sandra Hüller,...

Near-future tale of a woman who accepts a male ‘companion’ robot played by Stevens is laboriously told and not really funny enough

Directed by Maria Schrader, this was a crowd-pleasing favourite at the Berlin film festival earlier this year and its star, Maren Eggert, won the festival’s new gender-neutral best leading performance prize. But I was disappointed with a film whose crises and dilemmas seem laborious and essentially predictable; it does not fully work as sci-fi or satire or comedy.

We are in a world of the near-future (and the city of Berlin itself is certainly very plausible as its location). Eggert plays Alma, an archaeologist with an unhappy and frustrating personal life. She is persuaded by her boss to be a guinea-pig for a new hi-tech scheme: she will road-test a male “companion” robot, programmed to be infinitely considerate and obliging, which will attend to all her emotional and indeed physical needs.